Law Students from Greece Learn Trademarks 101

Law students from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece visiting INTA’s Europe Office

More than 20 law students from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece visited INTA’s Europe Office in Brussels on March 11 to get an overview of the Association’s work and learn about trademark basics. The group visit was sponsored by the European Law Students’ Association (ELSA), as part of the ELSA Study Visits program that brings European law students to different legal institutions around the European Union.  

Hadrien Valembois, INTA Policy Officer, Europe Office, gave the students a brief introduction about INTA, focusing on the Association’s various academic activities for students.  

Afterwards, Florence Verhoestraete, Partner at international law firm Nauta Dutilh, Brussels, Belgium, and a member of INTA’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee, gave a presentation on the basics of trademark law. Ms. Verhoestraete explained what can be registered as a trademark, illustrating her points by providing samples of chocolates, biscuits, and other products. She showed the distinctiveness characteristic of trademarks, such as colors (yellow for POST-it adhesive notes); and shapes (the bottle of CONTREX mineral water) as well as an example of a word-LOTUS-that can be registered for different types of goods like biscuits, tissues, or cars.

Ms. Verhoestraete highlighted several trademark dispute cases that emphasized the importance of registering marks, and explained the risk of a trademark becoming generic. She also discussed the dangers of counterfeiting, including its impact on health and the economy, and stressed that counterfeiting goes beyond luxury goods, and has an impact on products such as food, car parts, toys, medicines, and others. On the topic of counterfeits, Ms. Verhoestraete provided a brief introduction to INTA’s UNREAL Campaign, which gives presentations to young consumers (ages 14-23) to raise awareness of the dangers of counterfeits.

INTA would like to warmly thank the ELSA students for visiting the Association’s office and Ms. Verhoestraete for volunteering to speak to them. We look forward to welcoming other students in the future!

If you would like to learn more about INTA’s activities in Europe, please contact Milesh Gordhandas (Senior Advisor, Europe Office) at mgordhandas @inta.org. If you are interested in learning more about INTA’s Academic Program, contact Kensey Cybul (Coordinator, Academics) at kcybul @inta.org. If you are interested in the UNREAL campaign, please contact Catherine Shen (Associate, Strategic Partnerships & Unreal Campaign) at [email protected]