Transfer of copyright under the institution of public promise

Abstract

The institution of public promise is regulated in the Civil Code of the Republic of Poland as a unilateral legal Act, which can be divided into an ordinary public promise and a promise of award, commonly referred to as a “competition.” In the context of a competition, the promisee may acquire ownership of the prize-winning work — and, accordingly, copyrights or patent rights — upon payment of the prize, as long as the right has been reserved in the public promise. The institution in question has been regulated in a very general way, so the matters which need to be discussed are the relationship between the Civil Code and the Act on copyright and related rights, as well as transparency of criterion as to when and to what extent a transfer of copyrights may occur in subject to Art. 921 § 1 of the Civil Code.