When an invention or utility or industrial design is developed in connection with an employment relationship between the author-inventor and the business undertaking, the fee due for the employee’s work product, which is defined as ‘employee invention’, is subject to special statutory legislation in Poland, being an element of industrial property law.

The latest judgement issued by the Polish Supreme Court (case no. II PK 168/15) is an interpretation of legislation of this kind. It was issued in cassation appeal proceedings in a dispute concerning the fee of an author of a utility design for use of the design by a business undertaking which was the author’s employer.

The judgement has involved the interpretation of the intertemporal provisions of the Polish Act of 30 June 2000 – Industrial Property Law (text: ISAP), due to the fact of repealing of the former Polish Statute of 19 October 1972 on Inventions (text: ISAP).

See more in NEWS: Inventors’ compensation for employees’ inventions…