Mr.Atanas Kostov - copyright attorney in Bulgaria. The book "Intellectual Property on the Internet".

The reason to write the book "Intellectual Property on the Internet" is the fact that intellectual property is the most powerful regulator, and a protective mechanism against the processes that are currently happening on the Internet. You will ask why this is so important? Due to the fact that the full potential of the creative industries is already online and the same goes for the business, which means that in the near future any social, commercial, scientific, artistic or social activity will be mediated by the Internet. Even now, there is no good or service that is not available online, and this business model has been adopted by the electronic media and the show business. 

All this leads to a justified interest of the users in this electronic phenomenon, which is related to the easy commodity turnover, quick access to specific works, goods or services, but also to the presumed will to "jump over the legal barriers" due to different motives. In addition to the old theme of internet piracy (which also has new dimensions in the development of legislation), there are already new unscrupulous practices aimed at "abducting" domains or registering such names under other company names or trademarks for resale or another type of commercial effect to the registrant, such as unfair competition and / or attracting additional user traffic. On the other hand, copyright and related licensing agreements have become as "electronic" as it calls for the need for new, credible and adequate legislative solutions to deter unscrupulous practices on the Internet. The strange thing is that the Bulgarian Law on Copyright and Related Rights as well as the Law on Marks and Geographical Indications "delay" to legally regulate the processes that concern intellectual property rights online, neither of which even mentions the word " Internet ", despite the increasingly dynamic e-business in Bulgaria. At the same time, special laws (which are not part of a copyright law or trademark law) specifically regulating legal relationships and infringements of intellectual property rights on the Internet have emerged in many foreign legislation. 

This book gives a vision of some of the major topics and issues in the described context by trying to comment and at the same time propose solutions to address the issues of copyright, trademarks, domains and other business identifiers that are used in network. I hope this statement assures the reader how important it is in today's time to know the intellectual property legal tools that serve to prevent online business models as well as those relating to copyrights based on the Internet. The relevance of the subject is related to purely pragmatic and commercial motives regarding the proper structuring and protection of online entrepreneurship. The book gives many examples of national and international case law on case studies that deal with the exact subject of intellectual property rights in the web, in order to make these legal processes more accessible. My aim in the commented topic is to make it as accessible as possible not only to lawyers, but to the business community as well as to the representatives of the creative industries, without having to propose ready solutions, but with the option of giving a reflection on how to deal with analogous case studies.

By the author: Mr.Atanas Kostov – attorney at law

The book "Intellectual Property on the Internet" you can order directly here.

Issued 2012

Fenya Publishing House

Intellectual Property Categories.

Pages 168

Dimensions 14.60 / 21.60 / 0.90 cm

Weight 0.202 kg

EAN 9789549499919

ISBN 9789549499919

Author: Mr.Atanas Kostov

"Internet Intellectual Property Law" in Bulgaria? Internet law. Internet attorney in Bulgaria.

In the 21st century, literally every social, business, political, and cultural aspect of life is mediated by online space. This means that behind every everyday activity stands an online platform - a website, a blog, an Internet mobile application, and so on. The Bulgarian social reality shows that offenses / crimes aimed at copying, using, reproducing, distributing, hacking, breaking the integrity and functioning of online works are a practice that is completely neglected, legally unsettled, and therefore devoid of any clearly structured legislative sanction, therefore prevention. It is correct to note that there are some legal norms in the Bulgarian legislation which concern the commented subject, but they are in different material laws and provide for separate abstract hypotheses that do not communicate with each other and thus remain some "mutilated" legal constructions without real practical significance.

All of this naturally leads to the total unproductiveness and almost zero efficiency in the work of specialized prevention bodies in the face of, for example, in the computer crime sector of so called “GDBOP”, due in particular to the lack of an adequate legal framework from a substantive point of view and respectively the lack of powers from a procedural point of view. This article aims to precisely identify these problems and to define what has been achieved so far internationally to justify the real need for such a legislative initiative in Bulgaria, which is justified not only in the present but also especially in the future, given the obvious all-round digitization of public life. Here I would like to point out the fact that the legal focus on online space and its problems has been placed in Western Europe and the US in the mid-1990s, i.e. the Bulgarian legislation is late for nearly 20 years to place emphasis on lawmaking in this sphere. I would like to mention that when in 2009 at a intellectual property conference, I started to speak on the subject of this article, I was greeted with silence and misunderstanding by a strictly professional audience that made me feel like a "stranger in my own." Unfortunately, there is no feedback between the online industry and lawyers, intellectual property specialists, which leads to a lack of communication and an option for a meeting of opinions, concepts and views to identify the specific problems to be solved. That is why, up to this day, I continue to insist that an "Intellectual Property Law on the Internet" must exist in the Bulgarian legislation, taking into account the balanced interests of users and rights holders, and in this context, the different options to the positive legal behavior of the different legal entities and a corresponding sanction in respect of offenses and crimes directed against copyright works and various technical and software platforms, object of intellectual property based on the Internet.

 Blockchain software patents. Blockchain attorney in Bulgaria.

Introduction. The liberalisation of the banking sector to crypto currencies and, above all, the blockchain technology behind them, shows that the financial market slowly breaks the shell of misunderstanding into the new online legal mechanisms that lead to software verifying each link in a legal deal. In my opinion, the crypto currencies themselves (as a speculative tool) in the near future are doomed to a total collapse of a single dollar denomination for a specific crypto (for example, "bitcoin"), but blockchain technology as an innovative business model and legal tool for doing business online, will soon develop technologically and enter various spheres of public life - finance, law, health, education, creative industries, public sector. A proof of this statement is that at present, perhaps the largest bank in the world - the US Bank of America - has a total of 50 patents in the field of blockchain technology serving the banking and financial sector. Оn the second position by applications for this kind of patents in US it is the giant in the computer industry IBM, which logically declare interest in this industry, as it has been for years the main hardware supplier (of various types of computer equipment) for thousands of banks around the world. 

Copyright protection on Internet sites. Copyright attorney in Bulgaria.

A hot topic which concerns a lot of online businesses is copying (retrieving or stealing) website content - its texts, graphics, designs, photos and commercial concepts. The trend on a global and national level indicates that within a few years, any good, including author's works - books, musical works, architectural projects, computer programs, etc. will be offered predominantly online. This fact calls for increased attention paid to the adequate copyright protection of the content of the Internet sites as well as to the formulation of the clearer general terms and conditions for their use in order to avoid unscrupulous practices carried out by third parties.

This statement will address the main guidelines that should be marked as a means of protection and prevention against the illegal "copying or theft" that is done with respect to the content or functionality of the Internet sites.

Copyrights on Facebook. Copyright attorney in Bulgaria.

The social network Facebook became a social phenomenon that accumulates much of the contemporary social, business, and cultural life of the world. Background information indicates that the site was created by Mark Elliot Zuckerberg, described as a genius programmer while still a teenager, and creator of projects like "Zucknet" (a primitive version of AOL instant messenger), a media player, called "Synapse Media player" (in which Microsoft showed interest), the program "Course Match", which helps students to choose courses, and the so-called "first Facebook"- the site Facemash. This internet site allowed users to compare pictures of classmates and select the one that is "coolest.” Facemash worked just one weekend because of huge site traffic overloads caused an interruption of internet service at Harvard (where Zuckerberg was a student at the time). Post factum Zuckerberg was criticized for this by the student newspaper, as well as classmates, because he used their photos without proper authorization. Given these negatives, Mark Zuckerberg started programming Facebook which was launched on the Internet from his room at Harvard on Feb. 4, 2004. At present, this internet site is owned by Facebook Inc., based in Silicon Valley, California, USA. On 21 July 2010, the youngest billionaire in the USA - Mark Zuckerberg (6.9 billion dollars personal assets) officially reported that the site has reached 500 million users worldwide. An interesting fact is that in 2010, Steven Levy - author of the book "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution", said that Zuckerberg described himself as a "hacker.” Therefore, at present, Facebook Inc., holds contests called "hackathons" every two months. The goal is for participants to program, present, and complete a software project in a single night. Facebook provides music, food, and beer, and the event is usually attended by participants of the Facebook site, including Zuckerberg. Some people say that Zuckerberg used these hackatons to recruit employees for his company in the beginning, and even today.

Internet law in Bulgaria. Internet attorney. Software protection. 

"IUSAUTHOR" is one of the few legal offices in Bulgaria, which since its inception have focus on the legal processes developing in the online environment or so called "Internet Law". "IUSAUTHOR" working hard on building effective models for prevention of copyright on the Internet, consult many creative industries, electronic media, NGOs, online libraries, private individuals and businesses, the proper protection of their copyrights and construction of adequate business strategies to optimize in detail their intellectual property on the Internet. Chairman of "IUSAUTHOR" is imposed and one of the experts in the field of copyright in Bulgaria in the person of Mr. Atanas Kostov, who has extensive experience as an attorney on the internet rights, who synthesized his experience as an lawyer in this field in his book "Intellectual Property on the Internet ". 

In the field of Internet law "IUSAUTHOR" work closely specialized on the registration of trademarks as domain names, respectively arbitration of disputes between trademark and domain with the extension ".bg" in the national arbitration to Register.BG and equivalent international arbitration for other extensions(".com", ".net", ".co.uk" etc.), based at the WIPO (International Organization for Intellectual Property)Geneva, Switzerland. Legal defense to those two types of arbitrations any serious is a specific legal action concerning the knowledge of intellectual property in an atypical area, which is built on those adopted by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) "Uniform rules for resolving disputes concerning domain "(UDRP). Registration of domain names as trademarks is a key point in the defense business models, developing online as it requires not only legal view of national and international practice in this area, but presupposes and reporting of relevant marketing and consumer attitudes, which lead to proper counseling of a client on the construction of a brand, individualizing a business or other enterprise in the Internet environment. Through its work with numerous representatives of online industries, the team of "IUSAUTHOR" has established good practices in adequate consultation of this type of customers.

In light of the above should be noted that "IUSAUTHOR" as a firm engaged in internet law, working in close coordination with national and international judicial and administrative institutions whose focus is on resolving problems relating to crime and unfair practices, developing It is the Internet. This action concerns the firm resolve legal issues related to cybercrime, counterfeiting, phishing, hacker attacks, internet piracy, theft of personal data and content from websites, created mirrored platforms in order to unfairly attract users, professional general conditions, imitation, violation of human rights in the Internet, e-commerce etc.

"IUSAUTHOR" is the principal legal adviser to the territory of Bulgaria on cases concerning so-called "free software" running on "Linux" and "GPL licenses to "Free Software Fondation", Europe.

Patent and trademark attorney in Bulgaria. Internet attorney in Bulgaria. Blockchain attorney in Bulgaria. Copyright attorney in Bulgaria.

The specialist in intellectual property - Mr.Atanas Kostov graduated the Law department of the Plovdiv University in 1999 with a Master's degree. He specializes in the field of civil law in Bulgaria. Intellectual property has been provoking him from the very beginning of his career. Currently he is a consultant and author in the publishing house "Labour and Law", Sofia and magazines "Finance and Law" Property and Law "," Law and Society " and " Intellectual Property "(official publication of the Patent Office in Sofia ) and in those editions were published his over 50 articles in the field of intellectual property and in particular copyright, trademark and unfair competition. Mr.Kostov is professional representative to the Bulgarian Patent Office for all industrial property objects: trademarks, patents (inventions), utility models, industrial designs, geographical indications, plant varieties and animal breeds. Mr. Atanas Kostov is an European patent attorney(European trademark attorney) in the field of trademarks and industrial designs to the EUIPO, Alicante, Spain, and he is officially on the list of industrial property professional representatives to this organization under the number №56838. Mr.Atanas Kostov it is a member of AIPPI (The International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property). In 2017 Mr.Atanas Kostov was nominated for lawyer of the year in Bulgaria.

At the end of 2005. Mr. Kostov as patent attorney was invited as a consultant in a working group to the legislative committee of the National Assembly of Republic of Bulgaria under the direction of Doctor of Juridical Sciences Mr. George Sarakinov where they are made recent changes to the Law on copyright and related rights. In the same year he became the author of the electronic publishing house "Labour and Law" Sofia concerning copyright contracts. Currently lawyer Atanas Kostov is a member of the Advisory Board on issues related to copyright and intellectual property of the Ministry of Culture in Bulgaria.

In November 2010 Mr.Atanas Kostov issued his first book "Copyright hypothesis", published by the Publishing House "Feneya." The book is aimed at giving practical guidance and advice not only to practitioners, but also to all artists from various artistic professions (musicians, photographers, actors, painters, architects, computer specialists, etc.) who wish to gain a clear idea for ways to protect their copyrights.

In May 2011. publishing house "Ciela" launched the second book of Mr.Atanas Kostov, under the heading "Opposition to the trademark". This book is revealing the new procedure for registration refusal on the relatives grounds, according the last amendments of the Bulgarian Law on Marks and Geographical Indications from 10.03.2011. The book aims to be practically useful to a wide range of lawyers, experts in the Patent Office, representatives of industrial property, commercial entities, students and citizens to give better clarity on the scope for prevention, which gives the opposition. Most of the material in the book is a synthesis of theory and practice, mostly of EUIPO and the European Court of Justice, mainly due to the lack of national practice for the moment. This approach was chosen to shed light on the specifics of the procedure not only nationally, but also at European level.

In 2012 Publishing "Feneya" published the third book of Mr.Kostov - "Intellectual property on Internet". The book tries to make a comment and at the same time to propose solutions how to deal with problems concerning copyright, trademarks, domain names and other business identifiers in Bulgaria used in the Internet. The author's aim is to assure the reader how important is nowadays to know legal means, concerning intellectual property that serve for the prevention of online business models, as well as those concerning copyright, based on the web. The significance of the topic is related to purely pragmatic and commercial motives on proper structuring and protection of the online entrepreneurship. The book provides many examples of national and international case law concerning intellectual property rights on the web, through which it becomes possible to visualize commented theme and it becomes the most accessible not only for lawyers but for businesses as well as representatives of the creative industries, without any claim to offer ready solutions, but with the option to give guidance to reflect on dealing with similar cases.

In May 2015, “Labor and Law” Publishing House released the fourth book by Mr.Atanas Kostov - "Trademarks and Copyright on the Internet". The book presents a detailed problem of intellectual property and its protection on the Internet. It examines the issues and offers expert solutions to issues related to copyright, trademarks, domains, and other business identifiers that are used on the web. The book reviews the legal framework and analyzes the accumulated case law both in Bulgaria and in the Court of Justice of the European Union.

As a lawyer who works in the field of copyright and trademarks, as well as a patent attorney and trademark attorney in Bulgaria, Mr. Atanas Kostov leads one of the most interesting and controversial cases in Bulgaria related to copyright, trademarks, patents, industrial designs and unfair competition, which practically built the modern jurisprudence in this area. Lawyer Kostov is a consultant in the field of copyright and "free set Software Foundation" Europe (Free software foundation Europe), of open source systems under the GPL (General public license) and of concluded in connection with this licensing agreements (contracts). In this context Mr.Kostov as a lawyer has long-term deals with the problems of the so-called "Internet law" protection of domain names as trademarks, copyright protection of the content of websites, creation of common conditions for them, fraudulent practices and consumer rights on the Internet and etc.

As a Bulgarian patent and trademark attorney Mr.Atanas Kostov has extensive experience in litigation before the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) and the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) related to disputes concerning unfair competition against public procurement, antitrust law and agreements, business concentration and monopoly market position.

Artificial intelligence patents. Law practice. 

The topic of artificial intelligence is still not present in Bulgarian law as something normative and practical, which is on the legislative agenda in the 21st century, not only for technological and legal reasons, which undoubtedly determines the future of the innovative sector and through it the public, business and personal life of every modern person. The latest research on the subject in many of the world's advanced technology countries has shown that it is not far off the time when besides the afternoon chess game with some electronic device, artificial intelligence will be issued with instant visas, will be approved faster and secure (personal data - finger, face recognition) bank credits, national and cross-border (eg European) elections will be held and health services will be provided. Other studies have shown that artificial intelligence will replace many professions - lawyers, notaries, bailiffs, judges, revolutionize medical precision and monitoring, robotize our industry, services and lifestyle, thus putting new intellectual, philosophical and psychological challenges to everyday life and perhaps to the relationships between us - human beings. Realizing the inevitability of all this, many companies operating in different spheres of social and business life began to develop dynamic and focused inventions based entirely on artificial intelligence. Taking this into account, I want to pay close attention to this statement of these patents, driven by my belief that today's inventions in the area of ​​Artificial Intelligence (AI) are the basis of our more interesting tomorrow.

1.Historical development. Artificial Intelligence (AI) appeared in the 1950s, with the first mention of the term coming from a summer 1956 research project of Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, USA. A year earlier, in 1955, John McCarthy, a young assistant professor of mathematics at Dartmouth College, decided to organize a group for exploring and developing digital thinking machines. McCarthy selects the name "Artificial Intelligence" as a "new field" of scientific search. It presumes mostly neutral neutrality in order to avoid focusing on the narrow theory of automation and cybernetics, as already known achievements of analog technology. In early 1955, Mr. McCarthy turned to Robert Morrison, director of biological and medical research at the Rockefeller Foundation, to request funding for the Dartmouth summer seminar for about 10 mathematicians. On 2 September 1955, the project was officially presented to the board members under the notion of "artificial intellect".