24 | 10 | 2019
The Office and the EUIPO participated in the organisation of the 6th Petar Šarčević International Scientific Conference
The 6th Petar Šarčević International Scientific Conference “Intellectual Property Rights in the EU: Going Digital”, held on 18 and 19 October 2019 in Zagreb (Croatia), offered a variety of topics discussed within three sessions: Regulatory Framework for the Digital Single Market, Trademarks and Designs for the New Market Conditions, and Enforcement as an Ever-Present Issue.
Speakers ranged from judges of the EU Court of Justice, EU General Court and judge of the Croatian High Commercial Court, to President and members of the Boards of Appeal at EUIPO, practitioners and academics.
The conference was marked by the opening speech of the CJEU Judge Marko Ilešić, who mapped the most important developments in CJEU case law on IP.
Three presentations dealt with the modernisation of the copyright law in EU, two laying special emphasis on the newly introduced press publisher’s rights in the EU with contrasted views on its advantages and disadvantages. Intermediary liability and remedies in case of online copyright infringement was in the focus of couple of presentations, one by CJEU Advocate General Maciej Szpunar dealing with injunctions.
Four presentations touched upon the case law regarding different aspects of EU trademark, including the presentation of the GCEU Judge Vesna Tomljenović on intersection of trademarks and personal names, and the President of the Board of Appeals Théophile Margellos at the EUIPO on its recent practice.
Interest of the audience was also triggered by two vivid presentations of Sven Stürmann, Chairperson of the Second Board of Appeal at EUIPO, on post-graphical representation of non-traditional trademarks, and Klemen Podobnik, Professor at University of Ljubljana, on parody in the ambit of trademarks.
Enforcement session revealed shortcomings of the current sui generis database regime and proposal for a change in the presentation by Josef Drexl, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, as well as practical difficulties in a Croatian case concerned with patent infringement by a software in the discussion by Albina Dlačić, Attorney-at-Law in Croatia.
The conference was truly exceptional in the interest it provoked among the IP community in Croatia. The official total number of 154 participants embraces more than half participants from the private sector (attorneys, in-house lawyers etc.). The conference also attracted foreign participation: 24 participants from 10 different countries.
The organisation trio consisting of the Croatian State IP Office, the Faculty of Law in Rijeka and the Croatian Comparative Law Association designed a conference to meet the market needs. In doing so, they are indebted by the EUIPO who supported this event by providing both, professional competences and financial contribution.