already in force | In Principle

The fairly long waiting time for registration of trademarks at the Polish Patent Office often means that instead of seeking protection in Poland, businesses decide to register with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO, formerly OHIM). Although much more expensive, proceedings there are generally fast and simple. Major changes have now been made to Poland’s Industrial Property Law with the aim of making the Polish Patent Office more competitive with EUIPO.

Apart from the recognition of letters of consent, a major change in trademark law already in force is the possibility of registering a mark containing the name Polska or Poland (or the abbreviations RP or PL), or the name of a Polish locality, without the need to obtain the consent of the relevant authorities.

On 1 February 2016, the Act on the Tax on Certain Financial Institutions came into force, introducing a “banking tax” and giving rise to multiple differences of opinion in the Polish banking and insurance sectors.

New rules for determining maximum interest rates and statutory interest rates for both interest on capital and interest on delay entered into force on 1 January 2016.

An amendment to the Civil Procedure Code entered into force on 1 January 2016, raising the importance of mediation and significantly changing Poland’s mediation regulations. This will also affect the course of judicial proceedings commenced from that date forward.

Financial services are not always performed as they should be, and procedures for considering customer complaints have not always been effective. Consequently, in May 2015 the Polish Financial Supervision Authority adopted a resolution on consideration of customer complaints, and in August the Sejm adopted the Act on Consideration of Complaints by Financial Market Entities and on the Financial Ombudsman. The act has just entered into force.

On 1 July 2015, lawyers and parties to criminal proceedings in Poland entered a new reality. But will adversarial criminal trials truly unburden the courts and speed up the process?

The Act of 29 August 2014 Amending the Corporate Income Tax Act, the Personal Income Tax Act and Certain Other Acts went into force on 1 January 2015.

Amendments to Poland’s Corporate Income Tax (CIT) Act and Personal Income Tax (PIT) Act went into force at the beginning of 2015. One of the key changes is taxation of income earned by controlled foreign companies (CFC, in Polish: zagraniczne spółki kontrolowane).

The Act of 28 November 2014 Amending the Payment Services Act went into force on 29 January 2015. The act introduced major changes for all participants in the payment instruments market in Poland, including a statu¬tory reduction in interchange fees and addition¬al obligations for acquirers and payment card organisations.

Some of the provisions amending the Commercial Companies Code and other acts went into force on 15 January 2015, mainly concerning establishing and operation of a business in the form of a registered partnership, a limited partnership or a limited-liability company.

An amendment to the Competition and Consumer Protection Act went into force on 18 January 2015. The changes are sweeping.