Current Legal Landscape:

• In 2022, Greece introduced a new legal framework focusing on emerging technologies. This includes the recognition of 3D printed works as protected intellectual property and the regulation of smart contracts.
• Distributed ledger technologies like blockchain are now recognized for their effectiveness in data recording and transactions, with potential use in court proceedings.
• Greece has also incorporated EU Directives 790 and 789 of 2019, covering text and data mining for scientific research and the use of protected content by online platforms.

Advice for Clients:

1. Preliminary Assessments: Perform thorough investigations and searches to assess the state-of-the-art and validate the uniqueness of your material before market entry.
2. Documentation and Monitoring: Maintain comprehensive records of all IP-related documents and transactions, and monitor market and competitor activities through a worldwide surveillance system.
3. Compliance and Authorizations: Ensure compliance with third-party rights and obtain necessary authorizations. Establish a database to store and manage all relevant IP materials.

Threats and Opportunities:

• AI Integration: AI technology is poised to influence existing fields and create new ones. While it can drive innovation, it also poses risks of infringing on existing copyrighted works. Legal challenges around AI-generated works and their protection are already emerging.
• Copyright Concerns: AI’s use of copyrighted materials through scraping techniques is under scrutiny, with lawsuits pending in the US courts. This highlights the need for licensing agreements and human intervention in AI-generated outputs to ensure compliance.

Maintaining High Client Satisfaction:

• Stay updated on legal and technological developments, maintain constant communication, and regularly seek client feedback to enhance service quality.

Technological Advancements Reshaping IP Law:

• Blockchain and NFTs: New technologies like blockchain and NFTs are enhancing transparency in IP ownership and authenticity verification.
• AI and Copyright: The ongoing debate over the protection and fair use of AI-generated works requires the IP legal framework to adapt continuously to address these evolving issues.

What is the current legal landscape for Intellectual Property Law in your jurisdiction?

In 2022, Greece enacted a new legal framework regarding emerging technologies. Within this law are certain provisions regarding to AI, but not related to IP, but in general of a regulator in nature. So, 3D printed works are now defined as works protected by intellectual property.

More important, distributed Ledger technology like blockchain are recognised as a means for effective data recorders or transactions in general. The use of such means in court proceedings has also been recognised.

Smart contracts have also been regulated in this legal framework. Greece recently transposed EU Directives 790 and 789 of 2019 on copyright in the digital Single Market and on copyright in online television and radio programmes. Certain of the new provisions relate to text and data mining for the purposes of scientific research by research organisations and the use of protected content by online content sharing service providers.

What three essential pieces of advice would you give to clients involved in Intellectual Property matters?

Perform your strategy according to a preliminary assessment based on investigations and searches. Therefore, assess the state-of-the-art to demonstrate how innovative is your material. Start protecting your RPR before entering the market. Carry out your novelty and inherent protectability searches at a worldwide level.

Therefore, verify possible third party rights and if necessary, request authorisations to use them. Collect all orders, invoices and receipts related to the requested IP services. Collect all the documents related to your IP Rs and create a database with all the relevant material. Monitor market and competitors behaviours and activity. Activate through your IP attorney a worldwide surveillance system and monitor IP gazettes and legal actions and take care of your first billing, even the national one.

What are the greatest threats and opportunities in Intellectual Property Law in the next 12 months?

No prophecies can be made in the powerful revolutionary technology still in the making. We can hypothesise that the use of AI systems will increase substantially during the next year and will start shaping differently in existing fields and new ones will be developed. AI can, among others, foster innovation and infringe existing IP works for copyright. To subsist in such works, there must be sufficient human intervention in the creation of the work, like selection, arrangement, etcetera.

In contrast, when the AI tool determines the expressive elements of its output, a threat is that some new AI technologies have been developed by scrapping techniques by copying existing works and integrating them within the tools creative capabilities. Dozens of lawsuits are pending before the US courts on the lawfulness of such actions, but it has been widely argued that the reproduction of such works should only be made under an appropriate licence by the rights holder.

How do you ensure high client satisfaction levels are maintained by your practice?

By being continuously abreast of developments, by being in permanent and constant communication with the clients and asking and getting their feedback on the quantity and quality of our services.

What technological advancements are reshaping Intellectual Property, and how can clients benefit from them?

The most recent technological innovations have also been raising new issues for IP Law and IP Professionals Alliance. The use of AI, blockchain and MFTS are currently reshaping IP. For example, many questions exist. Is copyright and patent protection available to AI generated works and inventions? Is the AI output protected by copyright? Is there a fair use defence for the training of AI?

Another example is that new technologies like blockchain and NMFTS have been proving useful to both owners and users of IP to have access to information relating to, for example, the IP status and ownership of an object, and especially when blockchain NMFT’s are used in the authenticity of the artful.

IP has always been concerned with and affected by technological advancement. The task of IP Law system will continue to react, to adapt and to regulate the use of such new technologies.