Polish your IP

SEVERAL ECONOMIC DIVISIONS TO BE SHUT DOWN…

The Polish government has long been analyzing the issue of specialized IP Courts which would examine patent and trademark litigations in view of their highly complex nature, significant volume and a need for specialization. For the moment it appears that no such radical steps will be taken.

In Poland civil cases involving IP are generally examined by Regional Courts, and as regards disputes between entrepreneurs – Economic Divisions of Regional Courts of which we have got in Poland quite a few: in Białystok, Bielsko-Biała, Bydgoszcz, Częstochowa, Elbląg, Gdańsk, Gdańsk (Appeal Division), Gliwice, Gorzów Wielkopolski, Jelenia Góra, Kalisz, Katowice (three divisions), Kielce, Koszalin, Kraków (two divisions), Krosno, Legnica, Lublin, Łódź, Olsztyn, Opole, Poznań (two divisions), Radom, Szczecin, Świdnica, Tarnobrzeg, Tarnów (two divisions), Toruń, Warszawa (three divisions), Wrocław, Zielona Góra. Altogether thirty-eight divisions (let alone the Community Trade Mark and Community Design Court in Warsaw which is organizationally another division of the Regional Court).

In practice, in several Regional Courts especially those with the largest workload IP disputes are handled regularly by the same group of judges who become specialized. Still one may have bad lack especially in smaller courts where IP cases might be examined by a person who doesn’t normally handle such disputes.

Nevertheless, a spectrum of changes has appeared on the horizon. The Ministry of Justice is planning to shut down several Economic Divisions. We have been attentively monitoring this issue since January when first mentions on liquidation appeared in the press (read more: http://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/Wiadomosci/1,80708,9002713,Sady_gospodarcze_do_likwidacji.html).

A project precisely outlining these plans has recently appeared on the official site of the Polish Ministry of Justice (http://bip.ms.gov.pl/pl/projekty-aktow-prawnych/prawo-panstwowe/). Thus, the following economic divisions are planned to be shut down as of 1 July 2011:

-          in the Regional courts in Bielsko-Biała, Koszalin, Świdnica and Zielona Góra.

In a nutshell, the project explains that the objective behind those plans is organizing strong units with a sufficiently high influx of cases and workload in view of a relatively low number of cases examined before the economic divisions under liquidation. It explicitly suggests that the courts which will ‘soak up’ the cases form the divisions under liquidation have until now had insufficiently exploited capacities and therefore maintaining smaller economic divisions has no rational justification.

It is beyond any doubt that such changes will result in a slight modification of a map of Courts examining IP cases. Will this centralization bring any good? Are we any closer to a specialized IP court? We wouldn’t like to draw too far-fetched conclusions, however even if we cannot expect any IP specialization in the nearest feature, it can be considered a small step towards specialization. Hopefully, a bigger number of cases will be examined by experienced judges with the highest level of qualification and expertise in IP litigation.

Author: Magdalena Solak-Michałkiewicz

For any questions on this article contact Michał Siciarek

Author: admin