Readers may be interested in the Annual Brand Seminar hosted by the UCL Institute of Brand & Innovation Law on 10 February from 6.00 pm to 7.30 pm GMT.

The Seminar will be held online and the fee is £20, with reductions available for UCL alumni, sponsoring firms, students, academics and judiciary.

The speakers are: Joëlle Sanit-Hugot, Principal Counsel, Sanofi Global IP Department; Alexios Skarlatos, European Medicines Agency; David Lossignol, Global Head Pharma Legal Brand Protection, Novartis Pharma AG; and Gordon Humphreys, Chair of the Fifth Board of Appeal, EUIPO. The chair is Ashton Chantrielle, barrister at 8 New Square.

The introduction states:

The sheer volume of Class 5 registrations is testament to significant role that brand protection plays in pharma corporate strategy. Most of us are also familiar with the way in which a successful mark, such as NUROFEN, LEMSIP or VIAGRA, serves to sustain a price premium, even though patent protection has expired. The sector has also embraced non-traditional trade marks, seeking registration for product shapes, colours, get-up and the like.

Despite the pharmaceutical sector being such a significant user and beneficiary of trade mark registration systems, it faces specific challenges which others do not. These arise from the nature of the products, the market in which it operates, and the regulatory framework which runs in parallel with the usual trade mark rules. There is additional complexity in each step in the process, from clearing a name for use, securing a trade mark registration, maintaining its validity and finally, enforcing these rights. Who, for example, is the ‘average consumer’ of a prescribed drug? A prescribing doctor? A dispensing chemist? An end user? Or all three? IBIL has brought together a distinguishing panel to discuss how this potentially treacherous path may be navigated successfully.

You can find more information, and register, on the UCL IBIL website here.

UCL IBIL partners with MARQUES to present the Question the Trade Mark Judges meeting in London. Read a report of the 2020 meeting on Class 46 here.