As of December 1, 2015 an amendment of the Polish Act of June 30, 2000 Industrial Property Law (IPL) enters into force. The amendments cover also industrial designs registered by the Polish Patent Office under said Act. Below, I am going to provide a brief overview of the most significant changes to be introduced in this regard.

First of all, the definition of a component part of industrial design is to be amended, namely, the one provided for in Art. 102, section 3 of IPL. So far, the component part has been deemed to be a product if it may “by itself, be subject of commercialization” whereas after the amendment, the condition of being “replaceable” will be sufficient. Obviously, the requirement of being visible during normal use still remains applicable. The discussed amendment should be considered constructive as  the meaning of “being subject of commercialization by itself [independently]” has not been completely clear so far as well as the question at which point commercialization starts to be limited and what factors may have an effect on commercialization to be limited. Furthermore, the previous regulation restricted the scope of protection since if something is replaceable it must certainly be a component part of a complex product, whether the commercialization of such product is limited for any reasons or not.

Another crucial change to be made is dispensing with the requirement of submission, to the Patent Office, of a description which clarifies the pictures of the design along with the application of the industrial design.  Until this time, it has been mandatory that said description contain indication of characteristic features of the industrial design (former Art. 8, section 1 point 3 and Art. 108, section 3 of IPL). In practice, the courts tended to attach a great importance to the description which could impede the proper interpretation of the scope of protection as such, in the view of market conditions and after several years of functioning the design in the market, could take a shape quite different from the one that was expected at the filing date. As of December 1, 2015 attaching the description will be optional. Yet, the legislator specifically underscored that in the event when only a part of the product referred to in Art. 102 section 1 has new and individual character, a picture of the design must illustrate the whole product.

Notably, long-awaited abandonment of the limitation of copyrights due to the registration of industrial design which covers a work should be deemed advantageous. It is beyond any doubts that such effect has been earned by the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union of January 27, 2011, in the case FLOS , No. C-168/09 by virtue of which the Court found such solution inconsistent with the Community law. The previous Art. 116 of IPL stipulating that the protection of author’s economic rights in a work under the provisions of the copyright law shall not apply to the products manufactured by means of an industrial design and put on the market after the lapse of the right in registration granted for such a design ­­– will cease to have effect as of the date the amendment comes into force.

IPL will face another amendment next June, however, this time no revolutionary changes will be initiated in the law provisions applicable to the industrial designs.