– Trade Mark Law No. 4679/2020, taking effect partly on January 14, 2019 (retroactively) and partly on March 20, 2021.
– Trade Mark Law No. 4072/2012 (Part 3) taking effect on October 11, 2012.
– Law No. 4155/2013 of May 29, 2013, amending Law No. 4072/2012.
– Consumer Protection Law No. 2251/16.11.1994.
– Law 3966/2011, implementing EEC Directive 2004/48 of April 29, 2004, on the enforcement of intellectual property rights.

– Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), since March 4, 1976.
– Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, Stockholm Act since July 15, 1976.
– European Union Trade Mark Regulation.
– The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents (Apostille), since May 18, 1985.
– WTO’s TRIPS Agreement, implemented since January 1, 1996.
– Nice Agreement Concerning the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks, since November 7, 1998.
– Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks, effective June 2000, as implemented pursuant to Ministerial Decision No. K4-307 of January 2, 2001.

Applicant: the first bona fide applicant; but rights based on extended “prior use” in Greece are not disregarded. Registration confers rights of “exclusive use”.

Applicants not living in the country: must appoint a representative in Greece, who however does not need to be a registered attorney.

Kinds of trademarks:  a trademark may consist of any signs, particularly words, including personal names, designs, letters, numerals, colors, sounds, the shape of goods or of their packaging, provided that such signs are capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one undertaking from those of other undertakings and that they are capable of being represented on the Register in such a way that enables the competent authorities and the public to determine the clear and precise subject matter of protection afforded to its proprietor. Sounds and musical phrases ("sound marks"), position marks, pattern marks, motion marks, multimedia marks and hologram marks are registrable.

Collective and service marks: are registrable.

Certification marks: are registrable.

Greek mark: the right to its use is conferred by the Greek State to interested parties under certain conditions, in order to indicate that the goods and services bearing it have a Greek origin. For the time being obtaining a Greek mark is possible for milk and dairy products as well as for alcoholic beverages. Regulations regarding olive oil and olives are expected in the near future.

Novelty: is not required.

Not registrable: (a) signs which cannot constitute a trademark; (b) trademarks which are devoid of any distinctive character; (c) trademarks which consist exclusively of signs or indications which may serve in trade to designate the kind, quality, quantity, intended purpose value, geographical origin, or the time of production of the goods or of rendering of the service, or other characteristics of the goods or services; (d) trademarks which consist exclusively of signs or indications which have become customary in the current language or in the bona fide and established practices of the trade; (e) signs which consist exclusively of the shape, or another characteristic, which results from the nature of the goods themselves, or the shape, or another characteristic, of the goods which is necessary to obtain a technical result, or the shape, or another characteristic, which gives substantial value to the goods; (f) trademarks which contravene public policy or accepted principles of morality; (g) trademarks which are of such a nature as to deceive the public, for instance as to the nature, quality or geographical origin of the goods or services; (h)  trademarks which have not been authorised by the competent authorities and are to be refused or invalidated pursuant to Article 6ter of the Paris Convention; (i) trademarks which are excluded from registration pursuant to EU legislation or the Greek national law, or to international agreements to which the EU or Greece is party, providing for protection of designations of origin and geographical indications; (j) trademarks which are excluded from registration pursuant to Union legislation or international agreements to which the EU is party, providing for protection of traditional terms for wine; (k) trademarks which are excluded from registration pursuant to EU legislation or international agreements to which the EU is party, providing for protection of traditional specialties guaranteed; (l) trademarks which consist of, or reproduce in their essential elements, an earlier plant variety denomination registered in accordance with EU legislation or the Greek national law, or international agreements to which the EU or Greece is party, providing protection for plant variety rights, and which are in respect of plant varieties of the same or closely related species; (m) names of States, flags, emblems, symbols, escutcheons, signs and hallmarks of the Greek State or any other State pursuant to Article 6ter of the Paris Convention under the conditions set by said Article and signs of great symbolic importance, in particular religious symbols, representations and words; (n) trademarks which have been filed in bad faith. Trademarks shall not be refused registration or declared invalid pursuant to points (b), (c) or (d), if, before the date of application for registration and following the use which has been made of it, they have acquired distinctive character.

Classification: international, according to the Nice Agreement.

Multi-class applications: possible.

Priorities: according to Paris Convention, six months.

Territory covered: Greece.

Filing requirements for an application:
(A) Application on prescribed form, signed by the applicant or his appointed attorney, containing an imprint of the mark and stating the following information:
1. Complete list of goods or services grouped by class and with an indication of the particular classes; a single application may be filed for registration of a mark for more than one class;
2. Full name, place of residence, telephone number and e-mail address of the applicant; if the applicant is a legal entity, company name and legal seat;
3. If priority is claimed (must be claimed on filing), at least the date and country of the priority application must be provided;
4. If for a sound mark, special notice to that effect;
5. If for a color mark, special mention thereof;
(B) The application and the imprint of the mark must also be filed electronically. Accordingly, a CD or any other appropriate storage medium must be submitted to the Patent and Trademark Office.
6. If the applicant is represented by an attorney, a power of attorney, simply signed and stamped with the company’s seal. The power of attorney is also valid for subsequent applications. If the applicant’s representative is not an attorney, an authorization by the signatory person is required;
7. Due to the recent implementation of the Regulation  EU/2016/679 for  the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (GDPR) in connection with Articles 121-183 of the Trademark Law 4072/2012, the Greek Patent and Trademark Office, apart from the power of attorney, requires that the applicant, if a natural person, to also sign a corresponding authorization. The original authorization simply signed by the applicant must be filed simultaneously with the application and the POA.

For assignment applications:
1. Deed of assignment, legalized by the Greek Consulate or with Apostille;
2. If the assignee is represented by an attorney, power of attorney simply signed by the assignee only. No further legalization is required. Both the deed of assignment and the power of attorney may be incorporated in a single document which, however, must be legalized by the Greek Consulate or by Apostille. If the representative is not an attorney, an authorization by the signatory person is required.
The Greek Patent and Trademark Office requests evidence proving the power of representation/corporate position of the persons signing the documents filed thereto. Such evidence can be certificates of incumbency, annual meeting of the board of directors, unanimous written consent of the management committee of a company, etc. Simple copies of the aforementioned documents are sufficient.

Minimum requirements on filing date: (A) trademark application; (B) an electronic storage medium with the application and the imprint of the mark.

Electronic filing: available. 

Electronic signatures: are accepted if in accordance with the provisions of the eIDAS regulation and bear the related format. Further, scanned copies of wet signed documents are accepted and the subsequent submission of the original is not required, however, it is advisable to keep the original in case the relevant authority requests it at a later date.

Note: for requirements for European Union Trademark Conversion, see Section 7 below.

For a change of name or address:
1. An extract from the Register of Commerce or any other official certificate issued by a competent authority reflecting the change, legalized by Apostille (a scanned copy is accepted, however, the original may be requested at a later date);
2. Power of attorney, simply signed.

Examination:  as to form and inherent registrability (absolute grounds) by the Examiner. The examination takes place immediately after the filing. If the application is found not to be in accordance with the provisions as to formalities, the Patent and Trademark Office invites the applicant to correct or complete deficiencies within a deadline of thirty days from the day following the notification of said invitation. (A) If deficiencies as to basic features of the application i.e. trademark representation, applicant's details, list of the covered goods or services are not timely corrected the application is not considered as a valid application and does not proceed to further examination. (B) If deficiencies as to applicant's or his representative's signatures, priority matters, attorney's details (in case an attorney is appointed), representative's details, mentioning of the kind of trademark or the representation of the mark in Greek or Latin characters in case the characters used in the mark are other than Greek or Latin, then the Patent and Trademark Office rejects the application and notifies the applicant of the rejecting decision. The application will be rejected also in case vague or inaccurate indications or terms are detected or there are errors in the classification of goods and services and the applicant does not provide an acceptable wording within the aforementioned prescribed period. If the application complies with the provisions as to formalities, the application is accepted and the accepting decision is published on the official website of the Ministry of Development and Investments within fifty days from the day following the application date. If from the check carried out by the Patent and Trademark Office it is concluded that the application is not acceptable on absolute grounds for all or part of the goods or services covered, the Office invites the applicant to either revoke the application or restrict it to the extent that it becomes acceptable, or to submit his observations regarding the matter, within thirty days from the day following the day of notification of the invitation. If the applicant restricts the application accordingly or his observations are considered acceptable, the application is accepted and the related decision is published on the official website of the Ministry of Development and Investments within thirty days from the day following the day of submission of the applicant's restriction or observations. If the applicant fails to comply with the invitation of the Patent and Trademark Office, the latter rejects the application and the related decision is officially notified to the applicant and is published on the website of the Ministry of Development and Investments.

Disclaimers: available.

A letter of consent: obtained from the owner of a cited trademark is acceptable and biding. The document must be notarized and legalized by Apostille.

Publication: trademarks will be registered (a) upon irrevocable decision of the Examiner; (b) upon irrevocable decision of the Administrative Trademark Committee after opposition, accepting the trademark application; or (c) upon irrevocable decision of the competent administrative courts which accepts the trademark application on recourse.

Beginning of protection: date of filing.

Delivery of document: registration certificates are uploaded to the platform of the Greek Patent and Trademark Office.

Duration: ten years.

Extension of duration: always renewable for a ten-year period. Renewal must be applied for within the last six months before expiry or within the six-month period of grace after expiry with a surtax of 50%. A simply signed power of attorney is required if the agent who applies for the renewal is not the attorney of record. Otherwise no document is required.

Opposition:  possible within three months from the day following the publication date of the accepting decision of the Examiner, or the irrevocable accepting decision of the Administrative Trademark Committee, or the irrevocable decision of the Administrative Courts accepting the trademark, on the website of the Ministry of Development and Investments.

Recourse: rejecting decisions of the Examiner may be challenged by lodging recourse before the Administrative Trademark Committee. If the Administrative Trademark Committee refuses a recourse against the decision of the Examiner, or an opposition, the applicant is entitled to file a recourse before the three-Member Administrative Court of First Instance. A decision of the Administrative Trademark Committee on a petition for invalidation of a trademark, may be challenged by lodging a recourse before the competent Civil Courts.

Appeal: the decisions of the Administrative and Civil Courts of First Instance may be appealed before the Administrative and Civil Appeal Courts respectively.

Marking of registered goods: not compulsory.

Correction of registration: not possible.

Penalty for infringement: imprisonment of up to one year and a fine of up to 100,000 Euros.

Assignment: a trademark may be transferred independently of any transfer of the undertaking or the goodwill.

Licensing: licenses should be recorded for evidence purposes at the Trademark Register. The submission of the license agreement itself is no longer necessary under the new Trademark Law. The recordal takes place with a simple declaration either of the trademark owner or the licensee, who must be authorized by the licensor. Approval of the Trademark Committee is no longer required. On the licensor’s written consent the licensee can be entitled to initiate proceedings for infringement. 

Restitutio in integrum: restoration of rights in a trademark is possible, in case that in spite of all due care required by the circumstances having been taken, the trademark owner failed to observe a time limit vis-à-vis the Trademark Office or the Administrative Trademark Committee.

Kind of property: exclusive property is acquired by registration.

Use of a trademark – cancellation for non-use: use is compulsory for the maintenance of a mark in Greece. However, use of a trademark is not examined on an ex officio basis and is therefore not at issue in the renewal process. A registered trademark can be cancelled pursuant to the petition of any interested party, if not used in Greece within five years from registration. A trademark is also liable to be cancelled if, for a period of five consecutive years, the owner has ceased to offer the products concerned for sale. The following are considered to constitute valid use under current Greek Law: (a) use of a mark in form which diverges slightly from the registered form, provided that the distinctive nature thereof is not transformed; (b) affixing the mark to the product or to its package; (c) use in connection with the goods or services (i.e. invoices, stationery); (d) authorized use by a licensee; (e) the export of marked goods or services to other countries; (f) use at exhibitions and fairs held in Greece evidences the intent to use the mark in Greece and may therefore serve to rebut a third party’s contentions of non-use under certain circumstances. Trademark renewal and nominal use such as publication and/or advertisements in newspapers do not validly support trademark use under Greek Law.

Opposition: within three months from the day following the publication date of the accepting decision of the Examiner, or of the irrevocable accepting decision of the Administrative Trademark Committee, or of the irrevocable decision of the Administrative Courts accepting the trademark application, on the website of the Ministry of Development and Investments. Upon request of the applicant, which must be made at the time of the examination of the opposition before the Administrative Trademark Committee, the opposing party must furnish proof of genuine use of the opposing mark for a period of five years preceding the publication of the application of the contested mark for the goods or services for which it has been filed and on which the opposition is based. If there is no evidence of genuine use and the opposing mark had been registered for at least five years before the date of the publication of the application of the contested mark, the opposing party must provide proof showing that there are proper reasons for non-use. The Chair of the Committee provides the opposing party a term of at least thirty days from the date of the hearing for the submission of written arguments and for providing evidentiary material on the requested proof of use and its allegations on the opposition. After the expiry of the deadline the applicant is notified of the submitted evidentiary material and is given a twenty-five day term in order to submit his observations. The parties have a further three-day term to submit rebuttal arguments. If the opposing party fails to prove genuine use or proper reasons for non-use, the opposition is rejected without the case being examined in its merits.

Appeal: within two months from the date following the date of notification of the decision, which is being appealed.

Rights of prior user: provided for.

Cancellation: protection is refused after registration only if the trademark is cancelled either for likelihood of confusion or for non-use, or because it has become the common name in the trade for a product or service in consequence of acts or inactivity of the proprietor, or it is liable to mislead the public in consequence of the use made of it by the proprietor.

Filing requirements for conversion of an EUTM application into a national application in Greece:
Application on prescribed form, signed by the applicant or his appointed attorney, containing an imprint of the mark and stating the following information:
1. Complete list of goods or services grouped by class and with an indication of the particular classes; a single application may be filed for registration of a mark for more than one class;
2. Full name, place of residence, telephone number and e-mail address of the applicant; if the applicant is a legal entity, company name and legal seat;
3. If the applicant is represented by an attorney, a power of attorney, simply signed and stamped with the company’s seal;
4. 1 copy of the EUTM application as filed;
5. 1 copy of the transmission of a request for conversion to National Offices pursuant to Article 113(3) Council Regulation (EC) No. 207/2009.

The application and the imprint of the mark must also be filed electronically. Accordingly, a CD or any other appropriate storage medium must be submitted to the Trademark Office.

Time limit: the above documents and copies of the mark must be filed with the Greek Trademark Office within two months from the date of the related communication sent by the Trademark Office to the applicant or trademark owner. Examination: as described under Section 4 above “Examination Procedure“.

International applications designating Greece and extensions of International registrations receive the same treatment as national ones, namely they are examined and, if accepted, are published for opposition purposes. As a very high percentage of applications when examined by the Greek Examiner encounter problems of one sort or another, it would be advisable for the applicant to retain a domestic representative to represent him before the local Office already at the examination stage in order to put forward the most suitable arguments during the examination procedure.

If the trademark is refused at the examination stage, the applicant is entitled to file recourse.

Filing requirements for “transformation” of an International Trademark into a National Trademark in Greece:
Application on prescribed form, signed by the applicant or his appointed attorney, containing an imprint of the mark and stating the following information:
1. Complete list of goods or services grouped by class and with an indication of the particular classes; a single application may be filed for registration of a mark for more than one class;
2. Full name, place of residence, telephone number and e-mail address of the applicant; if the applicant is a legal entity, company name and legal seat;
3. If the applicant is represented by an attorney, a power of attorney, simply signed and stamped with the company’s seal;
4. A certificate from WIPO showing the trademark, the goods and/or services for which protection of the trademark in Greece had been applied for before its cancellation from the International registry as well as the date of its removal from the international registry.

The application and the imprint of the mark must also be filed electronically. Accordingly, a CD or any other appropriate storage medium must be submitted to the Patent and Trademark Office.

The application for the “transformation” of an International registration receives the same treatment as national applications.

In order for a national trademark to be replaced by an International one in the Greek Trademark Register, a new petition for replacement is required provided that the goods and/or services listed in the International registration are also listed in the national one. International trademarks which replace national ones receive the same treatment as national trademarks, as far as the examination procedures are concerned, unless examined prior to the filing of the petition for replacement.