WTR’s inaugural Brand Protection Online Europe in London last month played host to more than 130 brand experts from companies including Daniel Wellington, PayPal,Superdry, Tommy Hilfiger and many more.

Across nine hours of thought-provoking discussions and networking, attendees benefitted from a variety of insights, best practices and winning examples from leading brands to use as part of their brand protection strategies. Some of the highlights included:

• BP, Johnson Controls, Maus Freres and Tonino Lamborghini delving into how the public can help with the fight against counterfeit goods. Zeeger Vink, IP Director at Maus Freres explained that the key to effective brand protection management online is to “look at what the consumer sees”.
• Peter Ratcliffe, Detective Superintendent and National Fraud Lead at the City of London Police presenting Alibaba with a commendation for its high level of dedication, cooperation, and professionalism in overall IP rights protection. He highlighted: “the key role for me is engagement with stakeholders and the community. That’s never been more of a focus than now for us.”
• Attendees agreeing that, while there is no one-size-fits-all approach for measuring success, it is critical to have a sense of how you actually assess activities. Johnson Controls’ James Graham, Vice President and Chief IP Counsel, stated “if you don’t measure it, you don’t care about it”.
• A clear sense that apps will increasingly become the online battleground for trademark enforcement, with takedown often a challenge. Jennifer Chung, General Counsel at Accuweather, noted that “we’ve found apps that look like ours on black-market sites. They were using our data, but they weren’t our apps. How do I take these down when there’s no policy on the site? There’s no email, there’s not contact. What’s the solution?”

Discussions will continue at WTR’s Managing Trademark Assets Europe when it returns to London on 28 January 2020 with more high-level explorations and insight. Limited places are currently on offer at the exclusive rate of £395 (+VAT).

Register now at www.MTA-Europe.com