Martin Tierney (IE)                   1983-1984

I was elected as second President of the Association in succession to Eric Wenman. At that time the Association was in its infancy, so to speak, and it was really intended that the late Wim Mak would follow in Eric Wenman’s footsteps. Alas, Wim was suffering from the illness that would shortly take him from us and I was asked if I could take on the job which I was both honoured and happy to do. Our primary aim at the time was to try and establish a qualified corps of European practitioners and to increase our membership, which was difficult because of the numerous representative bodies already serving the needs of the profession. We therefore, had to offer something unique. If I had to single out one aspect in this regard I would say that our close relationship, from the outset, with the EU Commission and in particular, with Dr. Bertold Schwab and Erik Nooteboom, in fining tuning the Directive and Regulation was of inestimable benefit. I think this was the attractive force in persuading practitioners to join the Association. That relationship has happily continued to the mutual advantage of both and subsequently, of course, with OHIM. We slowly increased in numbers and already had started our very successful Annual Meetings. On handing over to Jean Charriere I was confident that the Association, though still small in membership, had become a viable one.

I cannot claim that there was any watershed development during my time in office. Rather it was the continuing task of convening and presiding over meetings and the drumming up of the members that pre-occupied us. Above all the indefatigable work of Florent Gevers as our Secretary General and the careful husbanding of our meagre resources by our Treasurer, Norman MacLachlan, ensured our success as an Association. I have to say also that the contribution of colleagues on the Council guaranteed success. I will be forgiven if I single out those founders members who are no longer with us, Wim Mak, Neils Jensen, Christina Kik, Günhther Peters, Mario Arriguchi and John Davy. In my retirement I often think of each of them and the help they rendered in getting ECTA off the ground. We owe them a great debt.

My abiding memory of ECTA’s beginnings had to do with the very first meeting in a Heathrow Airport Hotel. Eric Wenman had done an enormous amount of preparatory work including taking preliminary steps to incorporate the Association as an English Company limited by Guarantee. The meeting became somewhat fraught at this point as our Continental colleagues had never heard of this strange kind of legal person. I was irresistibly reminded of Brendan Behan and that Irish Playwright’s definition of a meeting of his countrymen where the first item on the agenda invariably was whether to have a split. I hastened to point out to my colleagues that if I, as an Irishman, could accept an English Company limited by Guarantee. I couldn’t see why anyone else would object. This provoked some hilarity and so we became and continue as an English Company  limited by Guarantee.

On leaving office I was presumptuous enough to feel that my successors would need a suitable insignia of office and so I presented the Association with its current medallion. It is the work of an Irish goldsmith, incised with a representation of Europa being abducted by Zeus in the form of a bull. The original ribbon was coloured green; not because the donor had “a rub of the green”, so to speak, but because this was the original colour. It has, of course, been subsequently replaced by the more appropriate European Blue.

Having been, for a decade now, in what Oliver Goldsmith called “blessed retirement, friend to life’s decline” I look back with great fondness and nostalgia on my involvement in the affairs of ECTA: a nostalgia coupled with the satisfaction of knowing that the Association has grown in membership and influence and now contributes significantly to the growth of Intellectual Property jurisprudence in the European Union.