Harmonization Committee

Description

The Harmonization Committee’s activities include the conducting of surveys in all EU member states on the national law and practice with regard to legal issues of specific current interest. Surveys conducted by the Harmonization Committee e.g. dealt with

• trade mark use in opposition and cancellation proceedings
• trade mark issues related to geographic indications
• trade marks filed in bad faith
• protection of marks with a reputation
• legal enforcement of security interests of trade marks
• conversion issues or
• comparison of the national laws as far as the CTMR explicitly provides for the application of national law. The Harmonization Committee thereby creates a knowledge base which is useful to propose best practises, compare and benchmark practises and helps other committees to prepare position papers, proposals and replies to questions submitted by European Boards and Agencies.

Mission statement

The Mission of the Harmonization Committee is the monitoring of the harmonization of EU trade mark law, including the national trade mark law practices according to the guidelines developed by the ECJ decisions. The Committee examines the differences of the various national trade mark laws and practices, also with regard to the non-harmonized points of law and legal procedures. One of the Committee’s aims is to foster the awareness of the actually still prevailing differences and to ultimately increase the harmonization of the legal practices of the Member States.

Members

CHAIR:

Miller, Elena - Bulgaria

VICE-CHAIR:

Seiler, Marie-Christine - Germany

SECRETARY:

Cuche, Thomas - France

MEMBERS 2016-2019:

Akarsu, Mine - Turkey

Akgün, Şirin - Turkey

Brandstetter, Andrea - Austria

Corte-Real, António - Portugal

Dhondt, Hans - Belgium

Dolde, Tobias - Spain

Durán, Christian - Spain

Fajnor, Karol - Slovak Republic

Fernández, Wilfrido - Paraguay

Florea, Sonia - Romania

Flury, Robert - Switzerland

Gödölle, Tamás - Hungary

Granneman, Monique - Netherlands

Grishina, Katerina - Latvia

Halmetoja, Hannu - Finland

Hrabakova, Tereza - Czech Republic

Kovic, Vesna - Slovenia

Lantos, Judit -  Hungary

Lazenby, Claire - UK 

Lyberis, Nikolaos - Greece

Markusev, Denisa - Romania

McCullagh, Judy - Ireland

Merzvinskis, Gatis - Latvia

Mondolfo, Mara - Italy

Morcom QC, Christopher - UK

Moreira, Pedro Alves - Portugal

Muhibian, Iliana - Bulgaria

Papacharalambous, Eleni - Cyprus

Pärn, Riina - Estonia

Pasiut, Anna - Poland

Pejcinovic, Tomislav - Croatia

Persson, Fredrik - Sweden

Picard, Philippe - France

Rehne,  Heidi - Denmark

Sasvári, Gabriella - Hungary

Saukalas, Erikas - Lithuania

Spagnulo, Irma - Italy

Sugrañes, Eliza - Spain

Tarí, Aída - Spain

Toningerova, Ivana - Czech Republic

Torrigiani-Malaspina, Angelica - Italy

von Bismarck, Prof. Dr. Alexandra - Germany

von Mühlendahl, Alexander - Germany

Warrington, Francesca - Malta

Zakrocka, Anna - Poland

Żurawska, Krystyna - Poland