Richard Goddard is the new CITMA President
Richard Goddard has been elected as our President.
Richard, who is Trade Mark Counsel at BP, began his two-year term in the role on 14th April 2020. He was voted in unanimously by CITMA’s Council and succeeds Tania Clark.
Vice-President of CITMA from 2018-2020, Richard has been a member for over 15 years and on our governing Council since 2010. He was elected as a Fellow of CITMA in November 2017 for his significant contribution to the organisation.
Elections for First Vice-President and Second Vice-President/ Treasurer were held at the same time. Rachel Wilkinson-Duffy, Baker McKenzie, was elected First Vice-President and Kelly Saliger, CMS, was voted into the Second Vice-President/ Treasurer position.
Richard said: “It is an honour to be elected by my colleagues. The next two years will bring challenges and opportunities – I will make sure that as a profession we meet these challenges and maximise the opportunities.
“There are unanswered questions on Brexit – particularly when it comes to rights of representation and address for service in the UK and EU post-Brexit. I will be using our position as the voice of the UK trade mark legal profession to ask these questions and influence the answers.
“As an organisation we will continue to do all we can to promote intellectual property and the UK IP profession. We are also committed to our diversity and inclusion work and supporting IP Inclusive.
“The knowledge sharing and networking events we run are vital for our members – we will be ensuring there are plenty of opportunities for our members to flourish even with the current challenges.
“Looking forwards we are currently running a survey to help inform our future strategy. We will be using these responses to build a strategy that develops our work and supports our members to be successful.”
The President has responsibility for the policy and direction of CITMA and its liaison with UK government officials and international organisations, including the UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO), European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).