Small Changes That Make A Big Difference - The Recent Amendments To Polish IP Law

With a slight lag of two months, on 11 March, the Polish President signed the bill amending Intellectual Property Law ("IP Law") which is scheduled to enter into force one day following its publication. The broad changes were brought about by the implementation of the EU Trademark Directive 2015/2436 ((EU) Directive 2015/2436 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2015 to approximate the laws of Member States regarding trademarks) (the "Directive").

The wide-ranging EU provisions, aimed at updating, developing, centralising and further harmonising the existing regulations, tackled the most intricate issues underlying trademark law, i.e. among others, trademark definition, filings and renewals, absolute and relative grounds for refusal, guarantee and collective marks, licensee rights, trademark infringement, trademark use (and non-use as a defence in invalidation proceedings) and some procedural aspects.