Polish industrial designs

From Kancelaria Patentowa Łukaszyk

Why protect your industrial designs in Poland?

Today as a member of the EU, NATO and OECD, Poland is a trustworthy and reliable partner for international business.

• Large domestic market (The population of Poland is about 38.6 million of citizens);
• Perspectives for dynamic economic development (nine in ten enterprises have noted an increase in their revenues in last years [1]);
• The largest and the youngest well-educated working population in Central Europe (a larger pool of scientists and engineers than Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia combined);
• Central location in Europe = a very good "bridging position" assuring easy access of goods manufactured in Poland both to the EU and the Eastern markets;
• Free movement of goods, services, capital and labour = easy transport within the EU;
• Transparent and known legal system, international legal and business standards;
• Financial aid funds from the EU.

Filing requirements

The following particulars are required to file Polish industrial design application with convention priority:

• name and address of the applicant(s) and creator(s),
• if the priority is claimed - priority information (at least country and date),
• photographs/drawings/specimens of the design,
• the Power of Attorney PPO duly signed by a person entitled to represent the applicant.

Underlined elements are obligatory. The PoA form may be submitted later upon the PPO request (usually within 3-4 months after filing).

The Certified Priority document must be filed within 3 months from the date of filing. Applicable languages are English, French, German and Russian, otherwise a certified translation is required.

The deadline to file an application amounts 6 months from the priority date.

Polish industrial design application timeline

Other information

An industrial design is an appearance of the whole or a part of a product which is:

• new,
• result from the features of the product, and
• has an individual character.

The features of the product embrace, in particular, the lines, colours, shape, texture or materials of the product and its ornamentation.

A product may be any industrial or handicraft item, including, in particular, packaging, get-up, graphic symbols and typographic typefaces, but excluding computer programs. The following items are considered to be a product:

• a complex product, composed of multiple components, which can be replaced permitting disassembly and reassembly of the product,
• a component part, if, once incorporated into the complex product, remains visible during normal use of the complex product,
• a component part, if may be subject of commercialization.

The industrial design may be protected by means of a right in registration, which may remain in force up to 25 years.

The right in registration of an industrial design do not cover features of a product:

• which are solely dictated by its technical function,
• which must necessarily be reproduced in their exact form and dimensions in order to permit the product to be mechanically connected to, or to interact with, another product.

Obtaining the right in a registration for an industrial design is relatively simple, as there is only a formal procedure carried out by the patent office and providing the application fulfills the formal requirements the right in registration is granted in relatively short time as compared to the patent examination procedure.

To obtain a Polish right in a registration for an industrial design filed previously in another country, the Polish application must be filed within the six months from the date of previous filing.

The right in registration of the design is infringed by making, offering, putting on the market, importing, exporting or using a product in which the design is incorporated or to which it is applied, or stocking such a product for those purposes are considered as infringement of the right in registration.

Some acts are not considered as infringement. In particular the holder of the right in the registration may not prevent any third party from making use of the design:

• for private and for non-commercial purposes,
• for experimental purposes,
• consisting of acts of reproduction for the purposes of making citations or of teaching, provided that such acts are compatible with fair practice and do not unduly prejudice the normal exploitation of the design, and that mention is made of the source,
• applied in or incorporated in the equipment of means of transport when these temporarily enter the territory of the Republic of Poland,
• by way of execution, on an individual order, of repairs intended to reproduce a component part of a complex product so as to restore its original appearance.

If the right in registration is infringed, the proprietor may demand in civil law procedure in accordance with the general principles of law:

• the termination of the infringement,
• the redress of its consequences,
• the surrender of the unlawfully obtained profits and
• the compensation of damages in accordance with the general principles of law.