The judgment addresses the question of whether an employee’s right to additional remuneration from the employer for use of an invention they created depends on whether the employer obtained a patent or – at least – on whether the invention was patentable. The Polish Supreme Court concluded that the employee is entitled to additional remuneration…
The resolution addresses the question of when the limitation period starts to run when it comes to claims arising from a continuous (repeated) infringement of industrial property rights. The Supreme Court concluded that the limitation period for such claims should be calculated separately for and including each day of an infringement. This means that for calculating…
The Supreme Administrative Court held that the publication of an application for a European patent that included the description of an industrial design in the relevant journal before the protection for such design was requested meant that the relevant design had been made available to the public and thus was not eligible for registration. With…
The judgment addresses the question of the scope of the co-inventors’ right to obtain a patent, prior to the grant of the patent. The Supreme Court presented the view that the substance of the co-inventors’ right to a patent allows them to use the invention in an unlimited way and, consequently, obliges them to settle…
A patent applicant is not obliged to prove the industrial applicability of an invention. It is the Patent Office which must prove the lack thereof. A full summary of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law.
The Bolar exemption must be interpreted narrowly in order not to affect the patent holder’s exclusive rights. The privilege of the generic drug manufacturers who are allowed to conduct clinical trials in order to seek regulatory approval for their therapeutic products based on patented inventions does not apply to their third-party suppliers. Thus, manufacturing of…
The Polish government’s enthusiasm for the EU patent package has seriously dwindled of late. It appears to have taken several steps back with respect to the implementation of a unified patent protection regime across Europe as a result of the heavy criticism of the EU patent reform at home. In particular, the UPC is still…
The Polish Supreme Administrative Court invalidated a decision of the Polish Patent Office in which it refused to grant a patent for an invention related to digital electronics. The court held that the patentability requirements under Polish patent law, including the technical character of an invention, correspond to the patentability requirements specified in the European…
The Supreme Administrative Court stated that the patentability requirements used by the Polish Patent Office should be construed in compliance with the patentability requirements provided in the European Patent Convention (EPC), and held that the technical character of a computer implemented invention should be examined by applying a liberal interpretation of the patentability requirements adopted…
The Polish Supreme Administrative Court has recently recognized a contradiction between the decisions of the Polish Patent Office regarding computer-implemented inventions and the practice of the European Patent Office (EPO). However, it is too early to say for certain whether Polish administrative courts have definitely changed their approach to so-called software patents. In a recent…
