EU Intellectual Property Law (Elective)

This course examines the legislative and legal development of the most important branches of intellectual property law in the European Union (EU) and presents their most important (theoretically and practically) aspects. More particularly: By way of introduction, attempts are made to delineate the subject matter and analyze the fundamental concepts and principles of the specific legal branch (such as, for example, the principles of territoriality, material integration and time prioritization), identify the common features of, but also the differences amongspecific intellectual property rights and seek the ratio of their protection.

Teaching then focuses on the examination of the most important of those rights, in particular: trademark, patent rights and intellectual property rights. In this context, the legislative regime governing the protection of each of the aforementioned rights is initially examined, the differences are identifiedbetween, on the one hand, uniform protection (applicable in the case of trademarks) and harmonization on the other (applicable in the case of intellectual property rights), and specific reference is made to the bodies/institutions of the EU, which are responsible for the registration procedure (where it is provided for) and the implementation of the contested rights within it. Secondarily, the content and legal nature of each of the rights in question, the subjectmatter and beneficiaries of the protection granted and its limitations for the sake of protectingsociety asa whole shall be investigated. Distinct emphasis is also placed on the 'actual functioning' of those rights in transactions and,in particular,on their economic exploitation, through licenses and contracts for use and exploitation, while at the same time the conditions/limits of their so-called 'legitimate use' are defined and the concept of infringement is specified. The teaching is completed by outlining the legal and, in particular, the civil protection of intellectual property rights which were its main subject matter (i.e. trademark, patent and intellectual property rights), in the light of 'horizontal' Directive 2004/48/EC, as well as the individual EU legislation relating to each of those rights.