The Polish legislation currently in force does not provide for any regulations which would permit the customs authorities to undertake actions in case of suspected infringement of intellectual property rights. As a result, it is not possible for us to provide you with separate answers to each question posed.
Legal regulations pursuant to which the customs authorities are obliged to conduct inspections in order to check whether the goods exported and imported from and into the Polish customs area comply with the intellectual property rights, have been included in the Act of 9 January 1997 - Customs Code (Journal of Law No. 23, item 117) which shall become effective as of 1 January 1998, in reliance on their provisions of Part III of the TRIPS Agreement.
In regard to the above-mentioned, the Polish delegation is not in a position to answer questions 1 to 21 because the rules regarding Section 4 of Part III of the TRIPS Agreement shall be issued in the rules of implementation to the Customs Code.
For the presentation of the rules we quote Articles 2.1 and 57 below.
Article 2.1
"Provisions concerning the goods imported to or exported from the Polish customs area shall be applied respectively to the import to and export from the Polish customs area of goods covered under separate regulations by protection of intellectual, trade and industrial property."
Article 57
"(1) Goods, regardless of their type, composition, origin, place of shipment or destination may at any time, subject to specified terms and conditions, obtain customs destination admissible for the given goods.
"(2) The regulation contained in Section 1 does not exclude the application of international agreements, and prohibitions or limitations arising from separate provisions, in particular those concerning, decency, public security, health care, protection of human or animal life, protection of environment and natural resources, culture goods, intellectual, trade and industrial property, as well as prohibitions and limitations established due to trade.
"(3) The Council of Ministers may specify, by an ordinance, the manner of procedure to be adopted by customs authorities in the event of their seizing goods as to which a suspicion has arisen that they have infringed the intellectual, trade and industrial property rights."
The protection of intellectual, trade and industrial property rights is subject to the following regulations under the above-mentioned Act.
Pursuant to the delegation contained in Article 57, section 3 of the Customs Code, a draft Ordinance of the Council of Ministers specifying the mode of procedure to be adopted by custom authorities in the event of seizing the goods as to which a suspicion has arisen that they have infringed the intellectual, trade and industrial property rights, has been prepared. This draft relies on provisions contained in Section 4 of Part III of the TRIPS Agreement which contains regulations concerning specific requirements referring to measures undertaken during border control. This constitutes the performance by our country of an obligation to adjust provisions of the domestic legislation to international agreements.
However, due to the fact that the above-mentioned draft is being discussed now, and its provision may change, it is not possible at the moment to provide independent answers to questions 1 to 21. This can be effected only after the Customs Code, and the secondary legislation which will regulate the competences and mode of procedure to be adopted by customs authorities with respect to the protection of intellectual protection of intellectual property, have come into force, i.e. after 1 January 1998.
