The Supreme Administrative Court in its judgment of 17 June 2009 case file II GSK 1034/08 ruled that it is obvious that the Polish Patent Office should first examine whether there is a right for which the applicant files request for invalidation, then the PPO should examine the legal interest of the applicant, and only then it should consider whether the legal grounds for invalidity are well founded. If at the time of examination of the request for invalidation, that right at issue no longer exists, due to the fact that its earlier decision on the grant of such right has been annulled, any further action is unnecessary and inadmissible as irrelevant. The PPO should terminate the proceedings without examination of the legal interest of the applicant and without considering the merits of the grounds of law. The dispute between the parties does not start due to the lack of action and any arguments of any party are no longer considered by the PPO. In this situation, there is no “winner” or “loser” because the merits of the request are not subject to examinations.

This judgment concerned the industrial design “Opakowanie zwłaszcza na lody” (in English: Package especially for ice creams), Rp-9476. See also “Polish regulations on industrial designs” and “Polish case law on industrial designs“.

Categories: Art. 105 §1 APC | Art. 255 IPL | Art. 256 IPL | Art. 98 CPC | industrial designs | invalidation of a right in registration | Polish Act on Industrial Property Law | Polish Administrative Proceedings Code | Polish Civil Proceedings Code | Polish Supreme Administrative Court.