Greece
Patent/IP in Greece
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Intellectual Property
For a list of Patent Attorneys, please click on the 'Patent Attorneys in Greece' tab located above.
Intellectual Property, or IP, as it is colloquially called, is characterised as legal protection for commercially precious products of human intellect. There are, generally, three forms of IP: patents, copyrights and trademarks. Although these articles are similar many some ways, they each have individual idiosyncrasies and definitions which make them unique. Perhaps most importantly, there is no physicality to intellectual property. If effectively safeguards an intangible idea or process.
Patents
Generally speaking, patents are granted to inventors for inventions. These can include anything from machinery, tools, processes, chemicals, biotechnology, software, etc.
To qualify for a patent, an inventor must invariably create something that is:
- Of patentable matter
- Unique to patentee
- Merited and can be utilised
- Innovative
- Non-obvious
Under a patent, the patentee reserves the right stop or limit others from utilising and trading the invention. Without explicit permission from the patentee, persons using the patent in any of these ways are infringing, and could be subjected to legal action.
Patent protection is overseen by Law 1733/1987, and brings Greece fully in line with the European Patent Convention, to which Greece and most European countries, including all the members of the EEC, subscribe to.
The procedure for obtaining a national patent is the filing of an application to the Greek Patent Office. Protection lasts for twenty years. For European patents, the application may be submitted before the Industrial Property Organisation (OBI). Greece is a signatory party to the Paris Convention, the Patent Co-Operation Treaty and the Budapest Treaty.
Trademarks
Trademarks are used to denote epithets, logos, symbols, slogans, etc, that are individual to a business and product. Fundamentally, the things that distinguish your product or service from a competitor's. Businesses understandably go to endless lengths to have control over their trademarks. Therefore, any persons found infringing upon them through unlawful use could be subject to legal action.
Famous examples of trademarks are Coca Cola and McDonald's.
Trademarks are regulated mainly by Law 2239/1994, which coordinates with both the EC Directive on the Trade Mark Law and the EC Regulation on Trade Marks. These establish the Community Trade Mark. Trademark protection is granted only for signs capable of being represented graphically. Trademark protection is not afforded automatically, but the sign needs to be registered with the appropriate authorities, under the first-come-first-served principle. The applications should be submitted to the trademark department of the Ministry of Commerce.
Copyright
Copyright gives someone to sell and reproduce a protected product, which is invariably printed work. Things like books, magazines, websites, photographs, music, film and art are common examples of copyrighted work. Copyright denotes five rights of the author, artist, etc: reproduction, distribution, adaptation, performance and display. Use of such materials or works without the explicit permission of the copyright holder is classed as infringement, and persons doing so could be subject to legal action.
Registration OfficeOBI
5 Pandanassis Street
Athens
Hellas
15125
Greece
Telephone: + 30 210 6183 564
Fax: + 30 210 68 19 231
Website: www.obi.gr
E-mail: Ibis@obi.gr
