Do not argue about copyrights and trade marks or you land in jail
March 14th, 2009, Tomasz RychlickiIndeks 73 is a new initiative created and developed on the national level in Poland at the beginning of 2008 by the people of cultural professions. Our aim is to protect freedom of artistic expression and scientific researches guaranteed by the constitution
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Freedom of artistic creation and scientific research, as well as free access to cultural goods, is guaranteed in Article 73 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, and on the international level – in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (article 27).
This was for the begining. You may find more interesting news at indeks73.pl website.
On 10 March, Waldemar Tatarczuk (artist, performer) has sent an alert to the net about the arrest of Zygmunt Piotrowski. Piotrowski is a recognized theoretician on individual concepts of avant-garde art, he combines the art with social and political reality. The artist works at the crossroads of philosophy, visual arts and science (he developed many technical patents).
Indeks 73 learned that Piotrowski’s detention was caused by his refusal to pay the court’s ordered fine to Lew Rywin. Piotrowski argued that his property will not be disclosed to such criminals as Rywin. Of course, the court did not agree with his statement and at the request of Heritage Films (owned by Lech Rywin) ordered Zygmunt Piotrowski to serve 8 days of detention. He should be released on 13 March 2009.
The dispute between Piotrowski and Lech Rywin (Heritage Films) is pending for more than ten years. It has started as a copyright dispute regarding Zygmunt Piotrowski’s creation of word-figurative logotype “Heritage”. Piotrowski created this logo for the Polish company Heritage Promotion of Music and Art. It presented the state court porch of Elizabeth and Christopher Penderecki with “heritage” word included. In 1991, Lew Rywin used this logotype to build the image of the new company, Heritage Films. Zygmunt Piotrowski has brought a copyright infringement case and won. The court’s judgment has forced the Heritage Films company to remove the sign.
Update on March 14, 2009.
It was late when I did the post so I forgot to add something important. Indeks 73 did not learn what was the exact reason that Piotrowski was obliged to pay a fine for Heritage Films.
And as regards courts’ judgments about trade marks including “heritage” word, the Supreme Administrative Court of the Republic of Poland (SAC) has issued two opinions. I have no specific information about civil courts’ rulings. The SAC in a judgment of 14 December 2001, case file II SA 3446/01, clearly ruled.
The English word “heritage” is not a generic term for the services it was registered for, nor does it inform about its properties, quality or usefulness. Therefore “heritage” word can be used as a trade mark.
Just to remind you. Judgments of the Court of Justice of the EC in case C-3/03 P, Matratzen Concord GmbH vs. Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs), [2004] E.C.R. I-3657 and C-421/04, Matratzen Concord AG vs. Hukla Germany SA, [2006] E.C.R. I-2303, have been issued couple of years later. ;)
One may say, that the SAC in a judgment of 12 March 2003, case file II SA 1867/02, provided very obvious holding.
In accordance with the general rules, in the event of a collision between company name (the firm) and trade mark that has been registered with the “later precedence”, the priority shall be given to the right that existed earlier.