TM TM TM TM TM TM Pharmaceutical Trade Marks Group May 2015 Editorial: The joy of languages Once again, attendance at the 90th PTMG Conference was the opportunity to exchange with delegates from very many countries, all expressing themselves Certainly, in the English language. The level of tEnglish spoken during the sessions but also during the social functions is witness to the necessity we all have to share a An annual small town festival icommon language to facilitate both professional and personal contact. However, international conferences are also the moment when you find yourself surrounded by Of course, conversations taking place in every language. t Secretly, for some, it is an occasion to try out some schoolboy (or schoolgirl!) foreign language and Venice for me was a chance to wind the clock back more years than I care to count to the days when I crammed an Italian subsidiary course at London University. It is immensely rewarding but also a little frustrating, to hear a learnt language, albeit it within a limited context such as a hotel or a restaurant and feel that, if only one could Too often spend a rlittle longer in the country, all that learning would come rushing back. More surprisingly, in more recluse parts of that Trade mark law is of course anchored in a deep understanding of c languages. One would be foolhardy to imagine that a perfunctory Indeed linguistic knowledge of four or five European languages could suffice to d provide in-depth advice regarding the risks and perils of adopting a particular term as a brand name, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry. Nevertheless, a love of languages and a desire to better understand their relationship to each other, whether these are European or otherwise, has always seemed to me a prerequisite for a happy professional life in so-called soft intellectual property. Against this background and the ever distant dream of European integration, the French Education minister announced recently the pupils will now only that as of 2016 all secondary school Commission and thebe P taught English in their first year of study, with the possibility of adding another European language the following year but only if said second language has been previously offered in the corresponding primary school. Critics are up in arms claiming that these amendments in the past 25 years, our continent has However, to the current system will ultimately end the teaching of any foreign language other than Spanish and m German whilst almost immediately sounding the death-knoll for ancient languages such as Latin and Greek. My heart goes out to trade As m a native English speaker, I applaud all attempts to enhance the teaching of English within the French school system but fear that any tinkering of the curriculum will bring about few improvements if class sizes remain high and resources remain low. After all, teaching any language in the classroom can be a thankless task. Thinking back, I doubt very much that my French teacher, who was a self-confessed frustrated Spanish opera singer, would ever have guessed that one of his tongue-tied pupils in 4th form would find so much pleasure from analysing words in all languages as her future career. Therein of course lies our challenge for the future: encouraging youngsters to embrace the learning of languages by whatever means is surely the key to offering them a more harmonized future based on improved communication skills and a greater understanding of each other. Vanessa Obituary: David Butler, GSK Eulogy read at the close of Day 1 of the 90th PTMG Conference in Venice. Despite the scale of the pharmaceutical industry, its trade mark community has always been a close-knit one, and that goes right back to the days when this group, the PTMG, was founded. So it's all the more keenly felt when one of its members passes away, especially when that happens long before time. Sophie has asked me to say a few words in memory of David Butler of Glaxo Smithkline whose sudden death at the age of 41 last month came as an enormous shock to all those who knew him. David was, of course, a frequent attendee and past speaker at the PTMG, as well as a colleague, client and friend of many of us here. David was a UK pharma industry stalwart of nearly 20 years, almost the whole of his career - quite a rare thing in these days of frequent job-hopping. He joined SmithKline Beecham back in 1996 after completing his solicitor's training and stayed on with the company following the merger with Glaxo Wellcome a few years later. After that, he rose to become one of the lead trade mark attorneys in what developed into a multi-national department at GSK spanning three different continents and looking after an ever increasing number and diversity of brands. For many, David was first and foremost GSK's anti-counterfeiting guru. He combined a real passion for the cause with a sense of adventure that took him all over the world - most recently to China where he had been based for the past 2 years. He certainly couldn't have got much closer to the centre of the counterfeiting world. For those who worked with him, David was always interested and engaged, taking the time to explain things clearly, and also not shy of getting involved in the hurly burly of the action. An English colleague who worked with David over the last year in China said to me: "David was one of life's good guys. Smart, positive, fair, kind, honest, understanding and always a pleasure to work and socialise with". I can't think of a better way to sum him up. David will be sorely missed, both now and for a long time to come. I am sure that the deepest condolences from all of us here at PTMG go out to David's wife Deborah and his two young daughters. Rupert Ross-Macdonald, Rouse