| In Principle

Client confidentiality is an inherent element and fundamental duty in the legal profession. It is the cornerstone of the relationship legal professionals build with their clients. It also a guarantee of protection of the rights of the parties in judicial proceedings, including the right to a fair trial. But what is legal professional privilege? Can anything limit it? And is it losing strength in today’s reality?

While the new data protection regulation provides for severe administrative penalties for failure to comply, it is well known that whether a penalty is effective is determined not by its severity but by its inevitability. Even though the personal data protection authority has been given broad powers, it does not have adequate means of exercising them. A solution could be a private enforcement mechanism within the regulation, whereby any person whose data has been breached can independently seek a judicial remedy.

A gap in legal provisions might mean criminal liability for management board members for not filing financial statements on time.

Work has begun on the government’s side on a bill amending the Waste Act and certain other acts. The provisions are a reaction to disturbing reports of waste entering Poland illegally and landfill fires which are hazardous, reported by the media in recent weeks.

On 7 June 2018 the Government Legislation Centre published a proposal for amendment of the Environmental Protection Inspectorate Act and certain other acts on its website. Under the proposal, the Environmental Protection Inspectorate’s powers would be substantially broadened and administrative fines provided for in environmental laws increased.

The concept for a new public procurement law suggests changes to ensure greater effectiveness of appeal proceedings and make right of appeal realistic. There will be a specialist court to review the cheaper appeal.

According to figures from KPMG, the alcoholic beverages market in Poland was worth about PLN 57 billion in 2016, and its value is growing year on year. The industry is of great economic importance, providing numerous jobs and offering a major sales outlet for agricultural production. The selection of the topic for today’s edition is no accident. We believe that developments on the market may cause certain models for protection of intellectual property to grow in importance—alongside growing threats to those rights. We discuss them here from the practical side.

Producers of alcoholic beverages struggle with highly restrictive regulations across many areas of their business. One is advertising. The Polish regulations, in the Act on Sober Upbringing and Combating Alcoholism of 26 October 1982, are quite rigorous compared to most other countries. Essentially it is illegal to advertise alcoholic beverages, but with some leniency for beer. Beer advertising is permitted, subject to great restrictions on manner, place, time, form and content.

The fame or renown of a trademark is not a concept defined in Polish or EU law. The courts try to clarify this notion by pointing to the criteria that must be met for a mark to be regarded as renowned. Although these criteria are already well-established in the EU case law, the Polish courts sometimes add new requirements.

Trademark proprietors try to promote their brands so they become known and recognisable among customers, achieving greater distinctiveness and even repute. A famous brand is the dream of every trademark owner. But sometimes exceptional popularity proves damaging to the brand. Then the trademark can become eroded or genericised.

Some categories of goods, such as agricultural produce, foods and spirits, are valued by customers primarily because of the exceptional natural conditions of their town, region or country of origin, or because of their traditional production methods. Authorised producers use geographical indications for their products to underline this uniqueness.

Alongside the trademark, the label of a product must also identify the product itself, so that consumers know what type of product they are being offered. But in the European Union alone, there may be a dozen or more legal definitions of certain alcoholic beverages, such as cider or perry. This means that the qualitative requirements differ across various member states, presenting a huge challenge for producers, particularly when the EU policy agenda has taken up the fight against double standards for foods offered in different parts of the EU.