
4 minute read
INTERVIEW WITH ECTA PRESIDENT MLADEN VUKMIR
by MundoASIPI
Read about Mladen’s path within ECTA (formerly European Communities Trademark Association), his strong link to ASIPI and Latin America, and ECTA’s related activities.
1) Please introduce yourself and your path within ECTA
Thank you for your interest in ECTA, a European association based in Brussels that primarily acts in the areas of trade marks, designs, copyright, internet, geographical indications, anti-counterfeiting, data, and international trade, and prides itself on raising the level of excellence of the IP profession.
What attracted me to become an ECTA member were the facts that Croatia joined the EU in 2013 and I have joined the ranks of the EU trade mark and design representatives. Thanks to ECTA and its role as a recognised stakeholder for EU institutions, I gained the precious opportunity to contribute to the development of EU legislation and assist, as a lawyer, many EU businesses. Above all, I have enjoyed ECTA’s pleasant collegiality and constructive atmosphere, which allowed me to build a reliable network of peers and grow both professionally and personally. I have served on the ECTA Supervisory Board and joined the Board of Directors in 2018, becoming President in June last year. In 2016, I was also part of the Local Organizing Committee when the ECTA Annual Conference was held in my home country, Croatia, in the city of Dubrovnik.
In the past, I have also been an active member of other IP associations, such as AIPPI, INTA, or LES, gaining an understanding of how important it is for an independent IP professional to associate and be able to amplify one’s impact on the IP systems in general.
2) What is your link with ASIPI and Latin America?
My links to Latin America run rather deep.
During my studies at the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law, Master of Intellectual Property Program, I have made excellent friends with fellow students from Mexico, Brazil and Argentina and have had the first mutual exchanges of intercultural knowledge. I have then started visiting Mexico and have developed a deeper understanding of the issues that are specific to each Latin American country and those that are common to more of them. I have met my future wife at that point and have started speaking Spanish within our family as she is Argentinean. Traveling with her and on business I have started learning about other countries in detail and have by now visited Panama, Colombia, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, Mexico and Brazil. I obviously still need to visit many others, yet the feeling of familiarity has already settled in.
I attended my first ASIPI Conference in Buenos Aires some twenty years ago because I wished to deepen my contacts with Latin American IP professionals. I quickly learned about the cordial collegiality that characterises the ASIPI community and its predisposition for welcoming new attendees. Most of the ASIPI Presidents over the last couple of decades were my personal friends and colleagues, who I had known prior to their prestigious ASIPI position. I was, therefore, always kept abreast of the formal and informal developments within ASIPI
3) Is ECTA following IP developments in Latin America?

I personally carefully followed the gradual path of Latin American economies joining the international integration processes and adhering to the treaties, that many other countries on other continents had already decided to join.
ECTA, despite being a European association, is also keeping a very close eye on the IP developments in Latin America through one of our specialised Committees, the International Trade Committee. Its task force on Latin America follows relevant IP developments and updates, providing input wherever possible. We also regularly exchange information with relevant Directorate-Generals of the European Commission to enrich our mutual understanding of the paths of international trade and the development in the IP field. Also, the WIPO-Link Committee is closely following the news about the accession of Latin countries to international IP treaties.
We are very happy that ECTA has many members from Latin America who wish to engage with European colleagues and stay up to date with European IP developments. I hope their presence in our community will increase even more in the future.
At ECTA, we also fondly remember the Annual Conference organised together with ASIPI in Barcelona in 2010. The event was a great example of a mutually beneficial exchange that helped us get closer and work better together - I look forward to organising other events or initiatives together soon.
4) What are the most relevant ongoing and upcoming initiatives at ECTA?
The core of ECTA activities is the regular exchange with institutions, particularly EUIPO, WIPO and European Commission, to better follow and contribute to the EU and global IP reforms, such as the current designs and GIs reforms.
Besides this, there are several other important ongoing initiatives at ECTA. First of all, we are developing connections with universities as we are convinced that the IP profession can gain a lot from the direct involvement of IP scholars and researchers. Although we are primarily an association of IP professionals, we are also working to deepen industry contacts and increase the mutual benefit between our corporate members and the ECTA community at large. After all, our entire IP service is here to serve the needs of the business and industry.
Rather than remaining at the EU level only, we have recently also started reaching out to the national IP institutions and eco-systems by establishing mutual cooperation.
Last but not least, our priorities are the empowerment of younger professionals both in the legal profession and our association, and the increased attention to diversity and inclusion matters by establishing a dedicated task force.
When it comes to learning and networking opportunities, ECTA organises throughout the year several events, both onsite and online. Besides the ECTA Alicante Round Table, ECTA ®etreat and various webinars, the most important ones are certainly the ECTA Autumn Meeting for Supervisory Board and Committee members only, this year in Turin on 12-14 October 2023, and the ECTA Annual Conference, next year in Antwerp on 19-22 June 2024, entitled ‘Many Facets of IP’, where ASIPI members are very much welcome to participate.