Without trademark registration — on how to protect unregistered trademarks from violations under Polish law
The article aims to familiarize with the issue of unregistered trademarks. The author analyzes existing regulations in the field of national law along with an indication of the sources of EU law. The possibilities of applying them to unregistered trademarks are considered, for which there are currently no legal definitions. The author hypothesizes the need to recognize the existence of a separate legal right in the form of a right to an unregistered trademark created on the basis of the possibility of protecting unregistered trademarks on the basis of other than protection rights on a registered trademark. Consideration is given to obtaining protection for an unregistered trademark in terms of the law on combating unfair competition in the form of protection as an entrepreneur’s designation or business designation, as well as mutual relations between industrial property rights and anti-unfair competition regulations. The author compares existing regulations and caselaw and then draws conclusions regarding the possibility of their application in the specific situation of an unregistered trademark. The article ends with a summary and conclusions in which the author summarized the previous considerations, in particular the necessity to distinguish a separate right to the registered mark and recognition of its functioning on the market.