Intellectual property – What is it and how does it protect your business?

Intellectual property – What is it and how does it protect your business?

Intellectual property is a broad legal category encompassing all intangible assets — products of the human mind — to which the law grants protection. In practical terms, this means that if you create an invention, design a product, write a book, or build a brand, you may have an exclusive right to use that asset and derive benefits from it. Intellectual property is one of the most important assets of any entrepreneur today — regardless of industry or company size.

Intellectual property is divided into two main pillars: copyright and industrial property law. A separate but related category is protection against unfair competition. Understanding these distinctions is essential for effectively safeguarding your business.

Copyright

Copyright protects the creators of works — texts, music, graphics, photographs, software, films, or architecture — automatically, from the moment of their creation, without the need for any registration. Under Polish law, two types of creator’s rights are distinguished:

• Moral rights (autorskie prawa osobiste) — these protect the inseparable bond between the creator and the work: the right to authorship, to the integrity of the work’s content and form, and to have the work attributed to the creator’s name. Moral rights are inalienable.
• Economic rights (autorskie prawa majątkowe) — these encompass the exclusive right to use and dispose of the work (e.g., selling, licensing, granting permission for reproduction). Economic rights can be transferred to other parties by way of a rights transfer agreement. They can also be licensed. As a general rule, economic copyright expires 70 years after the author’s death.

However, copyright does not protect ideas, concepts, methods, or names themselves — it protects the specific, fixed form of their expression. Therefore, merely creating a product name or logo does not automatically grant exclusivity over its use in commerce. This is where industrial property law steps in.

Industrial property law — What is it and what does it protect?

Industrial property law is a system of formal, registered exclusive rights that protect technical innovations, design, and signs used in business. Unlike copyright, this protection does not arise automatically — it requires filing an application and obtaining a decision from the competent office.

The main types of industrial property rights include:

Trademark Protection Rights

A trademark (colloquially: a brand) is a sign that distinguishes the goods or services of one entrepreneur from those of others. A trademark can be a company name, a logo, a slogan, or even a color or sound. Contrary to popular belief, the expression “patenting a trademark” is colloquial — formally, one speaks of trademark registration, and the right obtained is a trademark protection right. A registered, protected trademark grants its owner exclusivity over its use in commerce for specified goods or services.

Before deciding on a name for your company, product, or service, it is worth checking whether it can be legally used in a given territory. This can be done through publicly available databases such as the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) database, the EUIPO database (for EU trademarks), or the WIPO database (for international trademarks). Read about how to check if a name is trademarked — how to conduct a preliminary verification. However, independent preliminary searches are often insufficient — a proper analysis requires considering phonetic and conceptual similarity of marks, not just identical names. A comprehensive trademark search is therefore essential.

Registered Industrial Design

Industrial design registration protects only the external appearance of a product — its shape, lines, colors, texture, and ornamentation. It is, simply put, the registration of a product’s design. A registered industrial design grants its owner exclusivity over its use in the territory where the design protection applies. The maximum period of industrial design protection in Poland and the EU is 25 years, subject to renewal fees paid every 5 years.

Patent for an Invention

A patent is an exclusive right granted for inventions — that is, new technical solutions that involve an inventive step and are susceptible of industrial application. The word “to patent” something means precisely obtaining such a patent. Patent protection generally lasts up to 20 years from the filing date (subject to payment of annual fees) and has a limited territorial scope — a patent granted by the Polish Patent Office protects the invention exclusively within the territory of Poland.

Utility Model Protection Rights

A utility model, often referred to as a “petty patent,” protects new and useful technical solutions relating to the shape or construction of an object. Protection lasts up to 10 years. It is easier to obtain than a patent.

Where and How to Protect Industrial Property Rights?

Depending on the market in which you operate, you can choose different levels of protection:

• National protection — filing with the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) in Warsaw. Protection covers the territory of Poland. Trademark registration here typically takes several months; obtaining a patent for an invention generally takes a few years.
• EU-wide protection — filing with EUIPO (the European Union Intellectual Property Office) in Alicante. A single application for trademark or design registration provides protection across all 27 EU Member States. Industrial design registration at EUIPO is remarkably fast: a registration certificate can be issued in as little as 2 weeks!
• European Patent — not to be confused with EU-wide protection! This is a unique patent protection pathway involving a single application filed with the EPO, covering 39 European countries, and allowing patent protection in selected states. After a decision granting the patent is issued, patent validation in individual countries and/or a request for unitary effect in 18 states is required.
• International protection — trademarks can be registered internationally through the Madrid System administered by WIPO, and industrial designs through the Hague System administered by WIPO. Additionally, through the PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) procedure at WIPO, patent protection for an invention can be sought in over 150 countries on the basis of a single application.

Unfair competition — supplementary protection

The Unfair Competition Act constitutes an important supplementary tool for protecting an entrepreneur’s interests. It provides protection against, among others:

• parasitic imitation of products,
• misleading product designations,
• dissemination of false information about a competitor,
• unfair advertising and other practices detrimental to the entrepreneur’s interests.

Unfair competition claims can be raised even when a given element (e.g., a company name or packaging shape) is not covered by a formal exclusive right. However, it is worth noting that this type of protection requires proving the unlawfulness of a competitor’s actions in court proceedings on a case-by-case basis — making it considerably harder to enforce than a formal exclusive right.

Counterfeiting is dealt with most effectively on the basis of industrial property law — when a product is protected as a registered design, utility model, or patent, and a brand and logo are registered as trademarks. Combating counterfeits solely on the basis of unfair competition law is significantly more difficult, and sometimes even impossible.

This is why it is worth registering your industrial property rights — at UPRP, EUIPO, and other competent offices — depending on the territorial scope of your business activities.

Why use a patent attorney?

A patent attorney (rzecznik patentowy) is a professional who has completed a specialized three-year traineeship followed by a state examination, qualifying them to represent clients in intellectual property matters. A patent law firm — i.e., an intellectual property practice run by a patent attorney — is the first place to turn when:

• you are launching a new brand or company and want to check whether a name is trademarked and whether you can safely use it,
• you want to register a trademark, industrial design, or obtain a patent,
• someone is infringing your rights — e.g., introducing counterfeits of your products onto the market or using a name identical to your brand,
• you conduct international business and need protection in several countries simultaneously,
• you want to manage your portfolio of exclusive rights — keeping track of renewal deadlines, monitoring competitors’ new filings, and maintaining up-to-date registers.

A patent attorney can represent clients before UPRP, EUIPO, WIPO, and before courts in matters concerning industrial property, copyright, and unfair competition. Importantly, foreign entities wishing to register their rights in Poland are required to act exclusively through a patent attorney or advocate — such entities cannot independently appear before the Polish Patent Office.

Filing an application with the patent office independently is formally possible, but it carries the risk of procedural errors, an incorrectly formulated list of goods and services, or overlooking conflicting marks — which may lead to a refusal of registration or subsequent invalidation of the right. The support of an experienced patent law firm is an investment that protects your business!

Have questions about protecting your brand, invention, or design?

Contact us — as an experienced patent law firm based in Poznań, we will help you effectively secure your intellectual property rights in both the Polish and international markets.