Article 29 of Law 3784/09 revises the provisions of the Unfair Competition Act regarding the limitations period for unfair competition claims.
Under the provisions of the Unfair Competition Act (Law 146/14), claims based on unfair competition were brought before the competent court of first instance as commercial cases and lapsed six months after the claimant gained knowledge of the act and the person responsible and, in any event, three years after the act took place.
This meant that a plaintiff in a main lawsuit for IP rights infringement could, by providing an auxiliary basis of unfair competition in his action, obtain an early hearing (within six months from filing the writ rather than 12 to 18 months which would be the case if the lawsuit was exclusively based on trade mark or patent law). Should the first hearing be postponed (something common in IP cases), the plaintiff could request that the new hearing be fixed within six months.
Under the new Act, this six-month period is extended to 18 months and the three years becomes five years.
In view of this, the advantage of obtaining an early hearing for cases based on unfair competition is no longer available.
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