The following acts against the protection of intellectual property rights are considered criminal offences by Polish law:
(i) usurpation of authorship of all or part of the work or artistic performance of another;
(ii) disclosing, without mentioning the author's name or pseudonym, the work of another either in its original or derived form, or a performance, or publicly distorting such work;
(iii) other infringements on the rights of the author, in an attempt to make a material profit;
(iv) disclosing, without authorisation or without respecting the conditions imposed, work of another person;
(v) fixing or reproducing a work of another person, without authorisation or without respecting the conditions imposed;
(vi) acquiring, assisting in the sale, concealing or assisting in the concealment of the material embodiment of a work, a performance, a phonogram or videogram disclosed or reproduced without authorisation or without respecting the conditions imposed;
(vii) obstructing or hindering the exercise of the right to monitor the use of a work or artistic performance;
(viii) appropriating a patent or a design of another with view to obtaining the right to protection;
(ix) marking items not protected under patent or protected design in a way misleading as to having such protection;
(x) intentional marketing, storing and advertising of such items;
(xi) usurpation of authorship of topography of integrated circuits of another;
(xii) infringement of registered rights to integrated circuit topography in order to derive material benefits;
(xiii) marketing goods or providing services using a registered trademark;
(xiv) marking goods or services with a registered trademark in order to market such goods or services, without obtaining the right to do it.
The above offences involve the following penalties:
- a term in prison from one to two years, depending on the type of offence;
- restriction of liberty;
- a fine.
The penalties for the above offences are increased (regarding an increased upper limit of prison term to three years) if the perpetrator made the infringement into a permanent source of income or if he directs or organises such criminal activities.
