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At-a-glance: Patent Office of the Republic of Poland PO Box 203, Warsaw 00-950, Poland Tel: +48 22 579 0140 Fax: +48 22 579 0376 Email: informacja@uprp.pl Website: www.uprp.pl Polish companies have begun to place greater emphasis on protecting... [more]

Polish companies have begun to place greater emphasis on protecting their intellectual property in recent years, and subsequently the market has seen an increase of trade mark and patent filings as well as litigation. This has been partly down to the EU accession, which led to an influx of large western companies looking to protect their brands.

Marek Rosinski, principal of the IP department at Baker & McKenzie, says: "The strategy is also changing for the smaller companies. Instead of making money on lookalikes they are acquiring capital to protect their own brands." According to one international lawyer, however, there is still a long way to go for some local products. "Quite a lot of Polish companies don't understand how to do IP," he says. Partly in response to the growth of local IP, the market has also seen boutique firms popping up "like mushrooms after rain" according to one international lawyer, set up by former partners of international firms who spotted growth in the market. LDS Lazewski Depo & Partners was an example, where Baker & McKenzie lawyer Berenika Depo joined the practice, though she sadly died in August 2010.

Some firms and agencies in Poland have also changed their attitude to the Community patent project, having previously advocated the idea. They have realised, similarly to Spanish and Italian counterparts, the value of the patent translation business and are now against it. Katarzyna Karcz, managing director at Patpol, one of the country's leading patent prosecution agencies, says: "The door is still open on joining the Community patent project, but I don't thing it's a good thing. We have a book of clients who will have to pay a fortune to get their patents translated." The London Agreement is also being met with scepticism, despite heavy pressure from large western brands. One IP litigator says: "There have been talks of Poland joining the agreement, which would help the big companies here, but agencies have realised the potential costs of losing their validation income." Another international litigator agrees that "the Commmuity trade mark is a killer for this business".