Intellectual property rights

Polish intellectual property rights

Polish intellectual property rights are an abstract issue. They include, both being part of the civil code regulation, copyrights and trademarks and trademarks recognized under industrial property rights. The main subject of the collection of intellectual property rights is the protection of goods created by the power of the human mind against their excessive exploitation. This right provides for the possibility of banning third parties from using or using templates, recipes or works that arose as a result of the work of certain people. In addition, this protection has an economic and economic aspect, because nowadays human capital and intellectual property are the drivers of the economy. For this reason, it is extremely important to strive to change tracks or inventions into a law that has a property value and keep them away from violations and threats associated with theft or illegal use.

Legal basis

The source of law for the protection of intellectual and industrial property are two basic laws, i.e. the Copyright and Related Rights Act and the Industrial Property Law Act. However, other special laws such as the Act on the protection of databases or the Act on combating unfair competition also apply to the branches of intellectual property law.

Copyrights refer to works from the borderline of music, film, literature, journalism, journalism or science. These are not the rights that are subject to registration, but are only subject to the requirement to obtain a license. Moreover, in the Act on Copyright, the issue of transferring these rights and the scope of free use of the law, which has intellectual value, has been regulated. We divide copyright into property and personal. The first category is connected with granting the author the exclusive right to dispose of the work, as well as to receive remuneration for its existence in public space and in legal transactions. In turn, personal copyrights refer to the relationship between the creator and his work. First of all, this law regulates the issues of authorship, designation of the work by name, or pseudonym, rules for using the work, as well as supervision over its exploitation.

The Industrial Property Law regulates instruments for the protection of industrial property rights. Although the law provides six types of protection in this area, the most common are four. The first is a patent granted for inventions that are considered new according to the rules of Polish law. This means that they have only become part of the current state of the art and have not been disseminated before. The invention is protected for 20 years, and this protection begins when the application is filed with the Patent Office. Utility designs are, however, protected with the help of protection rights. For the utility model, it is considered, similarly as it was at the time of the patent, a new solution that has effects in the production process. Mainly utility models are fused specific features of objects related to shape, structure or their combinations. In terms of protection, the case looks similar to the one in the case of a patent, however, the maximum duration of protection for a utility model is 10 years. In the issues of protection of industrial property rights, there is also the concept of industrial design, which is characterized by innovation in the field of external features of the subject. The industrial design is protected for 25 years from the time of notification, and this protection has been divided into 5 periods, which involve the payment of applicable fees. The industrial design has its equivalent in European law, in the form of a Community design, and its registration can be made from the level of the Polish State in the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) in Alicante, Spain. A popular protective instrument for industrial property is also the protection rights granted to trademarks. As a trademark, we understand all signs that distinguish between the goods offered by various enterprises. It can take the form of graphics, sound, advertising and even verbal. The protection period for a trademark, from a theoretical point of view, may never end, as the 10-year protection period, running from the moment of registration, is subject to extensions of any number of times. Also, in this case it is possible to register the mark at OHIM, in order to extend its protection to all EU countries.

Laws in Poland and the rest of the world

The range of protection of intellectual property in Poland is similar to the level that other countries represent. International treaties indicate uniform rules and conditions for copyright and industrial protection. There are slight differences at the material level. Some countries, as part of the protection of intellectual property rights, also indicate trade secrets. As for the public copyright protection is shaped in the same way, taking into account the entirety of EU Member States. Poland implemented into the national system all EU directives related to the matter described.