Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine (NIOM) in Lodz, author: Urszula Czapla

If you are coming to work in Poland, you should check what type of employment contract you will sign. It is often the employer who has the rights to the intellectual property. Thus, it depends on the type of the contract and internal regulations of the employing institution.

In Poland there are two types of employment contracts: a regular employment contract and civil law contracts (umowa zlecenie and umowa o dzieło).

As far as the civil law contracts are concerned, the IPR settlement depends on what is written in the contract. If civil law contract does not specify any IPR issues, the IPR to an invention or piece of work belongs to their author. Contrary to that, if you have an employment contract, all results of your work (including copyrights and other IPR) belong to the employer.

The following information concerns the regular employments contracts.

Copyrights

Piotrkowska ASP Gallery, Strzemiński Academy of Art Łódź, author: This Way Design

There are two categories of copyrights: moral rights and economic rights. Moral rights are inalienable, thus always belong to the author. The situation with economic rights is more complicated. According to the Polish law, it is the employing institution that has the priority to publish a piece of work of an employee who has produced it as a result of his or her work duties. Still, the author has the right to financial benefits.

Recording Studio, Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, author: Anna Niemiec-Mościcka

If the institution does not sign a relevant contract with the author within 6 months from the moment of delivering the piece of work or if it has not been published within 2 years from the date of receiving, the author has the right to decide on how and where his/her work will be published. The employer (scientific institution) has the right to use the produced results free-of-charge and to make them available to other scientists for the purpose of their research or teaching if it results from the agreed purpose of the piece of work or it has been provided in the contract.

As far as scientific research results are concerned, it all depends on the content of the employment contract. Therefore, it is so important to read the contract that you sign, paying special attention to the issues concerning copyrights of your work.

Industrial property rights

Students of the Univerity of Bialystok, author: M. Heller

When it comes to industrial property rights, in principle, the right to being granted the patent belongs to the author. If, however, the invention has been made as a result of performed work duties, the right to the patent belongs to the employer. The employer can waive the right in favour of the author. According to the regulations, the author is entitled to financial benefits stemming from the use of the invention, unless the parties have agreed otherwise. Majority of institutions have their own regulations which determine IPR issues, and these regulations or the contract should be the main source of detailed information.

Research in phototron, author: Warsaw University of Life Sciences - SGGW

If you are going to work at a university or a research institute, the IPR regime will be a bit different. In Poland we have a type of professors’ privilege. When you notify your employer about your result and the university or research institute is not interested in commercializing it, you can buy this result from your university/research institute. The price is fixed by law and its maximum value may not exceed 10% of the value of a minimum salary in Poland. After you sign a contract regarding the transfer of ownership of the results, you become the owner of the results. If you are not interested in commercializing your results, the ownership will remain in the university/research institute.