Page 17 - 2017 INTA Annual Report

In response to this shifting landscape, INTA is also evolving, and doing so purposefully. In addition to enlarging our geographic reach, the Association has been expanding our substantive scope. Today, our agenda encompasses a broader range of issues, including those that universally affect members and those that require targeted advocacy in specific areas of the world.
In 2017, INTA remained focused on our core policy priorities: anticounterfeiting, Internet governance and expansion, brand restrictions, and trademark law harmonization. However, we also took on a number of related rights, including designs, geographical indications (GIs), indigenous rights, and the intersection of copyrights and trademarks, as well as global developments that could have potentially serious consequences with regard to brands, such as the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union (Brexit).
The Association’s sizable—and continually growing—agenda is evident in much of the work addressed by INTA’s committees. For the 2016– 2017 committee term, we expanded our number of committees from 29 to 37.
Several committees were created in part to tackle certain substantive gaps, including data protection, designs, and copyrights. Other new committees were established to examine emerging technologies, such as 3D printing and
artificial intelligence, to determine their impact on brands and consumers. This expansion also provides more opportunities for members to volunteer, to contribute to the success of INTA, to network, and to further their careers.
In 2017, in initiatives led by committees, INTA passed six policy-related Board resolutions; presented 29 testimonies and submissions to 12 governments and organizations in jurisdictions around the world; and published seven substantive reports and three impact studies.
Adopting Official Positions
In 2017, three of the six policy resolutions adopted by INTA’s Board of Directors were proposed by newly established committees and have helped the Association expand our substantive scope into related rights.
The first was the resolution for Copyright Protection for Trademarked Material proposed by the Copyright Committee. Passed in September by the Board at its meeting in Brussels, Belgium, the resolution affirms that whether an original creative work of art, such as a logo, also acts as a source-identifier worthy of trademark protection, should not hinder the ability of the artwork to receive copyright protection.
A second resolution on copyrights, Copyright Registration as a Precondition of Infringement Suit, was also proposed by the Copyright
Committee and approved by the Board in November at its meeting in Washington, D.C. It recommends that U.S. courts should allow a copyright claimant to file and prosecute a copyright infringement suit upon submitting an application, deposit, and fee to the Copyright Office (i.e., the “application approach”) without awaiting the issuance of a registration certificate.
The third resolution was proposed by the Designs Committee and was also adopted by the Board in November. It establishes model design law guidelines to clearly articulate INTA’s recommendation for minimum standards for design laws and to serve as a baseline standard by which the Association will be able to analyze or comment on national and regional design laws and regulations as the need arises.
The other three resolutions passed in 2017 cover the Dependency Period of International Trademark Registrations under Madrid Protocol; an Amendment of the Lanham Act to Include a Rebuttable Presumption of Irreparable Harm; and the Hague Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments.
Weighing In on Issues
Notably, among the 29 testimonies and submissions in 2017, five—presented to the governments of Canada, Hong Kong, Hungary, Taiwan, and Thailand—cover brand restrictions. As of the end of 2017, INTA had filed submissions on this issue with governments in more than 22 jurisdictions across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
Expanding Our Legal Resources
Geographical Indications, Certification Marks and Collective Marks: An International Guide was revised in November, to include updated profiles of each jurisdiction and a new chapter on the history of GIs.
In 2017, INTA published fact sheets on fluid trademarks and free trade zones, as well as checklists on trademark surveys and customs recordation.
15