Anton Piller Order
In a recent case handled by our litigation team, our Clients succeeded in obtaining, inter alia, a draconian Anton Piller Order against Cypriot resident individuals, who had allegedly stolen, inter alia, their Source Code, Intellectual Property (“IP”) rights, trade secrets, etc., and/or infringed their copyright over an Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) product, engineered, manufactured and promoted by our Clients.
Under Cyprus law, a Source Code is protected in the same way as a “literary work”, which means it is copyrightable from the moment that the first line of code is created.
The Anton Piller Orders are often called, the “newclear weapon” in the Plaintiff’s arsenal, because such orders, strike without warning, and can have devastating effects.
Generally, while granting an Anton Piller Order, the Court has to balance between two conflicting interests, combating infringements of IP rights, and safeguarding the defendants’ rights to privacy, and privilege against self-incrimination.
Through the successful execution of an Anton Piller Order, the victim of an infringement of copyrights or of theft of a Source Code, will be able to collect vital evidence, for proving such infringement or wrongdoing, to identify all wrongdoers, as well as to strengthen its case.
