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Archive for: Art. 24 CC

Copyright law, case I CK 312/02

March 17th, 2007, Tomasz Rychlicki

The Supreme Court in a judgment of 3 December 2003, case file I CK 312/02, has denided the right of action to a collecting society that wanted to initiate a copyright suit in the name of a living person. The Court held that the collective management does not include protection and management of moral and personal rights of living persons, creators or authors. In this case, the Polish Society of Authors and Composers (ZAIKS) wanted to bring an action for the protection of personal rights of a living author who composed music/soundtrack for the movie.

See also “Polish regulations on copyright” and “Polish case law on copyright“.

Personal rights, case I ACr 436/91

March 11th, 2007, Tomasz Rychlicki

The Supreme Court in a judgment of 30 Ocrober 1991, case file I ACr 436/91, that was issued under the old Act on authors rights of 1952, ruled that the personal interests in copyrights, are special personal rights as defined by the general rules of civil law, and they are not a separate conceptual category.

Personal rights, case II CR 753/90

February 25th, 2007, Tomasz Rychlicki

The Supreme Court in a judgment of 26 September 1991, case file II CR 753/90, published in Przegląd Sądowy 1993, no. 1 p. 95, ruled that a threat or a violation of personal rights/interests of an entiled person and its unlawfulness are the circumstances for the appropriate application of article 24 of the Civil Code – CC – (in Polish: Kodeks Cywilny) of 23 April 1964, Journal of Laws (Dziennik Ustaw) No. 16, item 93, with later amendments.

Article 24
§ 1 The person whose personal rights are threatened by someone else’s action, may require the desist of that action, unless it is not illegal. In the event of the infringement one may also require, the person who committed the violation, to fulfill the actions necessary to remove its effects, in particular, to make a statement of the relevant content and appropriate format. According to the conditions laid down in the Code one may also require monetary compensation or payment of an appropriate amount of money for a social purpose indicated.
§ 2 If as the result of a breach of personal rights one has suffered pecuniary prejudice, the aggrieved person may claim compensation based on general principles.
§ 3 The above shall not prejudice the entitlements provided by other regulations, in particular in copyright law and the patent (invention) law.

The unlawfulness is defined as an action of a third party that is contrary to the widely understood rules of legal order, i.e. legal regulations and rules of social coexistence.

Personal rights, case I CKN 818/97

January 14th, 2007, Tomasz Rychlicki

The Supreme Court in a judgment of 3 September 1998, case file I CKN 818/97, published in OSP 1999, No. 7-8, item 142., ruled that the protection of personal rights/interests provided in article 23 and 24 of the Civil Code – CC – (in Polish: Kodeks Cywilny) of 23 April 1964, Journal of Laws (Dziennik Ustaw) No. 16, item 93, with later amendments, also includes author’s personal rights.

Article 23
The personal interests of a human being, in particular to health, dignity, freedom, freedom of conscience, surname or pseudonym, image, secrecy of correspondence, inviolability of home, and scientific, artistic, inventor’s and rationalizing achievements, shall be protected by civil law independent of protection envisaged in other provisions.

Article 24
§ 1 The person whose personal rights are threatened by someone else’s action, may require the desist of that action, unless it is not illegal. In the event of the infringement one may also require, the person who committed the violation, to fulfill the actions necessary to remove its effects, in particular, to make a statement of the relevant content and appropriate format. According to the conditions laid down in the Code one may also require monetary compensation or payment of an appropriate amount of money for a social purpose indicated.
§ 2 If as the result of a breach of personal rights one has suffered pecuniary prejudice, the aggrieved person may claim compensation based on general principles.
§ 3 The above shall not prejudice the entitlements provided by other regulations, in particular in copyright law and the patent (invention) law.

Personal rights, case V CKN 499/00

January 8th, 2007, Tomasz Rychlicki

The Supreme Court in a judgment of 5 January 2001, case file V CKN 499/00, unpublished, ruled that the protection granted by the civil law to personal rights/interests is independent of the protection afforded by the provisions of other laws. It means that this kind of the protection is cumulative. One of the most important tasks of the civil law is the protection of personal rights/interests, especially human rights. This is a relatively new sphere of the civil law, which traditionally has been oriented to the protection of financial and economical interests. The provisions of article 23 and 24 of the Civil Code – CC – (in Polish: Kodeks Cywilny) of 23 April 1964, Journal of Laws (Dziennik Ustaw) No. 16, item 93, with later amendments, have the fundamental importance.

Article 23
The personal interests of a human being, in particular to health, dignity, freedom, freedom of conscience, surname or pseudonym, image, secrecy of correspondence, inviolability of home, and scientific, artistic, inventor’s and rationalizing achievements, shall be protected by civil law independent of protection envisaged in other provisions.

Article 24
§ 1 The person whose personal rights are threatened by someone else’s action, may require the desist of that action, unless it is not illegal. In the event of the infringement one may also require, the person who committed the violation, to fulfill the actions necessary to remove its effects, in particular, to make a statement of the relevant content and appropriate format. According to the conditions laid down in the Code one may also require monetary compensation or payment of an appropriate amount of money for a social purpose indicated.
§ 2 If as the result of a breach of personal rights one has suffered pecuniary prejudice, the aggrieved person may claim compensation based on general principles.
§ 3 The above shall not prejudice the entitlements provided by other regulations, in particular in copyright law and the patent (invention) law.

Trade mark law, case II GSK 377/05

October 6th, 2006, Tomasz Rychlicki

The Polish Patent Office invalidated the right of protection for word-figurative trade mark OCETIX R-135047 based on provisions of Article 8(2) of the old Polish Trade Mark Act – TMA – (in Polish: Ustawa o znakach towarowych) of 31 January 1985, Journal of Laws (Dziennik Ustaw) No 5, item 15, with later amendments. The request was filed by the competitior of Szczęsna Ewa DELTA L.T.D, who claimed its prior rights to the company name (firm).

Article 8
A trademark shall not be registrable if:
1) it is contrary to law or to the principles of social coexistence;
2) it infringes the personal or economic rights of third parties;

Ewa Szczęsna filed a complaint against this decision. The Voivodeship Administrative Court in Warsaw in its judgment of 20 July 2005, case file VI SA/Wa 67/05 dissmissed the case. The VAC agreed with the PPO that the registration of the word-figurative trade mark OCETIX constituted the infringement of the firm of the competitor of Ewa Szczęsna, who established its undertaking in 1991. The Court ruled that the dominant element is the word OCETIX, it attracts the attention and has the distinctive character, while other elements are informative and are indicating the scope of the activities of Szczęsna Ewa DELTA L.T.D.

The Supreme Administrative Court in its judgment of 5 April 2006, case file II GSK 377/05 upheld the contested judgment and ruled that in accordance with Article 164 of the IPL, the right of protection for a trade mark may be invalidated at the request of any person who has legitimate interest. Article 315(3) of the IPL provides the principle according to which the registrability of signs registered or applied for the registration before 22 August 2001, is assessed on the basis of existing regulations. Thus, the law underlying the assessment of trade mark protection for OCETIX that was applied for the registration on 14 October 1998 are the provisions of the TMA.

R-135047

The SAC repeated that the right of protection for a trade mark is deemed as an exclusive, absolute, transferable and heritable property right. It’s a sign intended to distinguish the goods of one undertaking from those of the same type from another entrepreneur. A trade mark performs a distinctive, warranty and advertising functions. The Court noted also that in the course of trade, the category of distinctive signs, in addition to trade marks, are also brands/signs that are distinguishing of companies. The firm is one of such signs. It is the name under a which the registered merchant (general partnership, limited partnership, limited liability company, joint stock company) operates its undertaking. The firm of an undertaking distinguishes a given undertaking from other undertakings, in the same and/or other object/way of business. See R. Skubisz, Prawo znaków towarowych. Komentarz (in English: Trade mark law. Commentary), Warszawa 1997, p. 13 and 17.

The Court also ruled that the Paris Convention of 20 March 1883 on the Protection of Industrial Property published in Journal of Laws (Dziennik Ustaw) of 1975, No. 9, item. 51 and 52), introduced to the Polish law the term of the trade name, which previously was not used in the Polish legislation. The term collectively covers all the markings of companies enjoyed by the persons mentioned in Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention. The SAC agreed that Article 8 of the Convention does not constitute an independent basis to protect the trade name of the entrepreneur, because it does not specify conditions for such protection and does not indicate what claims should be used in the case of infringement of the rights to the company name. However, this affect the domestic law. See also “Trade mark law, case II SA 2914/01“. The Court ruled that the firm is protected under the Article 37 Code of Commerce (it was repealed by the Code of Commercial Companies later on) and Article 43 of the Civil Code. According to Article 37 of the Code of Commerce, the protection of the firm arises upon its entry into the commercial register, and will expire on the date a court order to withdraw its registration from the register comes into force. The infringement of the firm occurs if there is unlawful use by unauthorized person of a sign which does not distinguish definitively from the firm in a given locality (Article 37 in connection with Article. 35 of the Code of Commerce). Pursuant to Article 43 of the Civil Code, the firm is subject to the protection provided for personal rights/interests (Articles 23 and 24 kc). This protection arises from the date of the first use of a firm in business.

Personal rights, case I ACa 564/04

January 25th, 2006, Tomasz Rychlicki

On 2 September 2002, Secunda company, a publisher of a portal website, posted a link to www.mlode -dupy.w.tertia.pl website on its webpage under the “Entertainment and sex” category in the “Winning websites” under the name “Young women are the best”. The link to www.mlode-dupy.w.tertia.pl website was described as follows “10 hardcore pictures galleries. One could deal with this issue far better”. The gallery no 3 featured pictures of a woman in a swimsuit, that were made during a photographic session for candidates to advertising campaign. The plaintiff who worked with models agency sued Secunda. She argued that she has never agreed to a distribution of her image, nor received any remuneration for participation in a photo session. The plaintiff noted that a link to the www.mlode-dupy.w.tertia.pl website combined with the recommendation of this site are a form of distribution of the image of a person depicted in photos available on Secunda’s website. The defendant took no steps to ascertain whether the plaintiff consented to distribute these photographs and it did not take any action to obtain such consent, the defendant’s conduct, involving the unauthorized dissemination of the image of the plaintiff on the porno website, violates her image rights and degrade her in the public due to the inclusion of her image in pornographic pictures.

Secunda claimed that it has no standing in this case because the infringer was a person who created a gallery available under www.mlode-dupy.w.tertia.pl link.

The District Court in Kraków in a judgment of 26 February 2004, case file I C 2060/03, ruled that Secunda infringed on plaintiff’s personal rights by publishing questioned images. The court said that Secunda was responsible because it had the opportunity to check the contents of the “Winning websites” section, and images contained therein. The editor was responsible for the compilation of recommendations and a link to www.mlode-dupy.w.tertia.pl website, and in this case it was Secunda.

Both parties appealed. The Appellate Court in Kraków in a judgment of 20 July 2004, case file I ACa 564/04, TPP 2004/3-4/155, rejected Secunda’s appeal and changed the lower Court’s decision on damages awarded.

Trade mark law, case II CZP 109/94

October 28th, 2005, Tomasz Rychlicki

The Supreme Court in its judgment of 30 September 1994, case file II CZP 109/94 held that in the event of a conflict between such rights as the company name (the firm) and a protected/registered trademark, the right to use should be determined by the priority of use of a given right. This case concerned COGITO trade mark.

Press law, case I ACr 159/92

July 28th, 2005, Tomasz Rychlicki

The Appellate Court in Warsaw in a judgment of 2 April 1992, case file I ACr 159/92, held that the name of a newspaper/gazette differentiates it in the course of trade and thus it is personal right/interests (i.e. intangible personal property) eligible for protection under articles 23 and 24 of the Civil Code – CC – (in Polish: Kodeks Cywilny) of 23 April 1964, Journal of Laws (Dziennik Ustaw) No. 16, item 93, with later amendments.

Article 23
The personal interests of a human being, in particular to health, dignity, freedom, freedom of conscience, surname or pseudonym, image, secrecy of correspondence, inviolability of home, and scientific, artistic, inventor’s and rationalizing achievements, shall be protected by civil law independent of protection envisaged in other provisions.

Article 24
§ 1 The person whose personal rights are threatened by someone else’s action, may require the desist of that action, unless it is not illegal. In the event of the infringement one may also require, the person who committed the violation, to fulfill the actions necessary to remove its effects, in particular, to make a statement of the relevant content and appropriate format. According to the conditions laid down in the Code one may also require monetary compensation or payment of an appropriate amount of money for a social purpose indicated.
§ 2 If as the result of a breach of personal rights one has suffered pecuniary prejudice, the aggrieved person may claim compensation based on general principles.
§ 3 The above shall not prejudice the entitlements provided by other regulations, in particular in copyright law and the patent (invention) law.

Prsonal rights, case IV CK 519/04

March 16th, 2005, Tomasz Rychlicki

The Supreme Court in its judgment of 16 February 2005 case IV CK 519/04 file held that not only the journalist may be held liable for the infringement of personal rights in performed in the article published in a newspaper. This may be also the person who gave an interview or a comment. Such a person is not exempted from liability by that the fact that the interview had not been authorized, if she or he really said what the journalist published later in the article.

Press law, case V CK 675/03

February 25th, 2005, Tomasz Rychlicki

The Supreme Court – Civil Chamber in its judgement of 15 July 2004 case file V CK 675/03 held that the publisher is required to control the content of advertisings that were posted in its magazine only in terms of their compliance with laws and principles of social coexistence. For the remaining contents the responsible person is the one who commisioned such advertisings.

Personal interest, case I ACr 1013/95

February 21st, 2005, Tomasz Rychlicki

The Appellate Court in Warsaw in its judgment of 19 December 1999, case file I ACr 1013/95, held that the reputation of the company is understood as a general positive perception and evaluation of products of such a company that is expressed by consumers. It may be treated as personal interest/rights of a legal person to which it apply mutatis mutandis, by articles 23 and 24 f the Civil Code – CC – (in Polish: Kodeks Cywilny) of 23 April 1964, Journal of Laws (Dziennik Ustaw) No. 16, item 93, with later amendments.

Article 23
The personal interests of a human being, in particular to health, dignity, freedom, freedom of conscience, surname or pseudonym, image, secrecy of correspondence, inviolability of home, and scientific, artistic, inventor’s and rationalizing achievements, shall be protected by civil law independent of protection envisaged in other provisions.

Article 24
§ 1 The person whose personal interests are threatened by someone else’s action, may require the desist of that action, unless it is not illegal. In the event of the infringement one may also require, the person who committed the violation, to fulfill the actions necessary to remove its effects, in particular, to make a statement of the relevant content and appropriate format. According to the conditions laid down in the Code one may also require monetary compensation or payment of an appropriate amount of money for a social purpose indicated.
§ 2 If as the result of a breach of personal interests one has suffered pecuniary prejudice, the aggrieved person may claim compensation based on general principles.
§ 3 The above shall not prejudice the entitlements provided by other regulations, in particular in copyright law and the patent (invention) law.

These non-economic/non-commercial values by which a legal person may operate on the market in accordance with the scope of its business, are also its personal rights interests.

Personal rights, case I ACa 560/04

February 10th, 2005, Tomasz Rychlicki

The Appellate Court in Katowice in its judgment of 4 November 2004, case file I ACa 560/04, ruled that the firm which in this case was understood as the company name, is often intellectual interest/asset of significant value, which according to the will of the legislature is protected by the law. This is an absolute subjective right which is effective erga omnes, and it’s personal interest/right that is associated with an entrepreneur.

The broadest spectrum protection that may be enforced not only in commerce but also may be brought against anyone who is in breach of the interest of entrepreneurs, is provided in articles 23 and 24 of the Civil Code – CC – (in Polish: Kodeks Cywilny) of 23 April 1964, Journal of Laws (Dziennik Ustaw) No. 16, item 93, with later amendments.

Article 23
The personal interests/rights of a human being, in particular to health, dignity, freedom, freedom of conscience, surname or pseudonym, image, secrecy of correspondence, inviolability of home, and scientific, artistic, inventor’s and rationalizing achievements, shall be protected by civil law independent of protection envisaged in other provisions.

Article 24
§ 1 The person whose personal rights are threatened by someone else’s action, may require the desist of that action, unless it is not illegal. In the event of the infringement one may also require, the person who committed the violation, to fulfill the actions necessary to remove its effects, in particular, to make a statement of the relevant content and appropriate format. According to the conditions laid down in the Code one may also require monetary compensation or payment of an appropriate amount of money for a social purpose indicated.

§ 2 If as the result of a breach of personal rights one has suffered pecuniary prejudice, the aggrieved person may claim compensation based on general principles.

§ 3 The above shall not prejudice the entitlements provided by other regulations, in particular in copyright law and the patent (invention) law.

The Court also ruled that if a press title is encroaching a realm of personal property, and if such action violates or threatens the interests of another entrepreneur, the sufferer may exercise his power by seeking civil protection through civil process. There must exist the real apprehensive of an infringements and valid registration for the press title for the effectiveness of such a claim.

Personal rights, case I CKN 100/01

January 26th, 2005, Tomasz Rychlicki

The Supreme Court in a judgment of 7 March 2003, case file I CKN 100/01, ruled that the symbol of a legal person is a carrier of its identity in the external perception, and like the name or the firm, it constitutes a personal interest/right of such company.

Personal rights, case II CR 187/77

January 8th, 2005, Tomasz Rychlicki

The Supreme Court in a judgment of 10 June 1997, case file II CR 187/77, ruled that the analysis of Article 23 of the Civil Code – CC – (in Polish: Kodeks Cywilny) of 23 April 1964, Journal of Laws (Dziennik Ustaw) No. 16, item 93, with later amendments, and the existing case law of the Supreme Court, allows for the adoption of the opinion that personal right/interest, is the aggregate of factors aimed at ensuring the development of human personality, to protect human life and to ensure the right to the use of these interests, which are available at any given stage of the socio–economic development of our society, and which are also conducive to preserving the autonomy of a human being and may help to bind a human being with the society. The concept of “personal right/interest”, includes such an element as the right of access to public places of recreation and entertainment. Therefore such personal interests may be affected by issuing a ban that would prevent the practical exercise of this right and thus a person may take all legal measures to protect this right.