The name, look, and features of your product are a valuable asset.

A national trademark protected by the UPRP is protected only in the territory of Poland. An EU trademark (EUTM) registered with the EUIPO is protected simultaneously across all 27 EU member states under a single fee. In each EU country, including Poland, it has the same effect as a national mark. For companies operating in or planning to expand across Europe, an EUTM is usually more cost-effective than registering in several countries separately. The downside of an EUTM is that a national trademark owner from any EU country can also oppose the EU registration.

Protection of industrial property rights (trademarks, patents, designs) is territorial. This means that to have protection in a given country, you have to go through the procedure for obtaining protection before that country's local office. Fortunately, global and regional systems come to the aid of global brands. For example, a mark filed with the EUIPO covers all EU countries, the unitary patent covers all countries that are party to the convention, and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) makes it possible to file a trademark, design, or invention in many countries worldwide through a single application. These systems have their drawbacks and do not result in automatic protection across the entire world, but when used well they allow for cost-effective global expansion of protection.

Official fees for registering a trademark in Poland (UPRP): filing in a single class of goods is PLN 400 electronically, and each additional class is PLN 120. Registering an EU trademark with the EUIPO: the first class is EUR 850, the second class is EUR 50, and each additional class is EUR 150. International registration through the WIPO Madrid System: a basic fee from CHF 653 plus fees for the designated countries. On top of the official costs, you should add the firm's fee for preparing the application, assessing protectability, and conducting the proceedings.

Copyright in software in Poland arises automatically the moment the code is created, with no registration and no formalities. The key questions, however, are not whether the rights arise but who owns them and what their scope is. A programmer employed under an employment contract transfers rights to the employer automatically, to the extent set out in statute. A contractor on a B2B basis does not transfer rights without an explicit contractual clause. For software created by AI, copyright is the subject of legal dispute and requires precise contractual provisions. Practical protection means IP clauses in every agreement with a creator, an IP policy within the company, and a versioned record of the code with dates as evidence of priority.

Source code is protected by copyright when it constitutes a manifestation of creative activity with an individual character, that is, when the programmer made creative choices in it rather than merely applying standard solutions mechanically. In practice: original application code is protected, boilerplate and standard snippets are doubtful, and code generated entirely by AI has uncertain copyright protection that depends on the jurisdiction. What matters is that protection applies to the specific implementation, not the general idea.

A copyright assignment agreement must contain a precise identification of the work, the fields of exploitation (without listing them, the assignment is ineffective), an indication of whether the assignment covers the right to modify and create derivative works, the remuneration or a statement that it is free of charge, the moment of transfer, and the territorial scope. Importantly, rights assignment agreements must be concluded in writing on pain of nullity.

An IP audit in an IT company covers four areas. The first is an inventory of assets: what the company has created (code, names, design, documentation, know-how), what it has registered (trademarks, patents, designs), and what it licenses from others or which open-source solutions it uses. The second is verification of legal title: whether the company actually owns the IP it considers its own, by analyzing agreements with programmers, agencies, and freelancers. The third is a gap analysis: checking what is not protected but should be, and where the appropriate agreements are missing. The fourth is recommendations: an action plan with assigned priorities. The result of the audit is an IP map ready for a conversation with an investor.

Protectability is the possibility of registering a given sign as a trademark. A mark must be distinctive, meaning it must allow customers to identify the origin of a product or service. Marks lacking protectability include descriptive signs (e.g., FAST for courier services), generic ones (a product name as such), those misleading as to the nature of the goods, and those contrary to public order. The second stage is assessing whether the right to a given sign does not already belong to someone else in the territory you are interested in. Assessing protectability before filing is a key step, because it helps avoid costly proceedings that end in a refusal of registration or a dispute with the owner of an earlier similar mark.

Protecting a product or app name requires action on several levels at once. Registration as a trademark is the strongest protection and gives exclusivity over using the name within a defined scope. In parallel, you should remember to secure the domain and social media profiles. Confidentiality clauses in talks with partners before announcing the product are crucial, because the guiding principle of IP is first come, first served.

A patent protects inventions that are new, involve an inventive step, and are capable of industrial application. The patent procedure is long (from 3 to 5 years) and costly, but it provides strong protection for up to 20 years. A utility model protects technical solutions with a lower level of innovation, where novelty and usefulness are sufficient, and gives protection for up to 10 years. An industrial design protects the external appearance of a product.

Copyright infringement in Poland carries liability on two fronts. The civil side includes damages, surrender of unjustly obtained gains, cessation of the infringement, and removal of its effects. The criminal side includes a fine, restriction of liberty, or imprisonment.

Trade secrets are protected under the Act on Combating Unfair Competition. The conditions for protection are: the information has economic value, it is not commonly known or easily accessible, and the entrepreneur has taken steps to keep it confidential. Practical protection means NDAs and confidentiality clauses in agreements with employees, contractors, and business partners, an information security policy, restricting access to sensitive data, and documenting what constitutes a secret. Merely being aware that something is confidential is not enough, because active protective measures are required. Without them, it is hard to pursue claims when a leak occurs.

Under Polish and European copyright law, only a human can be an author. Content generated entirely by AI without a creative human contribution is not protected by copyright and falls into the public domain. In practice, the situation is more complex: if a human creatively shapes the prompt, selects and modifies the AI's outputs, the human contribution may justify protection.

Trademark monitoring covers two areas. The first is tracking new filings of similar marks in national and regional registers, which allows you to file an opposition on time and block registration before a competitor obtains protection. The second is market monitoring, that is, monitoring search engines, marketplaces, internet domains, and social media. A lack of monitoring means an infringement can go on for years before it is detected. A trademark owner who tolerates infringements also risks weakening the mark's protection through its degeneration.

IP Box is a preferential taxation of income from qualified intellectual property rights at a 5% income tax rate instead of the standard 19%. Qualified IP includes patents, protection rights for utility models, rights from the registration of industrial designs, and economic copyrights in computer programs. The condition is that the IP must be created, developed, or improved by the taxpayer as part of research and development activity. For IT companies, the most common application is income from licensing software or from selling products based on their own code. It requires keeping records of revenues and costs attributed to the specific IP.

A good copyright lawyer is not the one who knows the regulations. It's the one who understands how your product works. The criteria for choosing: specialization in IP and technology law (not a general practice with IP as an add-on), experience with companies in your industry, knowledge of both copyright and industrial property law, and the ability to deliver a concrete recommendation rather than a list of risks. A practical test is to ask about a specific case from your industry and judge whether the answer is precise or academic. A lawyer who says "it depends" without saying what it depends on, and without a recommendation at the end, is not the one you're looking for.