The European trade association discussed board member changes, the seminars and its plans for 2014 to 2016.
The event, organised by The Recycler, took place on 5 and 6 June 2014 at the Hotel Salles Pere IV in Barcelona, Spain, with ETIRA meeting for its annual general meeting (AGM) in advance of the seminar programme.
The association bid farewell to outgoing board members Horst Edelmeier of OCP and Flavio Monti of Pelikan Hardcopy, and appointed four new board members: Armor’s Pierre-Antoine Pluvinage, Pelikan Hardcopy’s Joachim Kretschmer, Consuprint’s Javier Martinez and OCP’s Carsten Edelmeier. The association’s President, Vice-President and Treasurer – Embatex’s Christian Wernhart, The Recycler’s David Connett and LVL’s Philippe Guenin respectively – were also re-elected, as was board member Tamas Kadar of KIT.
Horst Edelmeier was thanked at the cocktail and dinner after the day’s first events, with the association saying “farewell and thank you” to both. Edelmeier, it notes, “has been a member of the board since 2006, and a strong supporter of ETIRA throughout”, having “provided input on ‘all issues ink’”. Flavio Monti was thanked by ETIRA in the afternoon session for his work for the association.
Plans for the association’s focus over the next two years include issues such as clones, eco-design, and OEM patents, with ETIRA noting that “in our view, OEMs must distinguish between legal remanufacturing on the one hand, and illegal clones on the other”, because as “remanufacturing OEM cartridges is a fully legitimate and environmentally-friendly activity, OEM legal action should be limited to fighting patent-infringing new-builds.
“ETIRA will continue to oppose patents that render remanufacturing of OEM cartridges impossible […] unfair OEM patents on remanufacturing are […] on ETIRA’s radar screen”.
The association stated that the seminar programme and conference were “a top opportunity for networking and learning” and thanked The Recycler and sponsors OCP, CBC Europe, Static Control Components and Triton Precision Engineering “for a very successful two day event”.
You can read The Recycler’s summaries of the two day conference here and here, and a full report from the show will be published in issue 260, which mails next month.