MARQUES
MARQUES, or the Association of European Brand Owners, is an organization that represents trademark owners, trademark law professionals, and [Intellectual Property|intellectual property]] owners. MARQUES was formed in 1987 in order to represent trademark owners who found it difficult to present their common issues and manage these issues effectively amidst the significant change in IP landscape, launch of Community Trademark (CTM) and Register Community Design (RCD), The Harmonization of European Trademark Law, The Rapid development of the Madrid System and Emergence of Domain Name Registrations and Disputes.[1][2]
MARQUES have more than 750 corporate members not only in Europe but also across the Globe. The association deals with matters related to management of the trademarks of their members and also to provide them a place which represents the interest of its members. The members of the association own more than 3 million domain names across the globe. MARQUES also supports the Nominet’s (A domain registry organization based in UK) issue to release two letters, one character and other ".uk" domain names. [3]
Mission and Goal
The main mission of MARQUES is to educate as well as promote the professional development of brand owners in the management, selection, exploitation and protection of the trademarks of the brand owners and that too in the world economy. Its mission is also to establish a forum wherein there can be a free exchange of information as well as free flow of ideas. It also wants to provide a platform where the brand owners can put forward their specific interests. [4][5]
Members
MARQUES consist of more than 750 trademark owners as well as trademark law professionals. These members are highly active in the various aspects of Intellectual Property law and cover the areas of law that deal with brand protection.
Though MARQUES is based in Europe, the members of MARQUES come from all around the world. These are some of the best brands in the entire world. MARQUES have representatives from Syngenta, Nestle, Diageo Coty, Bacardi, Red Bull, Gucci, Hoffman La Roche, DSM, InBev, GlaxosmithKline, Sara Lee, and Tetra Pak and so on.
The members of MARQUES alone account for two million domain names out of which majority are the gTLDs. Majority of the MARQUES members comprise of the Internet Stakeholder Constituency. [6]
MARQUES and ICANN
MARQUES have been a close follower of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). It has been following its initiative related to the implementation of the new gTLDs. MARQUES had also come into support of the efforts of ICANN Board to protect the trademarks of the small and medium enterprises. It also suggested ICANN that the right protection should be universal for all the businesses. [7]
References