PAUL KING OF GREECE
We decide and order the following, as unanimously voted and passed by Par- liament:
1. All inventions and discoveries devel- oped in Greece or in a foreign country by Greek nationals concerning Greece’s national defense, an ally’s national de- fense or this one of a group of allied countries of which Greece is part, may not be transmitted to any domestic or foreign legal or natural entity or dis- closed in any way whatsoever in any country, even before such invention or discovery is classified as secret accord- ing to articles 2 and 3 herein. Similarly, it is prohibited to transmit or disclose any technical information that can be related in any way whatsoever with such inventions or discoveries.
2. As an exception, the above prohibi- tion shall not apply in the case where there is a specific and mutual agreement between Greece and other interested Countries. In this case, any matter re- lated to information exchange procedure and confidentiality assurances for inven- tions, discovers and technical infor- mation disclosed from both parties shall be governed by the terms and condi- tions of said agreement.
3. Any agreement referred to in the pre- vious paragraph 2, which is agreed upon
or in process of being agreed upon by
Greece and another NATO country, as well as any relevant procedure of such agreement shall be ratified by Royal De- cree issued by the Ministers for Foreign Affairs, National Defense, and Com- merce. Any agreement between the aforementioned countries regarding co- operation for weapon development pro- grams shall be ratified by similar Royal Decrees. Any classified agreement and the aforementioned procedures as well shall be ratified upon decision issued by the aforesaid Ministers and shall be pub- lished in the Government Gazette.
1. Any statement of grant of a patent (patent statement) will henceforth be deposited to a Specific Confidential In- vention Office belonging to the Ministry of Commerce which is hereby founded (Industrial Property Department).
2. The documents stated in article 21 of Law of Patents No. 2527/1920 shall be submitted by the inventor himself or by a duly authorized representative.
3. The Specific Confidential Invention Office shall be operated by the Industrial Property Department’s employees as well as by other employees working in other services of the Ministry of Com- merce according to the provisions of Ar- ticle 14 herein.
7
1. Within five days – starting from the next day of patent statement’s submis- sion mentioned in Article 2- a three- member committee of specialized offic- ers of the Ministry of National Defense, which is appointed and replaced upon decision of National Defense Minister and is chaired by the highest in rank or the most senior member in terms of age, shall control such statements. Those not meeting the provisions of Article 1 here- in are referred by means of an act adopted by the said committee to the competent service for further actions, whereas those falling under Article 1are classified ‘as temporarily confidential’ by a similar act.
2. In exceptionally difficult circumstanc- es the above five-day deadline may be prolonged up to a maximum of twenty five days by an act of the committee, which shall be notified to the Specific Confidential Invention Office. Where the above period expires without the exami- nation having been completed, the ordi- nary patent granting procedure shall be applied.
3. The same procedure (paragraph 1 and 2) applies to confidential inventions which have been registered according to article 30 of L. 2527/1920 and article 10 of this Royal Implementing Decree. In such event, the file is stamped following a decision of the committee. The inven- tion is classified as non-confidential and it is referred to the competent service for further actions.
1. In the event that a patent statement is classified as temporarily confidential ac- cording to article 3, the relevant file is stamped and within five days following the date of its classification, it is for- warded to the competent service of the Ministry of National Defense for final ap- proval or cancellation of this classifica- tion.
2. Following the opinion of the above committee, within three months after the five-day period of paragraph 1, the Min- ister of National Defense shall decide definitely and irrevocably about the clas- sification of this statement.
3. Where the Minister considers that the statement falls under the provisions of article 1, he classifies it as “definitely confidential” and notifies the inventor or his/her representative (authorized per- son) of his decision. Further, he ensures patent registration under the inventor name to the Ministry of Commerce and he orders the file to be sealed and kept safely.
4. On the contrary, if the above three- month deadline expires without any ac- tion, the classification as ‘temporarily confidential’ is cancelled ipso jure and the file is sent back to the Ministry of Commerce for further actions.
1. The patent statements classified as “confidential” as well as the relevant pa- tents shall be filed in specific books (reg- isters) with a serial number similar to those of ordinary books (registers); the pages which remain blank with an indi-
cation C - namely Confidential- next to
8
the serial number, correspond to Confi- dential Inventions indicating the number of the book and the page of the specific confidential book where they have been filed. The Industrial Property Bulletin of the Government Gazette publishes only the number of the patent with the indica- tion “confidential”.
2. The monitoring of confidential patent statements may be conducted only by the inventor himself or a specific attor- ney duly authorized by the Minister of National Defense pursuant to article 14 herein.
According to the provisions of article 1, after the classification of a patent state- ment as temporarily or definitely confi- dential, the inventor and any third party shall not disclose or publish in any way whatsoever such statement and its con- tent. Otherwise the penalties described in article 8 shall be imposed.
Provided that the conditions of article 1 (2) are met and upon written approval by the Minister of National Defense, the in- ventor of a confidential patent statement may file such statement in a foreign country so as to obtain in that country a relevant patent
1. Those who deliberately and in breach of any of the provisions hereof transfer or disclose inventions or discoveries or technical information in light of article 1 herein, are to be sentenced up to ten years of imprisonment and during war-
time to life imprisonment or death, even
if the said statement is not classified as
‘temporarily confidential’ or ‘definitely confidential’. Those penalties shall be equally imposed to those who knowingly obtain illegally such inventions, discov- eries or technical information. Such penalties shall apply similarly to em- ployees who knowingly disclose any in- formation regarding the above inven- tions, discoveries and technical infor- mation of which he/she became aware due to his/her duties. Those who negli- gently violate the above provisions will be subject to imprisonment.
2. The provisions of this article are ap- plicable as well to confidential inven- tions, discoveries and technical infor- mation obtained abroad.
1. The Minister of National Defense may, subject to a prior and just compen- sation of the inventor or his/her heirs and before fixing the amount of said compensation detailed below, use the confidential patent statements for state services and enterprises defined by him.
2. The said reasonable compensation may be defined in any form whatsoever (lump sum payment, per piece of the produced item or a rate of its value etc.) and is determined upon agreement be- tween the Minster of National Defense and the beneficiaries of such compensa- tion.
3. If agreement is not concluded within six months after the patent statement’s filing date, the compensation is fixed upon decision of a committee, which is consisted by an appeal court judge (de- fined as the Chairman), a specialized
9
high rank officer of the Ministry of Na- tional Defense, a high rank employee of the industrial property department of the Ministry of Commerce and a member from the Technical Chamber of Greece. They are appointed together with their alternates by the competent Ministers and the Chairman of the technical Chamber of Greece respectively.
4. The above decision is notified to the inventor or his/her authorized repre- sentative and the Minister of National Defense. Within one month following the notification date to each one of them, the receivers may file an appeal against such decision.
5. The appeal is reviewed by a commit- tee consisted by a supreme court judge (as Chairman), one high rank special- ized officer, one high rank employee of the Ministry of Commerce and one member of the Technical Chamber of Greece. They are appointed together with their alternates by the competent Ministers and the Chairman of the T.C.G. respectively.
6. Officers are appointed as secretaries to the above committee by the Minister of National Defense. The decisions of this committee shall be taken by a ma- jority of members and the Chairman shall have the casting vote in case of equality of votes. The decisions of the Second Instance Committee are irrevo- cable and there is neither judicial reme- dy available against them nor a request for cancellation before the Greek Coun- cil of State.
7. The provisions of this article shall ap- ply as well to the confidential inventions
obtained abroad.
1. When a patent statement is classified as “definitely confidential” and is not used for more than one year after the filing date to the Ministry of Commerce, the inventor is entitled to request a rea- sonable compensation according to arti- cle 9 herein.
2. If the patent statement is used before the expiry of the one-year time limit, the inventor is not entitled to request com- pensation for the period that such patent statement remained unused.
3. The provisions of this article do not apply to the confidential inventions ob- tained abroad.
Except for the compensation provided for in article 9 and 10, the inventor has no right to claim additional compensa- tion with regard to the classification of his/her statement as “temporarily or def- initely confidential”.
1. If a confidential patent statement no longer has any interest in terms of de- fense, the Minister of National Defense lifts its classification as “confidential”, upon opinion of the competent service, orders the notification of this decision to the inventor or his/her authorized repre- sentative, and returns the file to the Min- istry of Commerce for further actions.
2. Patent statements and technical in- formation obtained abroad remain confi- dential unless the Government of the State of origin decides to lift such classi- fication; in this case the specific agree-
10
ments’ provisions are in force as well as safety regulations of the hosting country.
1. The Minister of National Defense ap- points, by contract, specialized or not scientists in order to conduct national defense research projects. Inventions realized in execution of such contract belong to the Greek State.
2. The remuneration of said scientists may be agreed in any way whatsoever, namely in the form of monthly payment, a lump sum amount, per piece of the produced item, a rate of its value or oth- erwise according to the Minister’s judg- ment.
1. Issues relevant to the organization of the services involved in the application of the present Decree, the authorization procedure of attorneys regarding confi- dential inventions, the placement to ex- isting posts of employees charged with handling confidential statements and relevant documents, as well as the se- curity of those documents and any other
detail having regard to the implementa-
tion of this Decree shall be regulated upon decisions of the competent Minis- ters which shall be published on the Government Gazette, except for those referring to confidential issues.
All documents issued for the implemen- tation hereof are confidential, provided that they involve data relating to confi- dential inventions, discoveries and tech- nical information falling under the pre- sent Decree.
This Decree shall enter into force upon its publication in the Government Ga- zette. The Law No.2441/1940, “on Na- tional Defense Patents”, the Legislative Decree No. 431/1947 “amendment of Law No.2441/1940 on National Defense Patents” are annulled.
This Law was passed by Parliament and We ratify it today. It shall be published in the Government Gazette and shall be implemented as a law of the State.
11