Data gives valuable insight into the state of IP enforcement in Poland

On July 1, 2022, passed the two-year mark in Poland, and once again, we contacted the district courts of Gdańsk, Katowice, Lublin, Poznań and Warsaw and asked to provide us with information for this time, including the number of cases filed, their subject matter and new procedural measures such as the motion to secure evidence, the request to disclose or release evidence and information requests. Such information gives valuable insight into the state of IP enforcement in Poland.

Quantity of IP cases

During the second year, 1,518 IP cases were filed before the District Court of Warsaw (last year 1,024 cases). In second place was the District Court of Katowice with 891 cases (last year 638 cases), followed by Poznań with 810 cases (last year 535 cases) and Gdańsk with 389 cases (last year 299 cases). Last was Lublin with 295 cases (last year 197 cases).

Subject matter

Before assessing the following data, it is worth noting that the figures presented below may not represent the exact number of cases concerning copyright, trademarks or industrial designs, as only one type of IP right is assigned to each case, even though most disputes concern multiple IP rights.

Table 1. Cases in Warsaw

There were no cases concerning semiconductors in Warsaw. The disproportion between the overall number of cases and what has been presented above is due to the fact that as last year, most cases in the department (738) concerned remuneration for the use of IP rights.

Table 2. Cases in Katowice

Table 3. Cases in Poznań

In Poznań, as in Warsaw, most of the cases concerned remuneration for the use of IP rights – 417 cases.

Table 4. Cases in Lublin

Table 5. Cases in Gdańsk

Securing claims

• Warsaw – 61 decisions were issued on the security of claims, with 25 accepting the motion;
• Katowice – 60 motions were filed, 19 of which were accepted;
• Poznań – 78 motions were filed, no answer on how many were accepted;
• Lublin – 36 motions were filed, no answer on how many were accepted; and
• Gdańsk – 31 motions were filed, 10 of which were accepted.

Average time from filing a motion to issuing a decision

According to the law, the court has seven days to hand down its decision. However, not every court can comply with this. The best in that regard is Lublin with an average of seven days. Then Poznań, with seven days if there were no errors in the motion, but 20 days if there were errors. The average time in Gdańsk was 27 days. The longest average time to wait for the decision in that regard was in Katowice – 50 days.

The district court in Warsaw provided no information on their time frame.

Motion to secure evidence

A motion to secure evidence assures that rights holders can gain information on the infringement of their rights. In Warsaw, 12 motions were filed and three were accepted. In Katowice, seven motions were filed and one was accepted. In Poznań, two motions were filed, while in Lublin, no such motions were filed. In Gdańsk, there were two motions.

Request to disclose or release evidence

A request to disclose or release evidence allows rights holders to obtain evidence from an infringer about the case requirements that is impossible to legally obtain outside of court proceedings.

In Katowice, there were seven requests. In Poznań, there were five requests. In Gdańsk, such request was filed in three cases. In Lublin, no such motion was filed. The District Court of Warsaw did not provide an answer.

Information requests

Through an information request, rights holders can obtain information on parties that cooperated with a defendant and the quantity and prices of counterfeit products.

In Warsaw, there were 23 such requests, 12 of which were accepted. In Katowice, there were 20 requests and the court issued two decisions. In Poznań, there were 17 requests and eight of them were accepted. In Lublin, there were six requests, among which five were accepted. In Gdańsk, there were 12 requests, among which only one was accepted.

Table 6. Number of cases resolved throughout the year

Second-instance decisions

The courts of appeal were also contacted to verify their workloads in the second year of the IP courts. 113 cases were filed before the Warsaw Court of Appeal and 87 were filed before the Poznań Court of Appeal.