Velizar Sokolov

Velizar Sokolov is managing partner of ARSIS Consulting law firm. Since its establishment in 1991, ARSIS Consulting being one of the very few Bulgarian law firms specialized in the field of intellectual property, has serviced or run the enforcement programs of such international clients of renown as NOKIA, Samsung Electronics, Warner Bros Entertainment, BMG, Warner Music International, WIPO, BSA, Microsoft, Autodesk, Adobe Systems, Nintendo of America, Mattel, adidas Group, NIKE, L’Oreal, Christian Dior Couture, Louis Vuitton Malletier, Givenchy, Ermenegildo Zegna, Crocs, among others. 

Velizar Sokolov graduated in law from Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski in 1989. In 1997 he specialized in intellectual property rights at the International Law Institute in Washington, DC. 

He is author of a variety of publications in the central and specialized press on different topics related to intellectual property rights and the remedies for their protection. As a co-author of the Media Dictionary published in 2006 Sokolov wrote a study on copyright and neighboring rights. He also is the author of the section covering Bulgaria in the Guide to national implementation of the European Directive 2001/29/EC titled Copyright in the Information Society, published by Edward Elgar in 2011.  

In the framework of his work on IPR enforcement Velizar Sokolov has been deeply involved in the organization and holding of a big number of local conferences and seminars dedicated to the particulars of IPR legislation and enforcement and targeting various professional groups such as police and the special services, public prosecutors and judges. He has lectured on the legal aspects of IPR enforcement, on the investigation and prosecution of computer crimes and offences in the digital environment, Internet in particular, etc.  Further to his work on behalf of his clients, Sokolov has organized a number of training seminars for Bulgarian customs officers focusing on the local and European legal framework related to border measures for IPR protection as well as on product identification of genuine/counterfeit goods. 

Sokolov has also been invited to lecture at forums of such international organizations of renown as UNESCO, IDLO and others. He is also a visiting lecturer in IPR and copyright in particular at the Sofia University Faculty of Journalism and the University of National and World Economy.
 For more than 10 years now he has been invited as IPR expert in the sessions of the working groups drafting amendments and supplements to the copyright legislation as well as the industrial property legislative acts. He has also been very active in his capacity of consultant of the Bulgarian Parliament and the Ministry of Culture participating in the legislative initiatives related to the harmonization of the Bulgarian IPR legislation with acquis communautaire.