New trademark law in Greece fully enters into force

After a long period of preparation and three successive Committees, the long awaited new Greek Trademark law, radically changing the trademark registration procedure, was finally published in the Governmental Gazette on April 4, 2012 and fully entered into force on October 11, 2012. The new instrument is included in a broader piece of legislation (Law 4072/2012, Part III), aiming at encouraging enterpreneurship in Greece and intends to modernize the trademark system and harmonize it not only with the IP Enforcement Directive 2004/48 but also with the CTM procedure. 

Key features of the new system include:

• Introduction of E-filing.
• The appointment of a lawyer for the filing of the trademark application becomes optional.
• The institution of the Examiner, who will replace the Trademark Committee in the Examination of new applications. Unlike, however, what happens in the CTM procedure, the Examiner rules both on absolute and relative grounds.  The Trademark Committee functions as an appellate body and focuses on oppositions and on invalidity actions or petitions for revocation.
• Letters of consent will be acceptable at any stage of the registration procedure and at any instance.
• Proof of use, as defense on opposition proceedings. Failure to meet said requirement will result in the rejection of the opposition for procedural reasons.
• Trademark licensing is simplified since no examination and approval of the license agreement by the Trademark Committee is required. Licenses may now be recorded upon filing a related application.
• Instead of the unitary procedure of cancellation, rules of invalidity of a trademark (on absolute or relative grounds) and revocation (due to non-use) are introduced, in harmonization with the CTMR.
• “Restitutio”(restoration of rights in a trademark) will now be possible for exceptional cases in which a deadline was not met due to force majeure.
• Acquiescence: Trademark rights will now be subject to limitation as a result of acquiescence if the owner of the prior mark has tolerated the use of a posterior mark for a period of five successive years while being aware of such use.   
• New acts, such as transit of counterfeit goods, importing of counterfeit goods with the intention of re-exporting them, are treated as trademark infringement.
• The provisions of Directive 2004/48/EC are fully transposed into the new law.
• Calculation of damages on the basis of hypothetical royalties becomes possible.
• Enhanced criminal sanctions are provided for trademark infringement.
• Rules on international trademarks according to the Madrid Protocol are now codified.
• The Hellenic trademark, the trademark for Greek products and services is introduced.

What is a Trademark? What is the function of a trademark?

Under Greek law, the primary and basic purpose of a trademark is to serve as a source identifier, i.e. to indicate a particular origin of a good or service. This is not, however, the only function a trademark serves, given that trademarks also serve a guarantee and advertising/ marketing objective.

According to art. 123 of the new law 4072/2012, any sign capable of being represented graphically and of distinguishing the goods and/or services of one undertaking from those of another may be regarded as a trademark. In view of this definition, the term "Trademark" is used in relation to both goods and services.

What is a patent?

A patent is a legal title granting its holder the right for a certain period of time to prevent third parties from exploiting an invention for commercial purposes without authorization. In exchange the inventor accepts full disclosure of the invention through official publication.

Patent Authority

In Greece patents’ protection is awarded to the Industrial Property Organization (OBI).

What is the aim of the Greek Copyright Law?

Law 2121/1993 with all its subsequent modifications is the legislative instrument deployed for the protection of author’s rights. Authors’rights are the equivalent of Copyright in civil law jurisdictions. Authors’rights (AR) provide a set of moral and economic rights both for providing the authors with economic incentives to create original works and for protecting the link between the author and her work work. AR are a limited property right, both in the sense of its duration (the life of the author plus seventy years) and its nature (ideas and facts are not protected and the work has to be original).