PTMG Spring Conference Report Venice, 23 and 24 March 2015 Paddling Through the Pressures on Pharmaceutical Trade Marks Rob Jacob and Mark Kramer, Stephenson Harwood LLP Venice in the spring sunshine made a wonderful venue for the 90th PTMG conference. Just getting to the conference venue, a beautifully refurbished flour mill on the banks of Giudecca Island, gladdened the soul, and those who arrived on Sunday were treated to a private tour of Saint Mark’s Basilica. Despite the fabulous sunshine and the pull of the most romantic city in the world, the delegates somehow managed to restrain themselves and the afternoon session was well attended. comes to stylised elements of a mark – whilst OHIM is unlikely to give such elements much weight when considering whether two pharmaceutical marks are confusingly similar, it does appear that such elements are more important when considering non-use. Morton concluded his insightful talk by predicting a re-emergence of the importance of national registrations in the European Community as practitioners struggle to predict how OHIM will decide issues. Giovanni Orsoni Sophie Bodet Sophie Bodet opened the conference, her last as chair, on Monday afternoon by telling the attendees what a ‘pleasure and honour’ it had been for her to oversee PTMG over the last 3 years. She also reminded the conference that PTMG’s membership continued to grow and that the conferences were oversubscribed so, as the spaces at conferences remains capped, members need to book early if they want to guarantee their place. topic of Harmony without Harmonization discussing the benefits and difficulties of harmonisation of IP laws and practice. Whilst, language and market differences are perhaps the more obvious areas of dispute, Domenico also explained that there are other issues, ranging from the re-filing of non-used trade marks, the lack of a single priority date for worldwide recordal programmes to how OHIM deals with insolvent earlier right holders. To Domenico, PTMG and other IP associations are the NGOs of the IP world, with a responsibility to lobby hard against poor procedures on behalf of ourselves and our clients. He passionately suggested that such IP associations should join their voices together in an overarching ‘super association’ which would be better heard by IP authorities around the world. The first day ended on a sad note, as we remembered David Butler of GSK who passed away unexpectedly earlier this year. Rupert Ross-Macdonald beautifully encapsulated the thoughts of attendees who had known and worked with David over the years. An amazing talent that will be understandably missed now and for years to come. Our thoughts go out to David’s family. Dinner in the amazing thirteenth century Scuola Grande San Giovanni Evangelista (and some post dinner drinks and networking in the hotel’s top storey bar) did not dampen the attendees’ enthusiasm for day two of the conference. The day took us on a world tour of trade marks, starting in Italy before moving to Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Sudan, South Sudan, Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, Turkey, and the United Kingdom before we were returned to Italy for the finale. Morton Douglas Next up was Morton Douglas with an international case law round-up. Morton’s presentation used three topics (OHIM decisions, national EU decisions and nonuse) to flag his concerns regarding the quality and consistency of decisions being made within Europe and therefore implicitly lend his voice to Domenico’s call for harmonization. Morton explained that whilst OHIM is getting stricter on absolute grounds, there is a growing trend at OHIM to be more generous to trade mark owners when it comes to relative grounds. Morton also raised the inconsistent approach by OHIM when it Julia Holden Domenico de Simone The opening presentation is always a difficult one as it sets the scene for the rest of the conference. However, Domenico de Simone giving the Alan Cox Memorial Lecture did not disappoint. Following a short prologue from Giovanni Orsoni who informed us that the Venetian Republic had been the first jurisdiction to introduce patent legislation to the world, Domenico dived into his Julia Holden kicked the morning session off with an Overview of the Pharmaceutical Regulatory Environment in Italy. Julia gave us a useful summary of the European legal and regulatory position before focussing on the Italian market, moving from name safety considerations though legal clearance, litigation strategy to advertising. Whilst acknowledging that counterfeit pharmaceuticals are more concerning than most counterfeit products due to the patient safety dangers, she raised a good point that husbands bringing back counterfeit 7