Akrotiri and Dhekelia: IP curiosities?

Getting the planes past Customs into Akrotiri was the easy bit.
 Now the lads had to find some cash customers pretty quickly
Have you ever wondered how intellectual property rights work in Cyprus? It's complex enough when you consider that this lovely island is divided between Greek- and Turkish-speaking territories.  The  Greek bit is the Republic of Cyprus, to the south -- that's the bit which is in the European Union and which is part of the single market -- while the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in the north.  At present the island faces prospects of (i) unification, (ii) federalism or (iii) partition, depending on your preferences and the functionality of your crystal ball.  But that's not an end to the political intricacies of Cyprus.  For one thing, Cyprus is still a member of the (formerly "British") Commonwealth of Nations, along with another Mediterranean island, Malta, and no doubt takes a great interest in the use of the Commonwealth circle symbol which is protected under Article 6 ter of the Paris Convention. For another (and this is where it gets interesting), when Cyprus became independent in 1960 the United Kingdom held on to two two Sovereign Base Areas (SBAs) at Akrotiri and Dhekelia on the sunny south coast.

While the laws in force in the two SBAs mirror those of the Republic of Cyprus laws, the SBAs will remain where they are, legally, which is outside the European Union. This should cause fun and games for grey goods enthusiasts, to name but a few.

If you want to know more, the UK's Intellectual Property Office has helpfully provided a little information on its Cyprus page here, or you can visit the Department of the Registrar of Companies and Official Receiver (Intellectual and Industrial Property Section), at the corner of Makarios Avenue & Karpenisiou.
Akrotiri and Dhekelia: IP curiosities? Akrotiri and Dhekelia: IP curiosities? Reviewed by Jeremy on Thursday, December 23, 2010 Rating: 5

4 comments:

  1. As a regular to Northern Cyprus, I can tell you that the level of counterfeit goods out there is stunnning. The beach town of Kyrenia has many streets of shops filled with fakes - the fake Chanel shop being perhaps the most blatent as it is dressed up like a Chanel store - and it even has a seemingly fake Golds Gym to pander to the needs of those who go out to Northern Cyprus to train for athletic events.

    I can't see things being patched up too soon due to land issues, but it will be interesting to see what happens when it does - the consumers on the Northern side are closer in tastes to the Turkish mainland than those of Europe and there are large numbers of very well off people out there, so there would be big opportunties for luxury brands.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Why is anyone surprised that the northern part of Cyprus should be full of counterfeits? The entire economy of then illegal state set up there by Turkey has been built on the stolen property of Greek Cypriots. There is nor expect there for the rule of law so don't expect any respect for IP rights either.

    ReplyDelete
  3. IP Mosquito, keep out of politics. This is an intellectual property blog. There's hardly a country in the world that hasn't been built on stolen ptoperty, territory etc. How legitimate is China's occupation of Tibet -but are you complaining about that?

    ReplyDelete
  4. IP in TURKISH REPUBLIC OF NORTHERN CYPRUS is in the laws of the republic.

    ReplyDelete

All comments must be moderated by a member of the IPKat team before they appear on the blog. Comments will not be allowed if the contravene the IPKat policy that readers' comments should not be obscene or defamatory; they should not consist of ad hominem attacks on members of the blog team or other comment-posters and they should make a constructive contribution to the discussion of the post on which they purport to comment.

It is also the IPKat policy that comments should not be made completely anonymously, and users should use a consistent name or pseudonym (which should not itself be defamatory or obscene, or that of another real person), either in the "identity" field, or at the beginning of the comment. Current practice is to, however, allow a limited number of comments that contravene this policy, provided that the comment has a high degree of relevance and the comment chain does not become too difficult to follow.

Learn more here: http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/p/want-to-complain.html

Powered by Blogger.