How to resign from the management board and be sure it’s effective?
Effective resignation by a member of the management board of a company is not an easy matter. The First President of the Supreme Court of Poland recently applied for a resolution on the matter by a seven-judge panel of the Supreme Court.
Protection of highly distinctive trademarks
Conceptual similarity between trademarks may be sufficient to find a risk of confusion even when there is little visual similarity between the marks, if the earlier mark has become highly distinctive through its use.
End of the Safe Harbour programme: What next?
The Court of Justice has issued a judgment invalidating the European Commission’s Safe Harbour decision. This means that participation in the Safe Harbour programme by US entities is no longer grounds for European companies to transfer personal data of EEA citizens to the United States.
What does the Arctic Sunrise award mean for the environment?
In August an arbitration award was issued in the case of the ship Arctic Sunrise, involving protests by ecologists on the Pechora Sea defending the Arctic environment. The ship was seized and 30 protesters were arrested by Russian authorities.
When the meaning and pronunciation of words in a trademark are relevant
In evaluating the likelihood of confusion when conflicting names in a foreign language look similar, the meaning and pronunciation of the words in that language should be considered.
Lego manikin joins Rubik’s Cube
Lego figures are a toy for all. They develop not only the imagination, but also the line of European case law. Like Rubik’s Cube, they are reversing the tide of refusal to grant trademark protection to the shapes of products.
Three stripes prevail over two
The General Court refused registration of a trademark of two parallel stripes on sports shoes. The difference in the number of stripes did prevent conflict with the adidas trademark of three stripes.
Can colour be a trademark?
Although in theory it is possible to register a trademark in the form of a single colour, in Polish practice such marks are vanishingly rare. Essentially, such protection is possible only if the applicant proves “secondary distinguishing power”—showing that the target customers for the goods clearly associate the colour with a specific company.
FIDIC: Is the contract engineer an agent for the investor?
The engineer’s task is to take necessary measures to ensure that the contract is performed correctly and on time. But not all actions by the engineer will directly affect the investor’s own rights and obligations.
One resolution, many doubts
The Supreme Court has ruled that it is impermissible to issue a commercial proxy to one person allowing the proxy to act only jointly with a member of the management board. What does this ruling mean for companies that have already issued such proxies?
How precisely should a licence for use of an industrial design be worded?
Contracts are signed expecting the worst. The provisions should be precisely formulated, particularly when a failure to be explicit can lead to application of rigid statutory provisions instead. When a dispute arises, the court’s interpretation of the parties’ intent may differ from the literal wording of the contract.
Bank enforcement titles are unconstitutional: What next?
Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal has held that bank enforcement titles are contrary to the Polish Constitution because they violate the constitutional principle of equality. Pursuant to this judgment, the relevant provisions of the Banking Law—Art. 96(1) and Art. 97(1)—will cease to be in force on 1 August 2016. The ruling is fundamentally important for the entire banking sector and for bank customers.
