Copyright registration in Poland. Poland officially the Republic of Poland is a country in Central Europe. Poland is a developed market and a middle power; it has the sixth-largest economy in the European Union by nominal GDP and the fifth-largest by GDP (PPP). It provides very high standards of living, safety, and economic freedom, as well as free university education and a universal health care system. The country has 17 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 15 of which are cultural. Poland is a founding member state of the United Nations, as well as a member of the World Trade Organization, NATO, and the European Union (including the Schengen Area). Accordingly, many businesses want to enter this market and one of the most important preparations a business needs to take before expanding to this country is to learn the procedure of copyright registration in Poland.
Copyright in Poland
Unlike other intellectual property rights such as trademarks, patents, industrial designs, plant varieties, etc., copyright does not need to be registered for protection but will be automatically protected from the time the works are created.
The creation must be visible in a certain material form, like content, quality, form, medium, language, published or unpublished, registered or unregistered.
Accordingly, whether registered or not, the copyright to the work will still be protected. However, the creator should still apply for copyright registration in Poland early because early registration will give the author/owner of the work many advantages in the event of a dispute.
When unauthorized use of work occurs around the world, the owner of a work who has made a copyright registration in Poland will not have to waste time and complicate matters with proving himself/herself to be the legitimate owner of the work.
Thereby, in order to avoid passivity, the owner of the work should make a copyright registration in Poland immediately to protect their rights and interests when there is an infringement.
Copyright registration in Poland
Poland is a member country of The Berne Convention for Copyright since 1920.
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (the Berne Convention) is an international agreement governing copyright. The agreement was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886.
As Poland is a contracting party of the Berne Convention, any work originating in Poland will be given copyright protection in each of the Berne Convention member countries.
In most countries, copyright protection is automatic as soon as the work existed in material form. However, the copyright registration in Poland is critical in order for the copyright owner to obtain evidence of copyright.
Evidence of copyright is extremely important even when the works are automatically protected according to copyright law.
When registering, the work will get an application submission date, as well as information about the creation and proof of creative concept and development. This provides unambiguous proof of authorship and ownership that can’t be denied.
Proof of copyright is essential in an age when the publishing, dissemination, and theft of material is extremely easy with the exposure of the Internet.
If copyright registration is not made, copyright owners will lose a big amount of money as well as time needed to resolve issues related to copyright, proving ownership of the original work.
If the copyright owner has already registered for copyright protection to the IP office, they would have a strong legal foundation which would increase their chance of winning against the violating parties.
Documents for copyright registration in Poland
To obtain copyright registration in Poland, the author of the work needs to prepare the following documents:
- Declaration of copyright registration in Poland;
- Two copies of copyrighted work;
- Documents proving the right to apply;
- Written consent of co-authors, if the work has co-authors;
- Written consent of the co-owners, if the copyright is jointly owned;
- Notarized identity card of the author or owner of the work;
- Power of Attorney, if the applicant is an authorized person;
- Notarized copy of the company’s business registration certificate (if the owner is a company).
The copyright law of Poland
In Poland, copyright is regulated by the act from 1994. The first Polish copyright law act has been enacted in 1926 (although copyright issues have been regulated on territories of partitioned Poland in the 19th century by governments of the German Empire, the Russian Empire and Austro-Hungary, beginning with the 1828 copyright law passed in Tsarist Russia). Poland signed the Berne Convention soon after regaining its independence in 1918.
The main acts that have regulated Polish copyright law have been:
- Polish Copyright Law from 1926 (Polish original, amended version from 1935) (Dz.U. RP 1935; Pos. 260)
- Polish Copyright Law from 1926 (Polish original, amended in 1952) (Dz.U.52.34.234)
- Polish Copyright Law from 4 February 1994 (Polish original) (Dz. U. nr 80 z 2000r. poz. 904)
- Polish Copyright Law from 4 February 1994 (English)
You can see the list of Poland IP Firms here.