At the invitation of the Michael Kyprianou LLC, organisers of Cyprus Intellectual Property (IP) Day held in Nicosia recently, Dids Macdonald, OBE., Chair and Co-founder of Anti Copying In Design (ACID) was invited to talk about “IP as a Positive Force for Growth” with the caveat, “But only if the copycat culture from generative AI data scraping to fakes and knock offs are curtailed”. (see presentation here and talk here).

Opening the conference, Demetris Skourides, Chief Scientist of the Republic of Cyprus, Chair of the National AI Strategy delivered a powerful message from the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, who said, “Today is about much more than patents, trade marks, designs and copyright. It is about one of the most important sources of prosperity in the modern economy: human ingenuity. It is about how we create ideas, how we protect them and how we transform them into innovation, enterprise, investment and value for our economy and our society.”

“To our entrepreneurs and creators, protect what makes you different. In a knowledge economy, intellectual property can become one of the most valuable assets you create.

“And to the young people of Cyprus, I would say this: “Never allow the size of our country to define the size of your ambition. An algorithm written in Nicosia can serve millions of people. A discovery made in a Cypriot laboratory can improve lives across continents. A design created in Limassol can become a global brand. And technology developed in Larnaca or Paphos can compete in markets around the world.”

Read The President’s full speech here.

The Chief Scientist, Demetris Skourides, then delivered a dynamic plan about building Cyprus’s AI Future from Vision to National Framework, saying, “AI will not disrupt the edges of Cyprus’s economy, it will redefine its core. Skourides talked about, “A national strategy aim, which included intelligent public services, AI eco-systems & scale, productivity and competitiveness, inclusion & lifelong learning underpinned by governance, ethics, and trust. The ambition, “Sovereign by design. Global impact.””  See Mr Skourides’ slides here.

Lefteris Eleftheriou, an Associate Lawyer at Michael Kyprianou LLC led further discussions about Deep Fakes in the Age of AI. Defined in the EU AI Act. A.3 (60) as, “AI generated or manipulated image, audio or video content that resembles existing persons, objects, places, entities or events and would falsely appear to be authentic.” Read the full discussion here.

Nick Kounoupias, ACID Chief Counsel, Head of Intellectual Property, Michael Kyprianou LLC and Cyprus Government lead of IP and AI, who had led discussions on collective licensing in Cyprus said, “Deep Fakes are a significant threat to our democracy, and yet we are yet to see a consultation in the UK to counter this insidious culture, the EU seems light years ahead having already created a law to protect personal infringement as a result of Deep Fakes.” The full collective licensing presentation is available here.

Agis Charalambous, Senior Associate, Michael Kyprianou LLC talked us through the importance of EU Design Laws, emphasizing that consumers prefer and consider (nearly 3 out of 4 EU (72%) product design important when making purchases, and 73% are willing to pay more for items with better design. EU Design Law Reforms have recently modernised EU design law for the digital economy The definitions of both “design” and “product” have been expanded to expressly include digital and non-physical creations. New regime: Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs)* App layouts and icons, animations and transitions, Virtual products and digital assets, Meta verse and virtual environments, Interior and exterior spatial arrangements. Presentation available here.

ACID member Halime Eleni Ozdemir di Larusso, Creator of Producer 360^o talked animatedly about Design in Cyprus Her support of creative industries globally is built to work outwardly through residencies, exhibitions, commissions and partnerships, Producer 360 creates routes for work made in Cyprus to travel, develop and enter wider conversations. Further explaining that, “Every creative project carries rights, responsibilities and relationships across different people and places. What is often much less robust is the record of who made what, when, with whom, and on what terms. Halime Eleni continued that, “The work moves. the paperwork rarely moves with the same discipline” See Halime Eleni’s presentation here.

Photograph L-R: Nick Kounoupias, ACID Chief Counsel, ACID member Halime Eleni Ozdemir di Larusso, Creator of Producer 360^o, Dids Macdonald OBE, ACID Chair and Co-Founder, Designer Katerina Zachariades and ACID Advisory Council Member Rodney McMahon.