handbags could equally find their health at risk from their unimpressed wives! Alejandro Gonzalez Rossi discussing Mexico noted that the landscape for pharmaceuticals was changing rapidly in Mexico, with developments to trade mark law flowing from Mexico acceding to the Madrid Protocol, the opportunity for pharmaceutical companies presented by the increase in the provision of ‘free at delivery’ medical services and the impact of changes in the national diet which have lead to a significant increase in the onset of diabetes and related illnesses. Selma Ünlü Nina Osseiran a The most impressive presentation of the Spring conference came from Nina Osseiran who was discussing the difficult topic of trade mark protection in embargoed countries. Not only was her presentation full of incredibly helpful advice, she managed to engage the entire audience from start to finish. After giving some general advice on how to deal with embargoed countries generally, Nina gave brief insights into the specific challenges in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Sudan and South Sudan. From the startling fact that 90% of pharmaceuticals in S. Sudan are suspected counterfeit to considering whether Libya will once again delete the entire trade mark register resulting in companies having to reapply afresh for all of their marks. However, despite there being challenges in these countries Nina urged delegates not to give up on them, the rewards for sticking with them can still be fruitful. All of the conference presentations will be made available on the PTMG website and this is one we thoroughly recommend you look at. Following Nina’s talk was a tough task, but the panel discussion, this year focussing on the MINT countries (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, Turkey) - four emerging markets that have been earmarked as being ripe for significant economic growth over the next 10 years, was both interesting and engaging. Vanessa Parker expertly choreographed the discussion, with representatives on each MINT country highlighting the challenges and opportunities that their country presented. pharmaceuticals in Turkey can be purchased in pharmacies without prescription. Andrew Diamond Andrew Diamond illustrated the significant opportunities presented by Indonesia, the 4th most populated country in the world with the 16th largest economy and a strong claim to the title ‘social media capital of the world’. However, he also ably set out some of the challenges including the border control and counterfeiting issues flowing from being a country relatively near China formed of 17 thousand islands. Jonas Kolle Samantha Copeling Samantha Copeling flagged why Nigeria will be such an important market going forward, noting that in addition to the advantage of having English as one of its official languages, it shared the advantages of the other MINT countries in having a large, young population creative domestic enterprise and being well positioned geographically. However, it also shares some of the challenges including a tendency to self medicate and high ‘suitcase sales’ of pharmaceuticals. Selma Unlu explained that in Turkey good trade mark law is in place, largely in line with the EU, but that implementation of the law remains a concern. This included concerns regarding the Turkish Patent Institute’s decisions and the surprising acknowledgement that the majority of After lunch, we were treated to the delights of Jonas Kolle from Merck who discussed the difficulties of dealing with national trade marks in our ever increasing global online market place. Having nailed his introduction (the part of his talk he was most concerned about after some nerve generating conversations during breakfast), Jonas highlighted that it is important for pharmaceutical companies to regulate access to national websites to ensure that licensing co-existence agreements and known third party trade marks in other countries are not infringed. He also advised that swift action should be taken against brand infringers (either directly against the infringer or via the ISP or domain name registrar) – the difficulty of course is that habitual infringers will simply register a new domain name and continue infringing as soon as the old one is shut down. Simon Chapman Alejandro Gonzalez Rossi Following Jonas, Simon Chapman, provided us with a behind the scenes look at the recent UK High Court case, Amazon. A case Simon knew very well 8