Inside the Virtual INTA Pro Bono Program on European Union Trademarks

The fourth virtual Pro Bono Program was held on June 8, 2022. The Program was organized by the Leadership of the INTA Pro Bono Committee Alice Kelly, (Ice Miller LLP, USA), Jaime Vining (Friedland Vining, P.A., USA), Cristina Guerra (Guerra IP, Brazil), Karen Chuang Kline (Duane Morris LLP, USA), and Mascha Heidelberg (Mueller Schupfner & Partner, Germany)—along with INTA committee liaison Stacey Sutton and their committee members.

The Program focused on questions about the European Union trademarks for SMEs, non-profits, not-for-profit organizations, and charitable organizations. The Program saw a large number of applicants—around 20—and an even larger number of attorneys who volunteered their time and expertise.

Basic information about the European Union trademark was provided at the beginning of the program, which was attended by participants from many countries. After the event, the participants had the opportunity to speak with applicant Elisa Schmidt (Eluni UG, Germany), about her experience. Ms. Schmidt explained that she had learned about the Pro Bono Program through a recommendation. Because they were still in the process of founding a company, they had no idea what the term INTA meant. “I had the pleasure of discussing my queries and question about the EU trademark at length with my so-to-speak private attorney and got excellent insights. I gained immense knowledge from this program, even though I had entered the program without much expectations. I felt that this was an excellent initiative and provided me the exposure to meet a set of extremely knowledgeable people who were friendly and made me feel that I was in good hands.”

This “private attorney” was her assigned pro bono attorney, Richard Dissmann (Bird & Bird,  Germany), who said it was “a great experience to be able to help start-ups and entrepreneurs who otherwise might not have easy access to quality advice” and that he “enjoyed it very much!”

The INTA Pro Bono Committee is looking forward to its next Pro Bono Program!

Special thanks to GEVERS for supporting our INTA Pro Bono Program on European Union Trademarks and to all our volunteers: Lauren Matturri, Isabel Triana, Ronnie Raju, Sarah Wright, Mascha Heidelberg, Neha Saraswat, Shane Delsman, Sandra Redeker, Roman Perez, Taras Kulbaba, Alessandro Turato,   Cynthia Sanabria, Alberto Rivera, Anastasios Fotios Tsochatzidis, Mehak Parihar, Jerome Coulonvaux, Dominique Marloye, Benjamin Gevers, Richard Dissmann, Katia De Clercq, Carolina Calderon, Isabella Hödl, Ewout Vanhecke, Piotr Strus, François Willems.

Although every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of this article, readers are urged to check independently on matters of specific concern or interest. 

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