Mayor’s Welcome

Dear ECTA Guests,

We are delighted to host ECTA’s 32nd Annual Conference – the first major intellectual property event to be organized in Bucharest, Romania.

I invite you to use this opportunity to discover Bucharest with your own eyes and heart. Our city has undergone many changes in the past 20 years.

Now, Bucharest is a modern capital, where the cultural heritage had developed at the crossroad of the Western European and Byzantine cultures.

Walk on the streets, taste our fine cuisine, meet with colleagues and friends, work during the Conference and, most important, enjoy every moment of your stay in Romania’s Capital City.

Sincerely yours,

Sorin Mircea Oprescu, General Mayor of Bucharest

Welcome

THE JURY IS STILL OUT

Dear Colleagues,

We take great pleasure in welcoming you to Bucharest, the “little Paris” of the Balkans. The three-day conference will offer delegates and guests the opportunity to discover new and old places of Bucharest, tradition and modernity. ECTA’s 32nd Annual Conference will take place in the sumptuously decorated ballrooms of the JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel.

The professional programme will start on Wednesday with a Workshop on “Regime of Collective and Certification Marks at EU level”, will continue on Thursday with recent up-to-date issues and must-knows for the EU practitioner and case-law updates for both application and opposition procedures. Friday will be dedicated to the legislative package, that by then should have been released, and its further implications at European and national level, continuing with the hot theme of genuine use and ending with enforcement of CTMs and national marks in the EU.

The evening programme will begin on Wednesday with a cocktail reception at the JW Marriott hotel.

On Thursday evening, we will go to Willbrook Platinum Center, a modern and environmental-friendly building where we will have the opportunity to taste traditional Romanian food while watching movies about pioneers of Romanian aviation.

Finally, the gala dinner on Friday evening will take place in an exceptional location: the Palais de Justice, currently the seat of the Court of Appeal, where we will enjoy a refined dinner in the large marble hall. We will also visit one of the Court Rooms of the IP section.

The excursions on Thursday and Friday for the accompanying persons are designed to let guests discover places such as the historical city centre, Parliament Palace (“House of the People”, close to the Marriott hotel), Village Museum and Patriarchate Palace. Morning excursions will end with a lunch, whereas afternoon excursions will end with afternoon tea and cakes.

On Saturday following the conference, delegates may choose between two full-day excursions, both in the beautiful Carpathian Mountains. The first one is to Sinaia, the charming city of the castles of the Romanian Kings Carol and Ferdinand. Since Dracula could not be excluded, the second excursion will be to Bran castle, wrongfully called “Dracula’s castle”, in reality an old medieval castle given as a gift in the 1920s to Queen Maria. You will be told the story and the legend and will see what confusion and risk of association means when it comes to history.

We do hope that you will enjoy your stay in Bucharest.

Domenico de Simone Raluca Vasilescu Andrew Ratza
President of ECTA ECTA Council member, chairperson of the Organising Committee ECTA Council member, member of the Organising Committee