Intellectual Property.

Your source code is protected by copyright automatically, from the moment it is written, with no registration required — copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years. What copyright does not cover is the underlying technical idea, method or algorithm behind the software; if that is genuinely novel and inventive, it may be separately patentable, which does require a formal, examined filing. Most software businesses need both: copyright protection for the code as written, and, where relevant, a patent strategy for the underlying technical invention, alongside a registered trademark for the brand it is sold under. We assess which of these actually apply to your specific product rather than assuming one covers everything.

It depends on where the business operates and plans to expand. A Greek national trademark is faster and cheaper to obtain and gives protection within Greece. An EU trademark (EUTM) costs more and takes a single, unified application through the EU Intellectual Property Office, but grants protection across all EU member states at once — often better value than filing nationally in several countries separately if you already sell, or plan to sell, beyond Greece. Some businesses benefit from both: a national mark for immediate domestic protection while an EU application is pending, or a national mark in a market where they have particularly strong brand recognition alongside a broader EU registration. We recommend the filing strategy based on your actual commercial footprint, not a default answer.

This is one of the most common and costly gaps we see. Under Greek law, unlike for employees working within the scope of their employment, there is no automatic assumption that copyright in work created by an independent contractor or freelancer transfers to the business that commissioned and paid for it — ownership can remain with the individual creator unless a written assignment says otherwise. This means code, designs or content built by a freelance developer or agency may not legally belong to your company at all, which becomes a serious problem in due diligence or if the relationship turns adversarial. The fix is straightforward but must be done in writing, ideally before the work starts: a clear IP assignment clause in every contractor and freelancer agreement.

A patent requires public disclosure of the invention in exchange for a time-limited exclusive right — typically 20 years — after which the invention enters the public domain. Trade secret protection works the opposite way: it protects confidential information indefinitely, for as long as it remains genuinely secret, but offers no protection at all once the information becomes public, whether through a leak, reverse engineering or independent discovery. Critically, trade secret protection is not automatic — it depends on the business actively treating the information as confidential, through NDAs, access controls and internal documentation. Many businesses assume valuable know-how is protected simply because it feels secret, without ever having taken the steps that would make it legally defensible as a trade secret.

Yes — IP due diligence is a standard part of our M&A work, whether we are advising the buyer, the seller or the target preparing for a round. We audit the ownership chain for every material IP asset: whether trademarks and patents are actually registered and in good standing, whether contractor and employee IP assignments exist in writing, whether open-source components carry licence obligations the buyer should know about, and whether trade secrets have been treated with the confidentiality controls that make them legally defensible. Gaps found before signing are far cheaper to fix than gaps found by the other side's lawyers during warranty negotiations.