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What are the types of crypto scams and how to avoid them?

 

As a lawyer specializing in blockchain technology, I very often come across various inquiries from clients regarding crypto fraud. These are online crimes that most legal entities fall into due to ignorance, naivety, or based on a get-rich-quick motive and/or misunderstanding of an investment in blockchain tools. Knowing the psychology of their victims, criminals with fraudulent goals always find new ways to steal your money by tricking you into "cryptocurrency deals". To protect yourself from this type of fraud, you need to be well-informed about the main mechanisms by which crypto fraud is carried out and carefully research the other side of the "deal" - here's how:

 

1. Usually, crypto transactions are carried out between two blockchain wallets - yours and the other party's by exchanging the so-called "public keys", i.e. the passwords of the two wallets, which lead to their individualization by third parties. Never share your crypto wallet private key with anyone , it should be kept by you and only you. No legitimate crypto business will want you to transfer fiat (real) money to a bank account to "turn" it into crypto and invest the crypto for "interest" - that's a scam. Investing in crypto interest is called "stake", but there is no exchange of real money in this process. The transaction is always entered into with a specific crypto or by purchasing tokens of a given project. This is usually the cryptocurrency of the project that offers you a "steak" (freezing your investment to earn interest through so-called DeFi protocols). You buy this cryptocurrency/token through a given exchange (crypto exchange) and only then invest it in a given project. If things don't work as described - stop, immediately contact a blockchain lawyer and the prosecutor's office, "Computer Crimes" sector at the GDBOP and/or Interpol. You are being scammed!

 

ICO technical issues.

 

 

1. In order to launch your ICO on a technological level, you need to choose and configure three basic things:

- The blockchain under which your project will operate;

- A smart contract that will operate;

- A wallet, into which the funds will flow;

The blockchain is the "ledger" where all your transaction data is stored. It is the root of the tree on which your ICO will grow. Choose any of the existing blockchains - Ethereum, Binance(I wholeheartedly recommend them - you'll see why below), Tron, etc.

Smart Contract is the software standard that your token will operate under. There are predefined software standards for all blockchains - ERC for Ethereum, BEP for Binance and TRC for Tron.

 

Many of IUSAUTHOR's law office clients often ask us what a blockchain project should look like "in general terms", how would we present it in a nutshell as a concept, technologically, financially and legally? We hope this visualization of basic principles in the blockchain ecosystem, valid for any startup project, provide clarity on the depth of the problem and the fact that the "this I know" approach would not work if we applied the presumed specifics and details to everything shown in the graphic.

Artificial intelligence - the new author.

 

  

1.Introduction.

"Artificial intelligence" (or "AI") as a simulation of human knowledge by self-learning machines[1] (computer systems) is increasingly entering the field of copyright, and for nearly 8 years has been "creating" in various fields of art. In 2016, a group of museums and researchers in the Netherlands presented a work of fine art in the form of a portrait titled "The Next Rembrandt" - drawn and generated by a computer that has analysed hundreds of works and thousands of fragments of them by the 17th century Dutch artist Rembrandt Harmsenchon van Rijn. The interesting thing about this is that "The Next Rembrandt" is a computer-generated three-dimensional painting developed by a face recognition algorithm (the so-called "face recognition protocol") that scanned data from 346 known paintings by the Dutch artist in a technological process that lasted 18 months. The portrait consists of 148 million pixels and is based on 168 263 fragments of Rembrandt's works stored in a specially created and compiled author database. The project is sponsored by the Dutch banking group ING in collaboration with Microsoft, the marketing consultancy J. Walter Thompson and consultants from Delft University of Technology, Mauritzhaus and the Rembrandt House Museum. 

At the same time, a short novel written by a Japanese computer program (again in 2016) reached the second round of the national Hoshi Shinichi Literary Award. The novel the artificial intelligence authored is called "The Day A Computer Writes A Novel". In previous years, the Hoshi Shinichi Contest has also been open to non-human applicants, but in 2016, for the first time, the award committee received a proposal from an artificial intelligence. Of the 1,450 entries submitted to the competition, 11 were partially written by a computer program.

 

Top 10 crypto destinations in the world. Legal framework, established ecosystem, regulations and fees.

 

 

I.Introduction.

This article aims to define the top 10 hottest crypto destinations in the world by analyzing their existing regulations, focusing on specific features of the legal framework, and analyzing existing exemptions and taxes. I wrote this piece because more and more often my clients from the crypto industry ask me - where to invest, why there, what are the reasons, how to structure a business and a specific trading company, can we explore fees, tax breaks, etc. Here is an analytical and detailed structured answer to all these questions.

 

1.United States.

The United States has been a leader in cryptocurrency regulations, with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) taking an active role in regulating the industry. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) also considers cryptocurrencies as property for tax purposes.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC): The SEC has taken an active role in regulating initial coin offerings (ICOs) and cryptocurrencies that are considered securities. In 2019, the SEC issued guidance that clarified its position on when a cryptocurrency is considered a security and therefore subject to securities laws.

What is "freedom to operate" or "FTO".

 

 

1.Introduction.

"Freedom to operate" as a concept can be defined as the ability to sell or commercialise a product or service in a specific field and time frame without infringing intellectual property rights owned by another entity. Prior to any key business decision, especially before a new product or technology enters a foreign market, a freedom to operate analysis[1] is essential. Thanks to the analysis of the 'freedom to operate' criterion, it can be determined whether similar or identical products, technologies or know-how are already present in a particular field and whether there is a risk of their infringement as intellectual property rights.

A freedom to operate (FTO) analysis can be carried out at any point in the development of a new product or technology. When the idea for the new product is already clear to the inventor, it is worth checking the patent databases to see if they are trying to re-invent something that is already on the market, or if there is an expired patent that could be used to further develop the new invention. Therefore, if it is planned to enter a new market with a technology already developed, FTO can lead to significant cost savings by also avoiding the presumed litigation on the basis of a request to invalidate a patent or concerning patent infringement claims.

From this perspective, ignoring the FTO analysis may be an unwise step for a variety of financial and legal reasons. One of the most interesting relatively recent examples in this regard is the case involving Mercedes' "Airscarf"[2] technology, used to warm drivers' necks with warm air exhausted from the headrest of convertible cars. On the subject - in 2016 Mercedes lost a lawsuit against German inventor Ludwig Schatzinger, who had patented similar technology ten years earlier. As a result of this patent lawsuit, Mercedes had to temporarily stop(from May 9 to December 25, 2016) selling all of the company's convertible cars equipped with this solution and pay compensation to the patent holder of a significant value of $280,000[3]. It was only due to the expiration of the patent(in December 2016), shortly after this lawsuit, that Mercedes was once again given the opportunity to reinstate the offering of this product for their convertibles, as it became public for use. This example shows that "patent wars" are not only fought between large corporate adversaries like Samsung or Apple, but also between "small" inventors and international companies, and it is never clear in advance how such a case will end.

 

 

The software patent. International and national regulation. 

 

The topic of software patents is proving to be a controversial and very interesting one in modern times, due to the intertwining of serious business interests with the rights of users and authors of software works that need protection. On the other hand, the problem refers to the existing purely legal collisions arising from the built contradiction between the European doctrine and the regime it advocates concerning the copyright regulation of software as a literary work (according to Article 10 of the Berne Convention - see 1971 version) in opposition to the Anglo-Saxon principled view that software can be a fit subject of industrial property, i.e. of patenting. The text of Article 10 of the "Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works" expressly enshrines the rule that "computer programs, whether source or object, are protected as literary works under the Convention". A few years later, the World Intellectual Property Organization's Model Terms, published in 1978, reflected the definition of the phrase "computer program" as "a series of instructions that are embodied in a machine-readable medium so as to cause a machine having the capability of processing information to indicate, perform, and achieve a particular function, task, or result." This may also be considered to be the definition of the term 'software'.

We reach this conclusion because the title of the World Intellectual Property Organisation's 'Model Terms' is 'Protection of computer software'. This brief background leads me to the view that the international regulation of software patents has evolved in different countries of the world with different dynamics, with the concept of their legal regulation undergoing changes. These range from the original regulation of software as an existing eligible subject matter of first copyright and then patent law, to the contemporary - in my view highly exaggerated - thesis that software as an achievement of the creative industries and science should not be "monopolized" by business through patents, but should become one of the free and unpaid achievements of society.

Decentralized finance(DeFi) in the blockchain ecosystem.

 

1.Introduction.

Contemporary decentralized finance ("Decentralized finance" or "DeFi" for short) poses a technological and legal challenge to let's call it - traditional financial system all over the world, by depriving familiar intermediaries(banks and other financial institutions) of their power to mediate most transactions between citizens and business partners, thus allowing users to retain real control over their money and create tools for a new kind of revenue. This presentation aims to provide clarity on the regulations of the financial crypto market, in order to clarify the fact that the technology behind the DeFi model promises a dynamic, disintermediating revolution in finance, all of which is leading to new realities in the traditional financial sector, which is aware of what is happening and is trying in every way to slow down the process described.  The paper will also discuss the important legal implications of the DeFi model for existing financial regulations as well as the challenges faced by regulators on the subject in the EU and the US. 

1.1.What is the DeFi financial technology model?

Decentralised finance is delivered through online platforms that allow users to carry out different types of financial transactions, with the aim of improving the accessibility, speed, security and efficiency of financial services without an intermediary. The DeFi concept uses blockchain technology as well as different types of cryptocurrencies (mainly so-called "stable coins" usually based under Ethereum[1]) because of the concept of "smart contracts" implemented in the code to manage financial transactions such as lending, borrowing and trading outside the control of traditional financial institutions such as banks, brokerage firms and centralized exchanges. Users therefore interact with open software protocols through so-called "unhosted" wallets. Unhosted wallets are digital, physical wallets (usually looking like a flash drive or external hard drive) that are managed by the users themselves, rather than by a service provider that offers "hosted" - web-based crypto wallets.

Comment enregistrer une marque en Bulgarie? Avocate francophone des marques en Bulgarie - Mr. Martin Groisne.

  

1.Les déposants de marques peuvent être aussi bien des personnes physiques et morales bulgares que des personnes physiques et morales étrangères agissant devant l'Office des brevets par l'intermédiaire d'un représentant local de la propriété industrielle. La loi bulgare n'exige pas nécessairement que le demandeur soit une entreprise industrielle ou commerciale qui produit ou commercialise les produits ou fournit les services pour lesquels il souhaite enregistrer la marque.

 

Pour obtenir l'enregistrement d'une marque, il est nécessaire de déposer une demande auprès de l'Office des brevets de la République de Bulgarie - directement, par courrier, par fax ou par voie électronique. Lorsque la demande est déposée par voie électronique, l'identification par un identifiant unique du demandeur et du représentant de la propriété industrielle ainsi qu'une signature électronique au sens de la loi sur les documents électroniques et les signatures électroniques ne sont pas obligatoires. En cas de dépôt par télécopie, les documents originaux doivent être reçus par l'Office des brevets dans un délai d'un mois à compter de la date de la télécopie. La date de transmission de la télécopie doit être clairement indiquée sur les documents originaux envoyés.

Comment protéger les droits d'auteur en Bulgarie? Avocat francophone en Bulgarie  - Мr. Martin Groisne.

  

Un auteur est toute personne physique qui, en raison de son activité créatrice, crée une œuvre dans le domaine de la littérature, de la science ou de la technologie.
L'auteur est présumé être la personne dont le nom ou un autre signe d'identification figure sur l'œuvre.
Dans certains cas, l’auteur est une personne morale - par exemple, dans le cas de programmes informatiques créés dans le cadre d'une relation de travail (selon l'article 14 de la loi bulgare sur le droit d’auteur et les droits voisins).

Quelles sont les œuvres concernées par le droit d'auteur en Bulgarie ?

 En principe, le droit d'auteur s'applique à toutes les œuvres qui sont.. :

- Issues d'une activité créative (c'est-à-dire non copiées mécaniquement) ;

- les œuvres de la littérature, de l'art et de la science ;

- qui sont objectivées de quelque manière que ce soit (publiés, exposés, chantés, interprétés, etc.)