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🔵 In today’s Rzeczpospolita, I addressed the topic of protecting the appearance of a product, pointing out firstly the principle of permissibility of imitation, but secondly trying to determine to what extent it is limited in many areas of intellectual property law. Thus, I write about what slavish imitation is in the Unfair Competition Law and to what extent the external appearance of a product (design) can be protected by copyright, industrial designs and trademarks. 👉 The topic of cumulative protection by intellectual property rights is fascinating, it shows how many conflicts between the interests of different market players have not yet been precisely resolved – but it is worth being aware of the existing dangers or opportunities. ➡️ Link to article for Subscribers: https://www.rp.pl/biznes/art39361911-wyglad-produktu-czy-dozwolone-jest-kopiowanie-jak-chroniony-jest-design?fbclid=IwAR0L_UwQzWmIhVTL5cveteaPm7bgU9lUZlC4k9698yb6w0Cv2QMXa9tjGBE

🔵 In today’s Rzeczpospolita, Dr. Michal Markiewicz writes about the durability of a license agreement in copyright law. This is because not everyone realizes that if you do not specify the duration of the license, it will expire after 5 years. An even bigger surprise is related to contracts for a fixed term longer than 5 years. The possibility to terminate them already after 5 years was in principle supposed to protect the creator, but in reality it leads to the opposite effect and the forcing of agreements transferring rights, even though it does not correspond to the interests of the creator, but also to the expectations of the other party to the contract. 👉 So how to deal with license agreements that must be concluded for a long time? ➡️ Publicly available excerpt from the article: https://archiwum.rp.pl/artykul/1504331-Wypowiadalnosc-umowy-licencyjnej:-ochrona-tworcy-czy-wrecz-przeciwnie.html?fbclid=IwAR2EmJlMCdeZdrjFRivRa7QxEVG6fdOiH0XCU-MHV01IoGQJZnY3vL9N1dg

🔵 In today’s Rzeczpospolita, Dr. Michal Markiewicz writes about the institution of exhaustion of rights. When we acquire a good protected by intellectual property rights, can we sell it further? It would seem that since it is our property then, of course, yes. However, the answer, as usual in law, is “it depends.” 👉 As a rule, intellectual property rights also include control over the further resale of acquired items. The exception in this regard, which is extremely important, is precisely the exhaustion of the right to control the resale – however, this does not always occur, and the mechanism itself is an important tool from the perspective of shaping price policy and the competitiveness of individual markets. In the article I present the basic assumptions of the construction of the exhaustion of the right and the consequences it brings. ➡️ Publicly available excerpt from the article: https://archiwum.rp.pl/artykul/1503521-Wlasnosc-rzeczy-to-jednak-nie-wszystko.html

🔵 There are heavy administrative fines for payment backlogss. 📢 🔹 As of the beginning of 2023, new regulations on penalties for excessive delays in commercial transactions are in force. Currently, the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection no longer has the authority to waive the imposition of a fine in a situation where the sum of receivables not paid or paid late during the period under investigation is higher than the sum of liabilities not paid or paid late during that period. The above change negatively affects the situation of many entrepreneurs who, in the previous state of the law, often “saved themselves” with this premise and thus avoided high administrative penalties. 🔹 According to the law, excessive delay in the fulfillment of pecuniary benefits occurs when, over a period of 3 consecutive months, the sum of the value of due pecuniary benefits unfulfilled and fulfilled after the deadline by this entity amounts to at least PLN 2,000,000. Taking into account the fact that to the above “pool” of benefits are taken into account all benefits delayed (even by 1 day), it is not difficult for many entrepreneurs to meet the above premise, and consequently expose themselves to the risk of proceedings before the OCCP. 🔹 The amended law also introduced the institution of a “soft speech” (along the lines of antitrust and consumer proceedings) to the so-called congestion proceedings, with which the OCCP President may address the entrepreneur pointing out irregularities and expecting improvement in this regard, without simultaneously initiating administrative proceedings. The above will perhaps reduce the number of initiated proceedings that could end in a fine. 👉 At Markiewicz Sroczynski Mioduszewski we help entrepreneurs in obstruction proceedings, so we are curious to see the further development of the jurisprudential practice of the President of the OCCP in this regard.

🔵 NOMINATION IN GCR 100 2024 RANKING! MSM Law Firm has again been recommended by Global Competition Review among the world’s 100 competition law practices 🏆 ➡️ More about GCR: https://lnkd.in/e2peUva

🔵 In today’s Rzeczpospolita, Dr. Michał Markiewicz writes about the meaning of the novelty premise for selected intellectual property rights. While it would seem that everyone knows perfectly well what “novelty” is, it turns out that the term can have a significantly different meaning for individual rights. There are also rights that do not condition their creation on the premise of novelty, which is simultaneously relevant to the scope of protection granted. 👉 Then what is “new” in intellectual property rights?

In the 21st edition of the nationwide Ranking of Law Firms 2023 organized by Rzeczpospolita, the law firm Markiewicz Sroczynski Mioduszewski was among the top 10 law firms in Poland and received the following awards: Leader title in three areas: 👉 Intellectual Property Law; 👉 Competition and antitrust law; 👉 TMT (information technology, media, telecommunications). In addition, in the category of lawyers, the Field Leaders were: 👉 Prof. Ryszard Markiewicz – “Intellectual Property Law”; 👉 Attorney Jaroslaw Sroczynski – “Competition and antitrust law”; 👉 mec. Marcin Mioduszewski – “TMT (information technology, media, telecommunications)”. The ranking is created, among other things, on the basis of indications from other lawyers. Our sincere thanks to all who trusted us! ➡️ More about the ranking on the Rzeczpospolita website: https://rankingi.rp.pl/rankingkancelarii/2023