The right to the company name is of a crucial importance for entrepreneurs conducting business activity. Therefore it is important to be aware of certain legal measures that can protect you from violation of your rights in Poland.
When is your right to the company name violated? Especially if someone uses the same company name or a similar one and his firm’s activity causes association among clients or potential clients that there are connections between those two activities. In practice it happens that in this way someone uses the other companie’s reputation and makes profit out of this, in particular by causing wrong impression that his activity is a business of a better known and recognized company.
Your company may demand protection on basis of several Polish legal provisions.
Firstly, if your company has got a registered word trademark you can demand protection on basis of the Industrial Property Law and especially demand forbidding of the use of given words as a sign of the other person’s business and abandonment of trademark infringement.
Secondly, if using the company name or the similar name may be recognized as an act of unfair competition then you may demand protection on basis of the Act of unfair competition, and especially demand abandonment of using of the given name.
Thirdly, the protection of the entrepreneur is governed by the Civil Code as well, which provides that an entrepreneur whose right to a business name has been threatened with someone else’s activity may demand that it is abandoned unless it is unlawful. In the event of an infringement, the entrepreneur may also demand the removal of its effects, the submission of statements in appropriate content and form, the general remedy of damage to property or giving out the benefit of the person committing the infringement.
It is advisable not to stay passive if you notice that someone violates your right to the company name and tries to make profit of your companie’s reputation. It is better to undertake legal actions which will help you to stop the violation.
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