Moderator: Eleni Kokkini - PPT Legal (GR)

Eleni Kokkini is a partner and the Head of IP at the law firm PPT Legal in Greece.

Eleni has acquired extensive experience in all matters of intellectual property law, with a special focus on trademark prosecution and litigation, domain name disputes resolution and ecommerce cases. Eleni has advised clients, from mega multinationals to small local firms, in complex trade mark, design, copyright and unfair competition issues and is a dedicated expert in the representation of clients in trade mark and unfair competition litigation and in domain name UDRP proceedings. She advises clients on legal compliance issues of websites, e-shops and other ecommerce models and platforms and she has drafted and reviewed a number of website terms of use and privacy policies.

Prior to joining the firm, Eleni gained extensive experience working for a Greek IP boutique law firm, the IP department of a large German law firm and a Brussels-based law firm dealing with competition matters.

Andy King - Mewburn Ellis (UK)

Andy King is the Head of Trade Marks and a member of the Mewburn Ellis management board. He handles a wide range of trade mark work, from searches, portfolio reviews and devising filing strategies to prosecution of applications, oppositions, revocation and invalidity actions. Andy has extensive experience representing clients at the UKIPO, EUIPO and WIPO (for international ‘Madrid Protocol’ registrations). Andy also leads the firm’s domain name dispute practice and has advised clients on possible DRS, UDRP and ADR proceedings.

Andy’s diverse client portfolio includes companies from a wide range of industry sectors, with a particular interest in the motorsport industry. Key clients that Andy directly represents include: Sandvik AB, In-N-Out Burgers, Axon Enterprises Inc. (owner of the TASER trade mark for electrical stun-guns), Hilti Aktiengesellschaft, Vinci Construction Management, Capital Group and Karsten Manufacturing Corporation (owner of the famous PING trade mark for golf equipment).

Before joining Mewburn Ellis in 2008 Andy worked for 10 years in the marketing industry in a range of roles for blue‐chip, multinational companies, before moving to an advertising and design agency to work on branding projects and advertising campaigns. This gives him a unique insight into the industry and enables him to truly understand the business challenges of his clients and provide forward-looking guidance. He provides strategic advice tailored to meet their commercial goals and objectives.
 
Andy has recently had some stand-out successes, most notably in relation to the acceptance of Sandvik’s new sonic logo mark which both established a practice first in the UK and a new precedent on the inherent registrability of sound marks at the UKIPO.

Andy has a BA (Hons) in sociology from the University of Sheffield, a Post-graduate Diploma in marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a Certificate in Intellectual Property Law from Queen Mary University in London.

Ramon Vives - Sixième Son (ES)

Ramon Vives is a musician and an economist, a curious combination of art and science. He holds a degree in Economics from the University of Barcelona and a Masters Degree in Communication from the UAB. He speaks six languages fluently (Spanish, Catalan, English, French, German and Italian) and is a lover of reading and, of course, music in all its forms. A musician and a composer passionate about innovation and sound, he founded Sixième Son Spain with the conviction that Spanish-speaking brands lacked a strategic approach to their sound dimension.

Throughout his career, marrying heart and reason, Ramon has worked as Press Director of the Spanish tours of international artists such as Bruce Springsteen or the Backstreet Boys, and coordinated projects of international cooperation within the framework of the EU. He has also co-founded and directed two editions of Norai, a charming outdoor pop music festival.

Completely focused on the audio branding industry, in recent years, at the head of Sixième Son in Spain and Latin America, Ramon has accompanied some leading brands in Europe to obtain and develop their sonic strategies, among them, FC Barcelona, La Liga, Enel, MAPFRE, Santander, Vueling, Gallina Blanca, Naturgy, Ricolino. He is currently developing the vocal identity of some of these brands. He has also participated in Sixième Son projects with prestigious brands such as Coca-Cola and Lays. In 2023, MAPFRE's global sonic identity won a prestigious IF DESIGN award that Ramon and the team collected at a ceremony in Berlin.

Ramon teaches this discipline in some universities in Barcelona (Master's in Brand Strategy and Creative Management at Pompeu Fabra University, Master's in Branding at Elisava, Marketing Innovation class at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Barcelona). He writes articles often and has given talks in some forums of the marketing sector in Spain and Germany. As a musician he has led independent pop bands such as Clementines, Plou and Supermon.