Protecting numbers in Poland

01-08-2011

Tomasz Rychlicki

Polish publisher Agencja Wydawnicza Technopol Sp zoo succeeded in registering various trademarks at the Polish Patent Office for goods in class 16, such as brochures, magazines, journals and newspapers.

Polish publisher Agencja Wydawnicza Technopol Sp zoo succeeded in registering various trademarks at the Polish Patent Office for goods in class 16, such as brochures, magazines, charade journals, prints and newspapers.

These trademarks were mainly made up of numerical designations and numbers. Agencja Wydawnicza Technopol’s publishing competitors asked the Polish Patent Office to invalidate these trademarks. Some of these cases have moved to the Polish Supreme Administrative Court after going through all of the lower instances in Poland.

The Polish Supreme Administrative Court, in a February 10 judgment concerning the figurative trademark ‘1001’, ruled that a trademark that lacks primary distinctiveness may acquire distinctiveness or secondary meaning through advertising.


Poland, PPO, trademarks, numbers, distinctiveness, Technopol

WIPR