The Voivodeship Administrative Court in Warsaw in its judgment of 11 October 2007 case file VI SA/Wa 1215/07 decided on the novelty of an industrial design based on electronic evidences. The court ruled that such evidences are not sufficient. A CD print-out from a database can not be treated as a legal document with an unquestionable date since there are graphical tools which make a modification of such data an easily possibility. In this case such a proof can not be deemed a proper evidence if it is not properly certified. Also a statement issued by a private company is not enough unless it is supported by invoices or official publications of catalogues of exhibitions where such product was shown. A compact disk has to be certified by an expert as regards to a date it was burned.

The Supreme Administrative Court in its judgment of 29 July 2008 case file II GSK 267/08 upheld this decision.

This case concerned the industrial design “Rękojeść sztućców” (in English: handle for cutlery), Rp-6048. See also “Polish regulations on industrial designs” and “Polish case law on industrial designs“.

Categories: Art. 102 IPL | Art. 103 IPL | Art. 104 IPL | industrial designs | novelty of an industrial design | Polish Act on Industrial Property Law | Polish courts | Voivodeship Administrative Court.