Obtaining protective rights for a trademark in Poland

If you are interested in registering a trademark in Poland, the competent authority in this regard is the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland, based in Warsaw (in Polish: “Urząd Patentowy”). However, you do not have to go to the office in person to complete all the formalities. There are two ways to choose:

1) traditional – which means sending the application for trademark protection rights to the Patent Office by mail in paper form,

2) electronic – which means sending the application for trademark protection rights online by marking it with a qualified electronic signature or trusted profile issued by Polish authorities.

After filing a trademark application, the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland performs an initial verification of the application in terms of form and substance, i.e. verifies whether all data has been entered correctly, whether the application fee has been paid, and whether the mark meets the features that allow its registration.

In the next step, if no absolute obstacles preventing registration of the trademark are found, information about the completed trademark application will be published in the Bulletin of the Polish Patent Office.

After an announcement is made in the Bulletin, within 3 months, any third party has the right to file an opposition to a trademark application. The opposition may be filed by any person who claims to be entitled to an earlier trademark or to exercise an earlier personal or property right. If the opposition is deemed legitimate by the Patent Office, the Office will refuse to grant the trademark protection right. If, on the other hand, the opposition is unfounded or late (i.e., filed after the expiration of 3 months from the date of announcement in the Bulletin), the Polish Patent Office will register the trademark.

The application fee for trademark registration is: PLN 450 (traditional form) or PLN 400 (electronic form). The basic fee covers registration of a mark in one class only, each additional class is an additional cost of PLN 120, regardless of the form of registration. A fee of PLN 90 is charged for the publication of information on the protection right granted.

After obtaining the right of protection for a trademark, it is worth remembering to monitor the trademark database (available online) to ensure that no one infringes the rights of the registered trademark. In addition, do not forget that the trademark protection right in Poland is granted for a period of 10 years, and in order to maintain exclusive rights to the mark, it is necessary to extend the protection period before its expiration.

The law firm of SOS Suslo Optimal Solution represents clients in trademark protection cases before the Polish Patent Office, including responding to oppositions to the registration of the mark. As part of our law firm’s copyright and industrial law department, we draft license agreements and agreements transferring author’s economic rights, as well as appearing in lawsuits for infringement (e.g., of the author’s rights).

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Trademark in Poland