Changes In Polish Trademark Registration Proceedings

We would like to draw attention to the upcoming amendment to the Industrial Property Law concerning changes in the procedure for obtaining protection rights to a trademark.

Key amendments to the Industrial Property Law include:

• an "opposition system" replaces the "testing system". After April 15th, 2016 the Polish Patent Office when examining a trademark protection application will conduct only a formal legal survey, verifying the existence of the absolute conditions for granting protection (conditions primarily determining the possible eligibility for designation as a trademark);
• a clear separation of (i) reservations to the existence of circumstances preventing the granting of the protection right, which might be submitted only on the basis of absolute conditions, and (ii) opposition, submitted only on the basis of relative conditions (conditions determining the possibility of the designation conflicting with other registered or applied trademarks);