UNITED STATES – Harold Geller, senior vice president for cross-industry workflow at the American Association of Advertising Agencies, has accepted a seat on the non-profit PLUS Coalition’s Board of Directors. Geller also serves as managing director for Ad-Id, and now joins a list of industry leaders on the PLUS Board, charged with ensuring that the Picture Licensing Universal System standards succeed in simplifying and facilitating the communication and management of image rights throughout the world. The 4A’s has now joined the PLUS Coalition, and Geller will serve as the 4A’s delegate, representing the interests of all advertising agencies and advertisers, worldwide. The PLUS Board of Directors includes one seat for each major industry sector involved in creating, distributing, using or preserving images. The PLUS Coalition is an international non-profit organisation exclusively dedicated to simplifying and facilitating the communication and management of image rights information within and between all countries and all industries.

INTERNATIONAL – IP law firm Howrey has invited six of its lawyers to the firm’s partnership and two to counsel. The promotions are across several of Howrey’s offices in the US and Europe. Trial and certified IP lawyer Thomas Adam will be partner at the firms Munich office. He has particular experience in national and international patent and utility model litigation. Jason Anderson will be partner at Howrey’s East Palo Alto office, specialising in patent, trade secret, and copyright litigation. He has litigated various high-technology cases in areas such as database, airline reservation, web-conferencing software, streaming audio and video, electronic storage, Global Positioning Satellite devices, microcontrollers, computer peripheral devices, and medical lasers. Krista Carter will also be partner at Howrey’s East Palo Alto office. Her practice focuses on intellectual property litigation and strategic counselling. Steven Cattoor has become partner at Howrey’s Brussels office. Cattoor specialises in patent litigation, focusing on the Life Sciences industry, where he represents a number of research-based manufacturers. The remaining two partner appointments are Aaron Gruber, who will join Howrey’s San Francisco, Global Litigation Group, and Jeffrey Philips who will be partner at the firm’s Houston office. Deanna Keysor and Arden Levy have also been appointed as Counsel to Howrey’s offices in Chicago and Washington DC respectively.

NETHERLANDS – The board of Dutch royalty collection society Buma/Stemra have proposed the appointment of Hein van der Ree as chief executive and have asked the General Assembly to ratify his appointment. The board has also proposed director of legal Affairs Cees van Rij be appointed to the position of deputy chief executive. Van Rij will, in his new position, report to the chief executive and he will continue to be responsible for legal and business affairs. An extraordinary meeting of the General Assembly has been called on 22 March to discuss and vote on both appointments. Hein van der Ree has been director of Epitaph Europe since 1995 and has previously held positions at Hollywood Records International, Phonogram Records UK and Island Music Publishing UK. He is a member of the board of industry organisations Impala and Merlin. Both organisations represent the interests of several thousand independent music rights holders. Buma/Stemra works for music authors worldwide and promotes Dutch music internationally. It allows music authors to transfer the commercial exploitation of their copyright to the organisation to help keep track of the use of their work by others.

UNITED STATES – Michael Cover, principle of Michael Cover ADR and a full member of In Place of Strife, the Mediation Chambers, has joined the Dispute Resolution Board Foundation. The DRBF is a non-profit organisation devoted to promoting avoidance and resolution of legal disputes worldwide, including IP issues. Cover regularly mediates a wide variety of disputes relating to Intellectual Property (including patents, trademarks, designs, copyright, trademarks and domain names), IT, professional indemnity, computer law, competition/anti-trust law, sports and media, financial services and maritime disputes. He has also acted for clients in the pharmaceutical industry and been involved in mediations in that industry. Cover has over 30 years experience as a solicitor, both in private practice and as in-house counsel. He is an accredited mediator with CEDR, ADR Chambers and ADR Group and has been involved in around 70 mediations. He is a full member of In Place of Strife, the Mediation Chambers.

UNITED STATES – Novak Druce + Quigg partner William Towns has been appointed to the International Trademark Association’s panel of neutrals. Towns is an AV-rated attorney by Martindale-Hubbell whose litigation and dispute resolution practice concentrates on intellectual property, with an emphasis on trademarks, domain names, unfair competition, patents and copyrights. He earned a JD from the University of Houston Law School and a BA in Government from the University of Texas. In addition to the INTA panel of neutrals, Towns is included in the World Intellectual Property Organization’s List of Neutrals, and has served as a WIPO Domain Name Dispute Panelist since 2003. INTA is a non-profit association of more than 5,900 trademark owners and legal advisors dedicated to the advancement and protection of trademarks and IP. INTA provides Alternative Dispute Resolution to parties contesting trademark and other IP related issues though the panel of neutrals, all of whom are experts in trademark and unfair competition law and have been specially trained in ADR.

CHINA – Several new faces have joined Rouse China in its IP departments, including key promotions within the company. Linda Chang has taken over from Luke Minford as Rouse’s China country manager. One of the first trademark attorneys in China to be qualified in 1995, Chang has been with Rouse since 1999 and is a founding member of Rouse’s China Trademark Group and previously founder of one of the first licensed privately-owned trademark agencies in China. Tim Smith has been promoted to executive, having joined Rouse in December 2008 from IFPI, where he was senior legal adviser managing litigation for the industry worldwide. Smith has experience managing litigation in more than 20 jurisdictions and has particular experience in online copyright infringement strategies in China, where he was responsible for a number of high profile litigation cases before joining Rouse. Cases Smith has handled in China include the action for the recording industry against Yahoo China regarding the operation of its specialist music search service. Currently in London, Smith will be based out of Rouse’s Beijing office, overseeing Rouse’s Asia Litigation Group. Jenny Luo has also joined Rouse China in its Beijing office. Before joining Rouse, Luo worked for a Washington DC-based international law firm as a patent agent and then attorney, focusing on patent prosecution and patent litigation support with an emphasis on biotechnology, bioinformatics, and instrumentation. Luo also worked as a technology specialist for a law firm in Boston where she prepared and prosecuted patent applications on genes and proteins, pharmaceutical compositions, diagnostic kits and methods, bioinformatics, transgenic plants and medical devices.

FRANCE – Laurence Julien-Raes has joined law firm DLA Piper in Paris. Working alongside several associates, she will head the newly created EMEA trademarks department of the firm. The creation of the EMEA trademark department within the IP&T practice group will allow the firm to deliver strategic counselling and a full trademark service. The Paris office will serve as the firm’s European link to its offices in the US, Dubai and Hong-Kong, which already manage over 50,000 trademarks. Prior to joining the firm, Julien-Raes was the head of the legal and trademarks department of the IP firm Santarelli, which she joined in 1979. She was also a member of the firm’s management committee. She holds a PhD in Law, and is a highly reputable French IP attorney and an European trademark and design attorney. Laurence Julien-Raes was the vice-president and president of APRAM, an international association for trademark pratitioners with around 700 members worldwide.