Q: Do Polish innovative achievements have any impact on global technology and economy?
A: Quite a number of breakthrough inventions in the history of civilisation have been contributed in various fields by Poles. Many of the new designs by Polish inventors, engineers and scientists were created and put to use abroad, because the originators were unable to tap their potential at home. They were forced to emigrate due at times to the prevailing political or economic situation in their homeland. Nowadays, some of the best Polish innovators are frequently working in international environments for global companies and institutions. Inventions made by Poles are therefore often patented in favour of supranational groups and the names of the real inventors are not made public. Admittedly, that happens with their agreement as they renounce their intellectual property rights for economic reasons.

Q: Accomplishments by Polish scientists such as Maria Curie-Skłodowska (her work on radioactivity, discovery of the Radium and Polonium elements, Zygmunt Wróblewski and Karol Olszewski (who liquefied oxygen) are known outside Poland. But there were, of course, many others….
A: Yes, indeed. Many are known only by specialists. Few people are aware, for instance, that Kazimierz Prószyński invented the pleograph for taking photographs and projecting pictures, the first pocket-sized film-camera and a method of synchronising sound and film tracks. Tadeusz Sendzimir invented new methods of cold and hot steel rolling which revolutionised steel and metal processing technology used nowadays in every industrialised nation. Józef Kosacki invented the first portable mine detector, whose basic design was in use with various armies until recently for over 50 years. The list of Polish breakthrough inventions is of course much longer than that. The production of microprocessors these days would not have been feasible without Polish chemist Jan Czochralski who designed the process for monocrystalline silicon production.
One of the latest Polish achievements in recent years is the use of spectrum detection in optical tomography for examining changes in the eye retina. This technology was devised by a team under Professor Andrzej Kowalczyk at the Institute of Physics in Toruń. It has proved to be competitive to solutions applied by renowned world producers. The device is now marketed by the Polish „Optopol" company. Also noteworthy is the really sensational third-generation inSWing spine polymer implant devised by Lechosław Ciupik, President of the LfC company in Zielona Góra. The inSWing method is hailed world-wide as the most advanced spine treatment solution in its area of application.

Q: Do Polish inventors perceive the need to seek national patent protection?
A: Gradually so. The number of national patent applications submitted to the Polish Patent Office over the past three years has been growing by about 10% each year. This shows that inventors have become increasingly aware of the commercial potential of their innovative technical solutions. Interest in acquiring exclusive rights has been prompted by the country’s dynamic economic growth. Inventions which have accurately met market demands can clearly bring tangible benefits to the authors. Provided, however, that exclusive rights are granted to the respective inventor by the Polish Patent Office. A patent for an invention or a right of protection for a utility model gives its owner the right to exclude others from making, using or selling the invention. The awareness is, however, still insufficient as to the importance of protecting industrial property rights, and that applies in particular to small and medium sized companies and university research workers. The Polish Patent Office has therefore embarked on a series of education ventures to correct this.

Q: Could this help increase the number of patents in Poland?
A: I think that any further rise in patent applications will be prompted by two factors. First of all, by the on-going development of various technical projects exploiting Poland’s growing science potential. The teaching of “Intellectual property protection” as a mandatory subject at all university faculties as of the past two years, combined with the forthcoming launch of two-semester post-graduate studies for research workers will be another factor. The studies will be run by the University of Warsaw and the Maria Curie Skłodowska University in Lublin in collaboration with the Polish Patent Office. A pilot university course on intellectual property protection is also being drafted in cooperation with the Jagiellonian University in Kraków and the Kielce University of Technology. One of the basic assumptions of the studies is to differentiate the lecture content depending on the type of studies pursued by the students. The focus for humanities students in will be on copyright and intellectual property management, while for those in technical and natural studies the stress will primarily be on issues concerned with studies on the state of technology to help, among others, assess the feasibility of taking up specific research subjects as well as consider the innovative potential of technology projects.
The Polish Patent Office is also pursuing a campaign to make scientists aware of the long term consequences of disposing exclusive rights in favour of foreign entities. One drawback could be that Polish companies would be compelled to pay much more for inventions made in their own country than what is charged in Poland while the Polish inventor would not earn anything extra.
This could be avoided if the exclusive right would remain at the disposal of the Polish inventor or other Polish entity. It is therefore crucial to promote understanding of the terms of protection, in particular of technical solutions as well as industrial property management rights. It is also vital that schemes be developed to support funding the costs of protecting domestic technological solutions.

Q: Do you recall any case of the Polish Patent Office refusing to patent an invention that afterwards obtained a patent in another country?
A: Of all the applications, some 43-44% percent of the solutions do not satisfy the set legal requirements and Patent Research Department experts considering the case refuse to grant the patent or protection right. It may happen, however that after a patent for national protection is refused, it is granted abroad. That applies in particular to applications for protecting software as an invention. The Polish Patent Office refuses to patent software because pursuant to the Polish law as well as the 1973 Munich Patent Convention (EPC) software is not considered to have a technical effect. Software is protected in Poland and many other countries by copyright. However, in spite of the ongoing controversy on the issue, the European Patent Office (EPO) has often granted patent protection for software or computer-aided inventions. The fact that controversy exists calls for the adoption of uniform standards on that issue. Appropriate solutions will have to be worked out also concerning the protection of industrial property rights. They should be adopted by international accord.

Q: It is said that entrepreneurs ever more often refrain from submitting applications for patenting solutions invented by their own departments….
A: Many solutions in companies are market experiments and do not meet legal patentability requirements. Neither do they have potential from the entrepreneur’s point of view. Hence submitting such solutions does not always make sense. But solutions with an innovative potential, which comply with mandatory requirements and well as being indicative of the respective company’s strength and position should be protected most extensively.
However, entrepreneurs may always choose the method and scope of patent protection. If a solution is easily reproducible and possible to copy then patent protection of the exclusive right to manufacture and market is of the utmost importance: it allows to take legal steps against a violator. If, however, the solution is such that it renders its copying and reproduction impossible, the entrepreneur may not disclose it when filing the patent application. In such a case protection consists of internal procedures to keep the know-how in secret. The formula of Coca-Cola has been protected in this way since the end of the 19th century.

Q: Does the Patent Office grant protection solely for technological solutions?
A: The Polish Patent Office grants exclusive rights to all kinds of industrial property. That includes inventions and utility patterns as well trademarks, industrial designs, names of regional products and IC topographies. Speaking generally, these are industrial property objects related to technique and the economy protected in Poland by the Act on Industrial Property and regulations laid down in international agreements.

Q: Does the Polish Patent Office take advantage of EU funding?
A: The Polish Patent Office is not a direct beneficiary of EU programmes. We consider this to be a great disadvantage because of the enormous needs of the Polish economy as regards the strengthening of industrial property protection. Such protection is crucial for boosting innovation, entrepreneurship and competitiveness in face of developed European economies. We do, however, take advantage of EU funds in an indirect way by collaborating with the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development and the Polish Chamber of Commerce, among others by preparing free-of-charge educational publications. The Polish Patent Office is also involved in the international IPeuropAware project funded by the European Commission to support small and medium sized companies in intellectual property right management. The project is pursued by a consortium of 20 European national patent offices, coordinated by University of Alicante in Spain and supervised on EU’s behalf by the Executive Agency for Competition and Innovation (EACI).