Dear Colleagues, dear Friends,

As you know, UNION is a unique Association of European Practitioners who are active in all fields of Intellectual Property, this means not only Patents but also Trade Marks, Designs and IP Litigation matters in general.

During our Congress 2008 in Porto, I had the privilege and the great honour to become President of this Association and this represents a great challenge for me. I am also aware that this position involves a lot of responsibilities to which I will be committed.

With the help of the new elected Bureau and the support of the National Delegates of our Executive Committee, I am confident that we will be able to face the evolution of the ever changing IP world during the forthcoming years.

Our Commissions are playing an essential role in the activities of UNION and they have been very active during the past few years in organising very interesting Round Tables and Workshops dealing with day to day practical professional problems and highlighting new upcoming topics in different IP fields.

In view of the increasing number of topics on IP enforcement and legal environment, it has been decided during the Congress to create a new "Litigation Commission" which will deal with general legal and enforcement issues with reference to appropriate case law.

Among others, I would also like to activate and strengthen the interaction between our members and the respective Commissions in order to obtain a regular feedback in IP matters from each of the European member states. Our new web site, which is now adapted to achieve this purpose, should be used more intensively.

At the end of the nineties, many colleagues wondered whether UNION had still a future, but eight years later I have the strong impression that a new impulse of interest towards UNION has started to grow and that we may face with optimism our fiftieth anniversary which will occur in the year 2011.

Despite the fact that the economic pressures are increasingly affecting the professional relationship between Colleagues in Europe, I hope that the unique family spirit of UNION will survive.

Finally, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to our Past President João Pereira da Cruz for the outstanding job he achieved during the three past years and I am sure we can still count on his support and strong commitment towards the success of our Association for the benefit of all of our members.

With best personal regards.

Philippe Overath