Intellectual property and commercialisation of scientific research - NLK LawKancelaria Prawnicza Nowotnik Lipski Szafrański

Intellectual property

For a long time now we’ve been specialising in intellectual property cases. This concept encompasses copyright and related rights, rights to know-how, trade name rights, internet domain rights, rights to scientific research and discoveries, trademarks, industrial designs, inventions and databases.

With the development of technology and increasing innovativeness of Polish entrepreneurs, there is a growing number of issues related to acquiring rights to intellectual property and their protection. In cooperation with an office of patent attorneys, we provide support to our Clients in registering trademarks, industrial designs and inventions. We advise in negotiations of licence agreements and intellectual property transfer agreements. We represent our Clients in court proceedings or in negotiations related to infringement of such rights, such as in cases related to sales of fake products, with illegal use of another’s trademark or company name or violation of business secrets. We represent our Clients in disputes regarding rights to internet domains.

We conduct due diligence analyses for the company’s intellectual property or the intellectual property intended as contribution-in-kind. In cooperation with an office of patent attorneys, we perform assessments of patentability of an invention and registration capacity of trademarks. We help design procedures on development of intellectual property and on securing business secrets of a company.

Commercialisation of scientific research

Business success on the innovative and highly competitive market to a growing extent depends on a good idea for new services or a new product or improvement of existing ones. To a larger and larger extent, entrepreneurs in Poland want to make use of scientific and development research, and some academics along with universities make attempts at commercialising intellectual property. In an effort to meet the Clients’ expectations, we propose comprehensive assistance in cases related to commercialisation of intellectual property.
We help scientists establish the legal status of intellectual property intended as a basis for business activity or which is intended to be developed as a result of work performed under a grant or financial aid from a sponsor. Depending on the form of cooperation of scientists with a higher education institution, there might arise various configurations of persons and entities entitled to results of scientific and development work, such as the university, the manager of the research team or some members of the research team. We advise on how to manage the created intellectual property, including know-how, and how to protect it. We help in negotiations with universities and potential investors, we also help in concluding licence agreements or intellectual property transfer agreements.
As regards start-ups, we help choose the optimal legal form for business activity. We support idea originators in negotiations with investors and advise during conclusion of investment agreements.

We support investors in negotiations with higher education institutions, with idea originators intending to commercialise their idea, with entities that distribute science and innovation funds as well as in negotiations with other persons entitled to intellectual property. We perform due diligence analysis in order to determine the legal status of intellectual property intended as contribution-in-kind and a basis for business operations of a new company. We also perform due diligence of intellectual property during acquisition of an existing company.

We offer legal services in Polish, English and German.

In our law firm, intellectual property services are managed by attorney-at-law Małgorzata Nowotnik-Zajączkowska.