October 2019 saw yet another amendment to the Industrial
Property Law adopted the same year. This time the changes concern
patents mostly and their main aim is to bring the Polish provisions
on inventions closer to the European Patent Convention
(EPC).
The thing is about Article 89.1 of the IPL, now amended by the Act
of 16 October 2019, whose new wording is as follows:
"A patent may be revoked in whole or in part upon request
by anyone who will demonstrate that (...)". The amendment
deletes the provision providing that the request may be submitted
only by a person with a legitimate interest therein.
The entrepreneurs requesting patent revocation
are no longer required to demonstrate that there is a specific
legal norm protecting their interest and that the existence of a
patent may directly affect their business, i.e. that said existence
undesirably complicates their legal situation. In judicial
decisions, a theory of objective understanding of said
