The course aims to examine the legislative and legal developments concerning crucial sectors of intellectual property law in the European Union (EU) and present their most important theoretical and practical aspects. More particularly: As a means of introduction to the course’s topic, attempts are made to delineate the subject matter and analyze the fundamental concepts and principles of this particular legal branch (e.g., the principles of territoriality, material integration and time prioritization), identify the common features of, but also the differences among specific intellectual property rights and seek the ratio of their protection.

Subsequently, teaching focuses on the examination of the most important intellectual property rights, in particular: trademark, patent rights and copyright. In this context, students will be initially familiarised with the legislative regime governing the protection of each of the aforementioned rights and the differences between uniform protection (applicable in the case of trademarks) and harmonization (applicable in the case of copyright) will be further identified. Lastly, there is going to be specific reference to the bodies/institutions of the EU, which are responsible for the registration procedure (in the cases in which it is provided) and the implementation of the contested intellectual rights within its legal order.

Second, the content and legal nature of every right in question, their subject matter and beneficiaries of the protection granted and their limitations for the protection of public societal interest will be examined. 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, on the definition of the conditions/limits of their so-called ‘legitimate use’ and the specification of the notion of infringement. The teaching is completed by the outline of the legal and, in particular, the civil protection of the intellectual property rights which constituted the course’s subject matter (i.e. trademark, patent and copyrights), in light of the ‘horizontal’ Directive 2004/48/EC, as well as the individual EU legislation relating to each of those rights.