Lawyer Monthly Magazine - May 2019 Edition

About Yiannos Georgiades My name is Yiannos Georgia- des and I am the Managing Director and founder of the law firm Y. Georgiades & As- sociates LLC, established in 1992 in Nicosia, Cyprus. I am a member of the Bar of Eng- land and Wales (Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn), Cy- prus Bar Association and the Athens Bar Association. I am the President of the Cyprus Chapter of the European Court of Arbitration, execu- tive member of the Court and an online mediator for commercial disputes for the Chamber of Commerce of Milan, and the Vice-President of AEA International Lawyers Network. In 2017 I became the Co-founder of a business acceleration company un- der the name KV Kinisis Ven- tures Limited, a company dealing with innovation and technology and specifically companies established in Cy- prus which would like to scale up in the United States. Firm Profile My law firm is essentially inter- national in outlook with ap- proximately three-quarters of the clientele of international origin, which also has a firm foothold in the domestic mar- ket, providing an extensive range of legal consultancy services to both Cypriot and multinational clients. send their lawyer a copy of their work by special delivery post, which gives a clear date stamp on the envelope, leaving the envelope unopened on its return. It is important to note that this does not prove that a work is original or created by the creator, but it may be useful to be able to show the court that the work was in the owner’s possession at a particular date. Owners of text-based publications may also apply for an ISBN (International Standard Book Number), which is a product identifier used to identify the registrant as well as the specific title, edition and format. Even though it does not convey any form of legal or copyright protection, the ISBN is used to identify that a particular piece of work belongs to a particular creator. With trademarks and patents not necessarily being an international application, what issues does the worldwide web present for businesses that expand at a quicker rate than predicted? The advice we provide to each client who would like to register a patent or a trademark is to proceed with an international application and/or an EU application. In this way, the patent or trademark is registered to a large number of countries at the same time and there is more security in case of infringement. Patent applications include the EPC which includes 38 European countries automatically and the PCT international application which covers most of the industrialised world. A trademark international application is made using the Madrid System and covers protection in up to 120 countries. Further, an advantage is that upon filing the first application, the application is placed in a theoretical queue in all other countries. The applicant may decide within twelve months to file applications in other countries and these further applications will be treated as if they were filed on the same date as the first one, provided they relate to the same invention. In this way, the applicant claims priority from their first application. What would be your advice to businesses and lawyers working on IP in this area? What should they be preparing for in the upcoming years? It is difficult to determine future developments in this field since, as has been proved from the recent EU Copyright Directive which was passed this year, the laws and regulations in relation to intellectual property rights seem to be forever adapting to the developments in technology and the internet. It is important for everyone involved in the field of intellectual property to be well- informed at all times in relation to the provisions governing intellectual property law in order to be able to secure the rights of your business and as a lawyer to be able to advise your client accordingly. There are still issues which remain unclear in relation to private international law and jurisdiction in cases of infringement over the internet, however, one may expect new issues to arise in the upcoming years in relation to among others, new methods of selling products and advertising. Similarly, practices such as cybersquatting and the use of metatags are ongoing cyber-problems for which limited legislation has been introduced and usually only protect distinctive or famous enough trademarks to warrant protection. LM Contact Yiannos Georgiades, Managing Director Y. GEORGIADES & ASSOCIATES LLC 2, Ayios Pavlos & Kadmos Street, Wisdom Tower, 3rd Floor, 1105 Nicosia P.O.Box 24144, 1701 Nicosia Tel: +357 22819292 | www.gmadvocates.com MAY 2019 40 Expert Insight www. lawyer-monthly .com

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