Professional protection of intellectual property for your business

Usually not: a bare idea – a general concept without a specific solution – cannot be protected. A patent protects a concrete solution described clearly enough for a skilled person to reproduce it. To seek a patent, you therefore need to work out a detailed specification of your solution, though you don't have to implement it yet. The program code itself is also protected by copyright – automatically, without any registration. The best strategy: develop your idea into a working solution and secure protection before you disclose it.

A patent is granted for an invention – a technical solution that meets three conditions at once: it is new (never made available to the public anywhere), it involves an inventive step (it is not obvious to a person skilled in the art), and it is industrially applicable. You cannot patent a mere business idea, a scientific discovery or a mathematical method. The key practical rule: keep your solution secret until the filing date, because your own earlier disclosure usually destroys novelty.

In Europe and Poland, usually not. Any public disclosure before the filing date – a sale, an online description, a trade fair presentation or a scientific publication – destroys novelty and closes the door to a patent. The US is different: it allows a 12-month grace period for your own disclosures. The safe rule is simple: file first, launch later.

Yes, in many cases you can. A computer program "as such" is excluded from patenting, but it can be patented if it solves a technical problem and produces a technical effect. The same applies to artificial intelligence: what counts is the technical effect, and the inventor must be a human, not the AI system itself. The European Patent Office (EPO) grants thousands of software patents every year.

It mainly depends on one thing: whether you can detect that someone is copying your solution. A patent requires full disclosure of the invention, and in return you get 20 years of exclusivity. But if infringement is practically impossible to prove (say, an algorithm hidden on a server), disclosing it in a patent can be a pure loss – trade secret protection may serve you better. A trade secret can last forever (the Coca-Cola recipe is the classic example), but only as long as you genuinely guard it: non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), access controls, procedures.

As a rule, the right to obtain a patent belongs to the inventor. However, if the invention was made in the course of employment duties or under another contract (e.g. a contract for services, commissioned work or R&D), the law assigns that right to the employer or the commissioning party – unless the parties have agreed otherwise. What matters most is the wording of the contract and the scope of your duties. Importantly, regardless of who owns the patent, the creator is always named as the inventor.

No. An entry in the National Court Register (KRS) lets you trade under a name, and a domain registration only gives you the right to use an address – neither stops a competitor who starts selling under a similar name. Exclusive rights to your brand come only with trademark registration: at the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) for Poland, or at the EUIPO for the entire EU. First come, first served applies, so it pays to file early. Protection lasts 10 years and can be renewed indefinitely.

No. Trademark protection is territorial – a registration with the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) covers Poland only. If you plan to sell or expand abroad, you need separate protection for each market: directly at a national office, across the whole EU with an EU trademark (EUTM), or through the Madrid System, which covers many countries with a single application. Ideally, take care of this before you enter a given market.

Secure the evidence first: take dated screenshots, buy a sample of the disputed product with an invoice or receipt, and keep copies of offers and marketing materials. Don't contact the infringer at this stage – you would give them time to cover their tracks. Check that your right is valid and its fees are paid, and what exactly it covers. Then consult a patent attorney, who will assess the strength of your case and choose the strategy: a cease-and-desist letter, an application for a preliminary injunction, or a takedown notice on a marketplace. Time matters – delay weakens your chances of quickly stopping the sales.

In short: we file the application (description, claims, drawings), the office assigns it a filing date and number, draws up a search report, and publishes the application after 18 months. The office then examines the substance – whether the solution is new, non-obvious and industrially applicable – and in this phase it often exchanges letters with the applicant. If there are no objections (or the office's doubts have been resolved), the patent is granted. The whole procedure typically takes 2 to 5 years.