Greece is a shy-on-designs jurisdiction, with the primary focus being on trademarks and copyright when it comes to aesthetic creations, which often are protected as unregistered rights if the particular 3-dimensional creations qualify as distinguishing features of origin. The legislation has remained unchanged in terms of national provisions until 2002, when Design Law No 2416 of 1997 was partially amended to reflect the changes introduced by the Directive 98/71/EC (prior to that it was adapted to the provisions of the Hague Convention in 1997). Greece follows the Locarno classification of designs. The available jurisprudence remains focused on determining fundamental elements of design law such as novelty and individual character and often does so by relying not purely on the provisions of design law but on a combination of other pieces of IP legislation, such as copyright, trademark, patent or unfair competition law, whenever applicable. This is indicative of the yet to be achieved “autonomy” of design law as a solid legal basis sufficient to protect relevant rights without the aid of other legal provisions whenever the latter can also be invoked.

Nevertheless, during the recent past, some interesting case law has surfaced on design law protection that re-confirmed its presence and importance in Greece. Highlights include the examination of the novelty and individual character of jewelry design consisting of a wellknown dragonfly brooch and the affirmation thereof by the Athens Court of Appeals decision (2398/2008), as well as the finding of infringement of the same design by a copy design of a domestic jeweler by a separate Court of Appeals decision (5863/2008), Another decision also by the Court of Appeals (484/2008) decided to invalidate a design of a plastic disposable case with dimensions of 30x40x21cm which had special edges and holes on the sides for placing there cases of the same design and was used for the transportation of agricultural products. This finding was based on the prior existence of similar designs established as common place in accordance with the court’s rationale.