Intellectual Property

Our approach

We have consistently built one of the strongest IP practices in Poland. For many years we have been recognised as a leading intellectual property team by the most prestigious international legal directories, including Chambers and Partners, The Legal 500, IAM Patent 1000, WTR 1000 and Managing IP – IP Stars. We are also authorised to represent clients before the Unified Patent Court, which enables us to provide comprehensive patent protection across Europe.

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We combine deep expertise in intellectual property law, unfair competition and advertising law with extensive hands-on business experience gained across multiple sectors of the economy. We have unique, long-standing experience in managing complex technology transaction projects. Our lawyers do not merely protect IP rights – they help clients strategically build, effectively monetise and vigorously enforce them at every stage of a product's, brand's or technology's lifecycle. In many projects we act as hub counsel, coordinating activities across multiple jurisdictions for our clients and ensuring a coherent IP protection strategy on an international scale. We work closely with our litigation, M&A, tax, business crime, competition, real estate and labour law teams, delivering comprehensive, cross-disciplinary support wherever intellectual property protection extends beyond the boundaries of a single legal discipline.

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How We Can Help

We advise and represent clients across the full spectrum of intellectual property matters – from building protection strategies, through transactions and licensing, to high-stakes litigation.

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Our experience includes:

• protection of EU and Polish trademarks, including renowned trademarks, geographical indications, and other distinguishing indications,
• protection of EU and industrial designs, utility models, patents, supplementary protection certificates (SPCs), plant varieties and other industrial property rights, as well as advice on skinny label strategies, support in connection with planned product market entry and with applications for inclusion on reimbursement lists,
• protection of copyrights, including copyrights in software,
• protection of business names and other intangible enterprise assets,
• protection of a person’s image and one’s other personality rights,
• advertising law, including protection against misleading advertising and unfair comparative advertising,
• protection of commercial secrets,
• protection against copying products, dissemination of untrue information, inducing breach of contract, impeding market access, through, e.g., dumping or so called “slotting fees”, and other forms of unfair competition.

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We handle complex, multi-jurisdictional projects and lead precedent-setting disputes of critical importance to our clients, including:

• we elaborate strategies for the protection of intellectual property rights, we issue opinions, we make similarity searches, and we assess the risk of infringement,
• we review the scenarios of advertising campaigns, and participate in the creation and implementation of marketing strategies,
• we represent clients in litigation and arbitration concerned with the infringement of industrial property rights, copyrights, commercial secrets, acts of unfair competition, and acts of unfair advertising; we also appear before the Supreme Court,
• we handle Polish, EU and international proceedings for the registration of trademarks and industrial designs,
• we handle proceedings to oppose, invalidate and extinguish industrial property rights before Poland’s Patent Office (Urząd Patentowy RP), the Polish administrative courts including the Supreme Administrative Court, and before EU bodies, the EUIPO and CJEU,
• we draft and negotiate contracts for the sale and transfer by other means of IP rights, made with creative and advertising agencies, licensing agreements, franchise agreements and other specialized contracts that address matters of particular relevance to individual market sectors, such as the markets for architectural services, pharmaceuticals, FMCGs, and IT,
• we draft and negotiate contracts for the transfer of technology and manage comprehensive technology transactions, including those involving rights protected by patents and constituting confidential know-how, R&D contracts, shared rights contracts, and delimitation and coexistence of rights contracts,
• we carry our audits of IP rights at our clients’ organizations and in those of target companies in M&A transactions,
• we manage the industrial property portfolios of our clients in Poland and worldwide, we supervise the maintenance of exclusive rights and we monitor registers to identify unlawful registration applications worldwide,
• we cooperate with customs authorities and with the police in cases involving counterfeit and pirated goods.

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Sectors we serve

Years of experience advising clients across diverse industries give us a unique perspective – we understand not only the regulations but also the business realities of each sector. We support businesses operating in the following areas, among others:

• pharmaceuticals and life sciences, biotechnology, chemicals
• energy, automotive, construction,
• luxury goods, fashion and apparel, retail,
• retail, food and beverages (FMCG),
• financial services, e-commerce
• technology, media and telecommunications, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

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Many of our lawyers specialise in regulatory matters specific to individual industries and actively participate in the firm's dedicated sector teams, ensuring advice that is precisely tailored to each client's needs.