The Voivodeship Administrative Court in Warsaw received two different complaints against the same decision of the Polish Patent Office on the invalidation of the right in registration. The Court decided on both complaints and issued the resolution of 16 April 2009 case file VI SA/Wa 443/09 the parties in this case were the PPO and a Polish joint-stock company from Bydgoszcz (legal entity), and the resolution of 23 June 2009, case file VI SA/Wa 715/09, the parties in this case were Jan Romanik (natural person) and the PPO. The VAC rejected the complaint in the second case and hold that there exist the identity between case VI SA/Wa 443/09 and VI SA/Wa 715/09. Jan Romanik brough a cassation complaint.

The Supreme Administrative Court in its judgment of 9 December 2009 case file II GSK 772/09 ruled that the violation of law made by the VAC was based on a wrong assumption that the resolution case file VI SA/Wa 443/09 was related (the so-called “case sameness”) to VI SA/Wa 715/09, namely, because the case fell within the action between the same parties, which was the subject of the same decision of the Polish Patent Office. The SAC ruled that even if the natural person was the sole shareholder in the joint-stock company, both entities cannot be identified as one, because these are participants of legal transactions that are independent from each other and each of them acquire the rights and duties on its own behalf.

This judgment concerned the industrial design “Łopata” (in English: shovel) Rp-9834. See also “Polish regulations on industrial designs” and “Polish case law on industrial designs“.

Categories: appearance of the whole or a part of a product | Art. 102 IPL | industrial designs | Polish Act on Industrial Property Law | Polish Administrative Proceedings Code | Polish courts | Polish law | Polish Patent Office | Polish Supreme Administrative Court | Voivodeship Administrative Court.