Category: Poland

In an effort to streamline the adjudication of IP cases in Poland, specialized courts will be introduced next year. The courts will very likely improve the speed, efficiency, and expertise with which IP cases are handled – a win for all parties involved.

The Current Structure Relies on Regular Courts for Different IP Cases

Claims in Poland involving alleged infringements of intellectual property rights – including, for example, claims of piracy with respect to copyrights and trademarks – are currently heard by common courts and the Polish Supreme Court. Some cases in the field of industrial property law, including complaints regarding the decisions of the country’s Patent Office, are handled by the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw and the Supreme Administrative Court. 

Cases related to community trademarks and community industrial designs, on the other hand, are examined by a special department of the District Court in Warsaw – the Court of EU Trademarks and Community Designs.

Heavy Caseload Necessitated Structural Changes

The large increase of cases year-by-year made the creation of specialized courts and a workforce of court clerks with competencies in intellectual property necessary. On December 3, 2019, the Council of Ministers adopted an amendment to the Code of Civil Procedure prepared by the Ministry of Justice to further specialize the judiciary, and the amendments will enter into force on July 1, 2020. 

The specialized courts will deal with cases in the field of copyright and related rights, industrial property rights, and unfair competition. They will also consider certain categories of cases involving the protection of personal rights, including cases involving the unlawful use of copyrights and trademarks.

Courts to Become More Focused on Specific Areas of IP

New departments for IP matters will be created at the District Courts in Gdansk, Katowice, Poznan, and Warsaw, and specialized departments will be established in the Courts of Appeal in Warsaw and Katowice. This will replace the current system, in which intellectual property matters, including those relating to highly specialized issues such as patents, plant varieties, and trademarks, are examined by commercial departments of common courts. 

A specialized court that was previously established within the 22nd Department of the District Court in Warsaw for cases involving EU trademarks and community designs will lose the exclusive competence to deal with those cases and will consider IP claims regarding computer programs, inventions, designs utility, topography of integrated circuits, plant varieties, and trade secrets of a technical nature (i.e., matters of advanced complexity). 

A Clear Step Forward for How IP Cases Will be Handled

The changes represent a positive step for the court system, as there have been discussions regarding the creation of a specialized court to settle intellectual property matters for many years. In order to conduct proceedings in these cases, it will be necessary to have highly trained judges who are familiar with IP/IT issues. The new rules also require parties in IP cases to be represented by professional lawyers, legal advisers, and patent attorneys. This will further contribute to the speed and efficiency of proceedings and help to usher in a new era of how these cases are handled in Poland.

Authors: Marcin Rudnik, Head of IP/IT, and Monika Gaczkowska, Associate, Wolf Theiss Warsaw

Domanski Zakrzewski Palinka has advised the Ingka Group on on a merger of its IKEA Retail and IKEA Property Poland subsidiaries in Poland.

According to DZP, “Ingka is one of the world’s largest companies selling furniture, home furnishings, and home and garden decorations, and has operated for over 70 years. Ingka, which operates the IKEA stores, has 422 stores on more than 50 markets around the world.”

The DZP team included Partners Przemyslaw Furmaga, Agata Mierzwa, Joanna Wierzejska, and Lech Zyzylewski, Counsel Daniel Chojnacki, Senior Associates Justyna Tyc-Brzosko, Paulina Janas, and Hubert Plater-Zyberk, Associate Aleksandra Czarnecka and Marcin Niemyjski, and Tax Manager Tomasz Leszczewski.

Eversheds Sutherland has advised Cogito Capital Partners on investing in London-based Applica.AI ltd, and its subsidiary Applica.AI sp.z.o.o., a software company and a developer of AI-based robotic text automation platform. The Series A funding also included Barclays and Techstars. Applica was advised by Ignition Law.

According to Eversheds Sutherland, “Applica’s customers both in Europe and the US come from the financial services, insurance, legal and media sectors. They use Applica’s platform to extract actionable information from large volumes of unstructured and semi-structured documents such as regulatory financial filings, earnings call transcripts, commercial contracts or court rulings. Applica’s platform is often implemented together with robotic process automation solutions that automate workflow in enterprises.”

“Applica is on a mission to free knowledge workers from repetitive and text-intensive tasks and let them focus on higher-value work,” said Piotr Surma, CEO of Applica. “The success of robotic process automation is a stepping stone for powerful AI-based platforms to automate work that requires human-level scrutiny and comprehension of documents. The financial backing and domain expertise of Cogito and Barclays will help us execute our strategy and strengthen Applica’s presence in the US market.”

Eversheds Sutherland reports that “the undisclosed amount of funding will be used by the company to fuel its further global expansion. The Cogito team will support Applica in building out key go-to-market partnerships, with a particular focus on the US market. Barclays has been an early supporter of Applica through the Barclays Accelerator, powered by Techstars; Applica participated in the 2018 New York cohort.”

“We are excited about Applica’s prospects and impressed with the quality and scalability of the platform they’ve developed,” said Martin Jasinski, Cogito’s General Partner. ”Their ability to extract meaning from unstructured text in large volumes of documents is clearly market-leading, as demonstrated by a number of recent high-value customer wins.”

“During Applica’s participation in the Barclays Accelerator, powered by Techstars, we were impressed by Applica’s ability to build cutting-edge and commercially impactful AI-based tools,” said Kester Keating, Head of US Strategic Investments at Barclays. “Through this Series A funding, we are pleased to support Applica’s further development, and we look forward to working with them as they address the huge market opportunity around RPA with new partnerships and products.”

Eversheds Sutherland’s mixed Birmingham-Warsaw team included Partners Catherine Eley, Michal Karwacki, Senior Associate Natalia Burchardt, Lawyers Kamil Ciodyk, Joanna Polkowska, and Krzysztof Karlowicz, and Associate Charlotte Singh.

Editor’s note: After this article was published Ignition Law informed CEE Legal Matters that its team included Partner Alex McPherson, Senior Consultant Helen Gerrard, and Associate Jack Colman.

Greenberg Traurig has advised Madison International Realty on its acquisition of a 46.5% stake in European Logistics Investment, which holds a Polish real estate warehouse portfolio valued at approximately EUR 500 million, from its majority owner Redefine Properties Limited. Rymarz Zdort advised Redefine on the transaction, which remains subject to regulatory approval.

Madison International Realty is a real estate private equity firm providing liquidity to owners and investors in A-class properties and portfolios.

According to Greenberg Traurig, “the warehouse portfolio comprises 14 assets totaling around 560,000 square meters and is spread across Poland’s key distribution centers of Warsaw, Lodz, Poznan, Krakow, and the Silesia and Pomerania Regions.”

The Greenberg Traurig team included Partners Radomil Charzynski, Robert Gago, and Stephen Horvath, Senior Associates Kamil Majewski and Maciej Pietrzak, and Associates Filip Drgas and Magdalena Medynska. 

Rymarz Zdort’s team included Managing Partner Pawel Zdort, Partner Piotr Fedorowicz, Counsel Jakub Krzemien, and Associates Karolina Bakowska, Tomasz Karkowski, Michal Kostewicz, and Aleksander Jakubisiak.

Gessel has advised Polish Enterprise Fund VII, a private equity fund managed by Enterprise Investors, on the EUR 140 million sale of Danwood Holding to GS Engineering & Construction. 

Danwood S.A. is a manufacturer of finished houses in Germany and Poland which employs over 2,000 people. In December 2013, Enterprise Investors acquired the company in a carve-out transaction from Budimex. 

Enterprise Investors is a private equity company in Central and Eastern Europe that has created nine funds with a total capital of more than EUR 2.5 billion. These funds have invested almost EUR 2 billion in 143 companies from various sectors.

GS Engineering & Construction is a construction company based in South Korea that is listed on the Korean Stock Exchange. The company specializes in construction and architecture, power plants, energy, and infrastructure. It has 24 foreign branches.

The Gessel team included Partner Marcin Macieszczak and Senior Associates Bartlomiej Wozniak, Karolina Krzal-Kwiatkowska, and Krzysztof Jasinski.

DLA Piper’s team in Warsaw included Partner Jakub Domalik-Plakwicz, Counsels Michal Orzechowski and Wojcieh Kalinowski, Associates Anna Chrabota-Bajson, Adam Marszalek, Paulina Ciupa, and Agnieszka Staszek, and Junior Associates Michal Kuratowski, Bartosz Kuziola, and Mateusz Gajda. Its team also included Frankfurt-based Partner Carlos Robles y Zepf, Counsel Thilo Streit, Senior Associate Niklas Mangels, Kristin Vogt-Schories, Phillip Moser, Thomas Olbrich, and Miray Kavruk, and Associate Phillip Meyer.

Dentons has advised Erste Group Bank AG and mBank S.A. on refinancing the acquisition of Polish solar projects with a capacity of 46 MW granted to a project company controlled by Aberdeen Standard Investments’s fund.

According to Dentons, the photovoltaic sector is one of the fastest growing renewable energy sectors in Poland. According to the Polish Energy Policy until 2040 and the National Plan for Energy and Climate until 2030, the sector will play a big part in the country’s energy future.

Dentons’ team was led by Counsel Agnieszka Lipska. She was supported by Managing Partner Agnieszka Kulinska and Associates Lukasz Blaszczak, Jakub Walawski, Andrzej Sarnacki, Dominika Krysiak-Bogdzio, Katarzyna Kaptur, Jan Dubinski, and Filip Rucinski.

Dentons did not reply to our inquiry on the matter.

Linklaters has advised Chariot Group B.V. on the sale of DIY stores leased by OBI located in Gdansk and Lodz, with a total gross leasable area of 18,300 square meters, to a subsidiary of Marr Holdings, a company from the Republic of South Africa. Dentons reportedly advised the buyers.

Linklaters’ team included Partner Janusz Dzianachowski, Senior Associate Tomasz Trystula, and Junior Associate Malgorzata Szafranska.

Dentons’ team included Partner Bartlomiej Kordeczka, Senior Associate Madgalena Lazewska, and Associate Zuzanna Sobon.

Former Counsel Jakub Jedrzejewski, who manages SSW Pragmatic Solutions’ Competition law and Consumer Protection practices, has been promoted to partner at the firm.

According to SSW, “Jedrzejewski represents our clients before the competition protection authorities with respect to the antitrust regulations. He manages both local and international or exterritorial projects. He has developed and implemented antitrust compliance programs, including due diligence audits of enterprises, their associations and branch organizations, and their distribution structures, discount and pricing policies. Additionally, Jakub specializes in advising on consumer protection law and  trade agreements law.”

Jedrzejewski has over 15 years of experience.He graduated from the Law and Administration Faculty of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan and joined SSW in 2009.

“In light of the increasingly restrictive regulations and controls, meeting the antitrust requirements has become one of the key elements of risk management,” commented SSW Pragmatic Solutions’ Marketing and Business Development Director Barbara Lenarcik. “Jakub – our new partner – has been successfully developing the Competition Protection practice at SSW for over ten years, and in that period he has executed many local and international projects.”

Kochanski & Partners has advised Visa Inc. on its launch of open banking services in Poland based on the country’s amended Payment Services Act, which implements the EU’s PSD2 Directive into Polish law.

Open banking is the practice of enabling third parties to develop applications and services using data or services provided by financial institutions through the use of open application programming interfaces for financial services and technology.

Kochanski & Partners’s team was led by Partners Agnieszka Serzysko and Wojciech Wrochna and included Associate Anna Paterak-Konon and Paralegal Luiza Rozycka.

DLA Piper has advised asset management company KGAL Group on its purchase of the Prosta Office Center in Warsaw from Prosta Investments. Greenberg Traurig reportedly advised the sellers.

According to DLA Piper, the Prosta Office Centre, which was finished in 2006, “comprises around 21,000 square meters of office and retail space over 11 upper floors and three lower floors. Tenants include companies from the IT and advertising sectors, as well as financial service providers.” 

The DLA Piper team included Co-Managing Partner Jacek Gizinski, Counsel Pawel Chodzinski, Senior Associates Sylwia Czerwik and Slawomir Mikolajuk, and Junior Associate Paulina Galicka.