Dear members and friends,

ECTA’s very successful 26th Annual Conference, which took place in Deauville, France, ended my first year as President of the association.

It has been a challenging but rewarding experience, only possible with the support and assistance of an excellent team who are as follows:

Management: Simon Reeves, First Vice-President Annick Mottet-Haugaard, Second Vice-President Keith Havelock, Secretary General Jaroslaw Kulikowski, Treasurer	Legal: Sandrine Peters, Legal Coordinator David Latham, Legal Adviser
	Secretariat: Sue Van Looy Cathy Van Vuuren

The activities of ECTA are the result of enormous effort and enthusiasm from all those who believe in our association. The decision-making arises from the Council, which at present comprises of 54 members representing 25 EU member countries. Regretfully, Slovakia and Malta are not yet represented and we are still trying to find candidates to cover these posts.

The backbone of the association is the work done by the Committees, which provides the intellectual content to ECTA’s activities. During this year, the different Committees have been very active under the excellent leadership of their Chairs. New Committee members have been elected and I wish to welcome them most warmly and encourage them to actively participate in the association’s life.

ECTA, represented by its Management and Committee members, usually participates in many events. I would like to highlight the main areas of ECTA’s work during this year:

In the first place, it is worth mentioning WIPO and the Revision of the Madrid System, in particular the Safeguard Clause as provided for in article 9 sexies of the Madrid Protocol, within the framework of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Legal Development of the Madrid System for the International Registration of Marks.

- A carefully prepared and balanced position paper was presented on behalf of ECTA and I would say that said position played an important role in the last compromise reached, which resulted in the maintenance for Madrid Agreement member countries in the relations amongst them of the standard designation fee and the refusal period limited to 12 months.

In the second place, we must mention OHIM and the Commission’s communication on the “Financial perspectives of the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market” dated 22 December 2006.

- ECTA prepared a position, which was sent to OHIM, the European Commission and Council, national offices and IP associations. ECTA’s paper stressed the need for quality of services and for an effective and fair interaction between the Community and national trade mark systems. - We also expressed to the European Commission our wilfulness to be heard at this important time where an in-depth debate on the Trade Mark system in Europe was required. - ECTA participated in the OAMI Users Group Meetings, in Alicante, and we had our own meetings, the so-called OHIM Link Committee Meetings.

In the third place, in the development of the domain name .eu, the need to set up a Code of Conduct for Registrars was raised

- ECTA was consulted by EURid in respect of this point and a position was submitted. - ECTA was invited to the .eu Interim Council meeting in Lisbon and also to the IDN Advisory Board meeting.

Finally, we cannot forget the frantic activity of the Anti-Counterfeiting Committee in submitting comments in respect of the draft Directive on Criminal measures aimed at ensuring enforcement of IP rights and many other important contributions.

Within the activities of ECTA there are also other important initiatives to report as follows:

. The organisation of ECTA Round Tables at local level. Apart from the one organized in Prague under the title “Trade Marks and Unfair Competition, Mutual Relations” on the occasion of the Council Meeting, we had one in Weil am Rein, Germany, under the title “The Community Design in particular relation to Austria, France, Germany and Switzerland” and another one in London, under the title “Relative Grounds of refusal all change in the UK”. A round table in Brussels under the title “New weapons in the fight against counterfeiting in the heart of Europe” has been advertised for September 7, 2007. There are further projects for Round Tables in Hungary, England and Spain, the details of which will be announced soon. . The launch of the electronic ECTA Flash under a new layout. I would like to stress in particular the high quality case law updates provided in the Flashes with the support of DARTS-IP. . The publication of ECTA law books and of the biannual ECTA Gazettes, which contain in-depth articles on trade marks, designs, domain names and related rights, as well as the speeches and presentations of the Round Tables.

We hope that these events and materials are of interest to our members. The figures could be understood as an approval of ECTA’s performance, since membership has grown this year more than ever before.

We would of course welcome any suggestion from ECTA members to try to improve our task and look forward to continuing a fruitful co-operation with all of you.

Mireia Curell
President of ECTA