Ronald van Tuijl has been elected as the International Trademark Association (INTA)’s president and chair of the board of directors for 2016.
He is intellectual property trade marks director at Japan Tobacco International in Geneva, Switzerland, where he is responsible for various global brand portfolios.
“2016 is going to be a busy year for INTA and the global trademark community,” said van Tuijl. “Our Association remains deeply involved in the ongoing discussions around internet governance and the ever-growing domain name system. The European Trademark Reform package is also being implemented in early 2016. INTA has been involved in this process since the very beginning and will continue to represent trademark owners until it has been completed.”
He added that there are challenges such as counterfeiting and goods in transit that the global trademark community will continue to tackle together throughout 2016. “Finally, this year we will also see developments in plain packaging – an issue that is posing mounting risks across a number of industries including alcohol, soft drinks, food, pharma and tobacco,” he said.
Before joining JT International and moving to Switzerland in mid-2012, van Tuijl was senior IP counsel for Philips Intellectual Property & Standards, a subsidiary of Royal Philips in The Netherlands, his home country. He also served as global trade mark counsel at Unilever, overseeing various foods and personal care portfolios.
He has served on the Regular Member Committee’ Corporate Programming Subcommittee, the In-House Trademark Counsel’s Workshop Project Team and the Programs Subcommittee for INTA’s Advanced Anticounterfeiting Strategies Conference hosted in Istanbul, Turkey in 2012
Also taking office in 2016 are Joseph Ferretti, PepsiCo/Frito-Lay (USA) (President Elect); Tish Berard, Hearts On Fire Company (USA) (Vice President); David Lossignol, Novartis Pharma (Switzerland) (Vice President); Ayala Deutsch, NBA Properties (USA) (Treasurer); Tiki Dare, Oracle Corporation (USA) (Secretary) and Maury Tepper, Tepper & Eyster (USA) (Counsel).
