The Legal 500

Presentation of the Greek legal framework on the protection of free competition. As of April 2011, Greece has a new competition law (L.3959/11). The new law does not introduce radical changes and, in its core provisions, it follows articles 101, 102 TFEU and the framework of EU Regulation 1/2003.

Overview of the main recent developments addressing issues of abuse of dominance in Greece. Latest application of article 2 of Law 3959/2011 (equivalent to 102 TFEU) by the Hellenic Competition Commission and the Greek courts.

Presentation of the Greek legal framework on the protection of free competition (L. 3959/11) and its recent enforcement by the Hellenic Competition Commission

Information on recent tax law developments in Greece

An outlook of the Executive Remuneration in the Greece, which covers key points in respect to taxation (income tax and social security contribution), employment law issues, securities law, disclosure and corporate governance.

Implementation of UCITS IV Directive into Greek Law - Establishment of the Greek SICAV - Implementation of Directive 2010/73/EU amending the Prospectus of the Transparency Directives.

The Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Cyprus, has decided upon a fast track procedure for granting an immigration Permit to applicants who are from a third country nationals and intend to invest in the Republic of Cyprus.

The Law relating to the statute of limitations for the filing of claims in the Cyprus court will finally come into effect from the 1.7.2012.

The German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) with its decision X 2r 33/10, announced on August 21, 2012, rejects claims for infringement of MPEG-2 video coding patents by a Greek DVD manufacturer: The DVD, as such, is NOT a means of infringement of the patent claim in dispute.

On August 21th, 2012 the German Federal Court of Justice heard the appeal by the defendant, a Greek DVD manufacturer, in a patent infringement proceeding, and decided that the case in hand was a part of a series of actions encompassing several proceedings (indeed nine actions with the same contents were filed against the defendant by nine members of the MPEG Patent pool).

1. Legal framework

The most important pieces of legislation governing trademarks in Greece are the following:

• the Trademark Law (4072/2012, Part 3), which replaced Trademark Law 2239/1994 (the interpretation and implications of the new measures introduced by the 2012 law remain to be seen);....