April 27, 2012:
Europe‘s leading trade fairs push for new EU approach – “If ACTA does not pass the legislation process, the EU should think about other solutions.”

On the occasion of the World Intellectual Property Day on April 26, EMECA, the association representing Europe’s leading trade fair companies, calls on the EU to push for efficient protection and cross border enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). The current quarrel about the international anti-counterfeiting trade agreement ACTA should not prevent the EU Commission from pursuing its aim to better protect IPR and to provide the necessary tools for enterprises, said Piero Venturelli, president of EMECA.

“On our leading trade fairs, we observe IPR disputes between companies from different countries that cannot be solved or confiscations of large numbers of products by national authorities”, explains Piero Venturelli. “Our exhibitors, the companies that innovate and invest into new products and designs, need better mechanisms to protect and to enforce their IPR.”

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Outdoor is consolidating its position in Friedrichshafen. A new contract with the sector association European Outdoor Group (EOG) will ensure that the city will remain the annual meeting place of the global outdoor sector even beyond 2013. The largest European outdoor fair has taken place in Friedrichshafen since 1994. The new partnership was signed and sealed in the run-up to the 19th edition of the fair, which this year takes place from July 12 to 15.

According to its organiser, Nielsen Company, the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market event in Salt Lake City, Utah, will start on Tuesday, January 22 and close on Saturday, January 26, 2013 instead of the previous slot of Wednesday to Sunday. It will kick off with the traditional demo day in the Solitude Mountain Resort on Tuesday before the actual fair takes place in the Salt Palace Convention Center.

After 30 years, the Ipex, international fair for printing machines, is returning to London. The organiser Informa is moving its fair, which is held once every four years, to the Excel International Exhibition and Conference Centre in the Royal Docks. There, the event will fill the entire 100,000m² from March 26 to April 2, 2014. About 1,000 exhibitors showed at the last fair in 2010, at the NEC in Birmingham.