Poland Chapter of Global Patent GO——Introduction to Patent Application in Poland

Poland reborn several times from the ashes

Poland, a small country in Eastern Europe, has an area only four-fifths that of Japan. Since its founding in the 10th century, it has a long and tortuous history. It has experienced many times of subjugation and restoration, and its borders have changed several times. The current territory of Poland is the result of negotiations between several parties at the Yalta Conference at the end of World War II in 1945. The east is bordered by the Soviet Union on the Curzon Line, and the west receives part of the territorial compensation from Germany. This small country living between the two big countries, with the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1989, the planned economy quickly transformed into a market economy. After joining the European Union, the economy grew more rapidly, and even maintained rapid growth during the economic crisis in 2008. By 2021, Poland has become the sixth largest country in the European Union in terms of GDP.

On the seventh day after the founding of New China, that is, on October 7, 1949, Poland established diplomatic relations with China at the ambassadorial level. China and Poland have close trade relations in high-tech products, clean energy, labor, service industry and infrastructure construction. In 2020, the total trade volume between China and Poland will reach 31.056 billion US dollars, of which 26.736 billion will be exported from China to Poland. Including: electromechanical, textile, footwear, home appliances, transportation equipment, steel, furniture, etc. Poland has become China's ninth largest trading partner in the EU and the largest trading partner in Central and Eastern Europe, and China has become Poland's second largest source of imports for two consecutive years. In recent years, China has continued to increase investment in machinery, IT products, finance, electronics, biomedicine, new energy and other fields, and Poland has become the target market chosen by many Chinese companies. As a result, the number of Chinese applicants applying for patents in Poland has also increased exponentially in recent years.

Since last year, the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology of Poland has begun to draft a new intellectual property law. Major adjustments will take place in all aspects of intellectual property rights, and the utility model protection system will usher in transformative adjustments. The legislative plan will introduce an expedited application process to replace the existing review system with a registration system. The Polish Patent Office will only conduct formality examination for utility models, and will not conduct substantive examination, and will grant utility model protection immediately after the applicant pays the relevant fees and documents.

Overview of Patents in Poland

1. Paths for Chinese applicants to apply for patents in Poland

Paris Convention, via Nationalization of PCT to Polish national phase, direct application.

2. Review unit

The Polish Patent Office, PPO, is part of the Polish Ministry of Economy. The publication service of the Polish Patent Office includes Polish translations of Polish invention patents from May 26, 1924 to the present, European patent specifications from June 30, 2005 to the present, and utility models from March 30, 2001 to the present, and Industrial design documents from January 29, 2010 to the present. The patent documents published by the Polish Patent Office can be retrieved from the official search website of the European Patent Office (Espacenet). The scope of the documents included is from September 26, 1977 to the present, and the number of documents is 362,234.

3. Submit your application

1) Time limit requirements: PPO recognizes the restoration of the right of priority. Although the cost is not high, it is extremely difficult and the possibility of success is low.

2) It can be submitted in written form, fax or electronic form. The date of receipt of the PPO is the filing date. If submitted by fax, all original documents must be submitted within 30 days. Patent applicants can communicate with examiners by mail.

3) The filing language of the patent application is Polish. If the priority text provided is not in English, French, German or Russian, a certified translation of the full text in Polish must be provided.

4. Formal examination

The PPO conducts a formal review of the patent application documents and checks whether the documents meet other formal requirements.

5. Search report

The search report made by the PPO is based on available patent documents in English, French, and German, as well as patent applications and authorized patents recorded in Polish, and other documents available for reference. The review process will be based on This search report is for reference only.

6. Disclosure procedure

The patent application will be published immediately after 18 months from the priority date, and the applicant can also file a request for early publication within 12 months from the priority date. The search report will be published together with the application documents. Anyone can provide a third-party public opinion to the PPO after the application has been made public.

7. Review and Authorization

For patent applications that meet the granted standards after examination, the PPO will grant the patent right after the applicant pays the granted registration fee.

Design Patent Application in Poland

Poland is a strong country in graphic design, and the protection of design patents is very special. Since only the registration system is implemented, font design, logo and graphical user interface and overall decoration design (GET-UP) that do not use products as carriers are all available in Poland. can be protected.

The laws or treaties applicable to the protection of industrial designs in Poland can be divided into three levels. First, at the level of domestic legislation, Poland protects industrial property rights, including designs, through the Polish Industrial Property Law. Second, since Poland is a member state of the European Union, the EU Design Protection Regulation also applies to Poland. Third, Poland joined the Hague Agreement on the International Registration of Industrial Designs in 2009, so designs can also be protected in Poland through the Hague system.

On March 17, 2021, the PPO launched a fast-track design review procedure. In order to achieve the purpose of rapid examination, the applicant must submit an electronic form through the Electronic Service Platform (PUEUP) of the Patent Office, and select the title of the design from the Design Class database. After receiving the granted decision, the applicant must immediately Pay the registration fee and submit a waiver to waive the right to review the granted decision.

For a design patent application submitted directly to the PPO, it usually takes only two to three weeks from submission to granted.

Advantages of Polish patent application

1. In order to encourage innovation in PPO, if a patent applicant submits at least 3 patent applications with different themes within 3 months, each application fee can be reduced by up to 30%.

2. The exhibition priority system has been added, which is further closer to the EU design system, and also provides applicants with a protection system that is more in line with the characteristics of design. The applicant is more confident in presenting its latest design, without worrying about losing the novelty of the design due to public announcement, and can obtain priority. Design patents in Poland have a 12-month period without loss of novelty.

3. The Polish police and customs have internal patent intellectual property enforcement services, attach great importance to intellectual property border enforcement measures, and set up a special intellectual property department within the General Administration of Customs, and cooperate with neighboring countries to organize joint inspections every 3 months; Customs Officials may seize the infringing property on their own initiative or at the request of the right holder.

Friendliness to Chinese applicants:

★★★★★

Gold content of patent rights:

★★★★

The degree of perfection of the rights protection mechanism:

★★★★