News

Jaroslaw Sroczynski has outlined the distinction between information qualified as advertising and purely commercial information, in a note published in “Rzeczpospolita” of March 23, 2009 (“Advertising and commercial information”). Prof. Janusz Barta and Prof. Ryszard Markiewicz have commented the copyright aspects of the so-called Google settlement, concerning the digitalization of libraries.

From February to May 2009, Jarosław Sroczyński conducted, as part of the pro bono activity of Markiewicz & Sroczyński, a Competition Law Workshop attended by a group of students of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University. The purpose of the workshop was to provide exercises in the drafting of an appeal against a hypothetical decision of the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, which was related to the conclusion of a prohibited agreement. During the workshop the participants carried out an analysis of relevant markets, prepared arguments concerning the alleged infringements of competition law and developed motions based on the evidence. A full draft appeal to be submitted by the addressee of the decision to the Court of Competition and Consumer Protection was drawn up.

On March 9, 2009 Jarosław Sroczyński delivered a lecture at the Institute of Intellectual Property Law of the Jagiellonian University as part of the “IP Student” Workshop for students of the university’s Faculty of Law and Administration. The lecture addressed the issue of combating unfair market practices and, in particular, discussed the key principles of Polish Law on the Counteracting of Unfair Market Practices and its role in the system of competition and consumer law.

“Media a dobra osobiste” (“Media and personal rights”) is a new book by Prof. Ryszard Markiewicz and Prof. Janusz Barta. It was published in 2009 by the Wolters Kluwer Publishing House.

On February 10, 2009 the Polish Supreme Court delivered a judgment to the effect that the “specification of essential terms of the contract” (SIWZ) will be classified as work subject to copyright. Although SIWZ is a part of tender documents, this does not exclude copyright protection of the document’s content. For more information, see our “Legal News” section.

A book by Prof. Ryszard Markiewicz and Prof. Janusz Barta “Copyright Law” won the Magazyn Literacki KSIĄŻKI Book of the Month and Year 2008 award, in the category of professional literature. On January 27, 2009, the laureates received their prize in a ceremony at the National Library in Warsaw.

On December 11, 2008 Jarosław Sroczyński delivered a lecture entitled “Competition Law in Recent Judicial Decisions” at the 3rd Informedia Polska Congress in Warsaw. The subject of the lecture was class actions: their future and their importance for Polish competition and consumer laws. Issues discussed included, among other things, the new Polish draft Law on the Enforcement of Claims in Class Actions.