Design protection in Poland: what you need to know

01.09.2025

Alongside patents and trademarks, a registered design is also a valuable business asset. A registered design helps protect a wide range of assets from copying.

For example, if a company produces luxury goods, their appearance, color, shape, pattern, and even texture can be protected against counterfeiting. If your business is IT development, industrial designs can protect the appearance of application interfaces, website pages, individual icons, or buttons. You can also protect the shape of a product or its packaging.

Examples include

Terminology

You may come across different terms: design patent, registered design, industrial design. The term design patent is used mainly in the United States. In the European Union, the term is registered community design. In Poland, this IP asset is legally called an industrial design (wzór przemysłowy).

Requirements for protection

An industrial design must be “new” and have “individual character.” Novelty means the design has not been made available to the public before its first disclosure (or before the filing date of the application). Individual character means the overall impression produced on an “informed user” must be different from that produced by any earlier design.

Why register an industrial design?

Registration of an industrial design allows you to protect your rights if someone copies your product – whether it is an application, website, or manufactured good. Registration grants you the exclusive right to use the design in commercial or professional activity, which can create new revenue streams. Including such an asset in the portfolio of intangible assets also affects the company’s capitalization.

Unlike patents, which protect technical solutions, composition of materials, or methods of manufacture, design protects only the appearance. If a particular feature of your product is dictated solely by its function, it will not be protected.

Can you choose not to register?

In principle, yes. If your product has a short life cycle, you may decide not to file any application. However, it is important to remember that in many countries, including Poland, only registered industrial designs are protected at the national level.

At the EU level, however, an unregistered design (Unregistered Community Design, UCD) can be protected from copying. This is provided for in Council Regulation (EC) No 6/2002 of 12 December 2001 on Community designs.

This means that if you disclose your design – for example, by publishing your app in the App Store or putting your product on sale on Amazon – and the public within the EU can access it, a three-year protection period begins from that date. During this period, your design is protected against deliberate copying within the EU.

Three important points about UCD

You will have to carefully monitor competitors and keep proof that your design was disclosed first. We recommend saving such evidence – for example, screenshots, archived website data, or other documentation that may help in a dispute.

UCD protects only against intentional copying. If a competitor independently develops the same design and can prove it (e.g. with documentation, contracts, work assignments), then there is no infringement. In such cases, the burden of proving imitation lies with the owner of the unregistered design.

If your business grows and you decide to register the design, remember that after disclosure you only have a 12-month grace period to file for registration. If you file after, say, a year and a half, your own disclosure will destroy novelty and cause refusal.

Registration tracks

Poland (national route): You can register a design only in Poland by filing with the Polish Patent Office (Urząd Patentowy RP). The registration grants protection only within Poland. This may be sufficient if your business does not intend to expand abroad.

Term: 5 years, renewable every 5 years, up to a maximum of 25 years.

EU (regional route): For broader European protection, the optimal choice is a Community Design, which provides protection across all EU Member States. Applications are filed with EUIPO (European Union Intellectual Property Office) in Alicante, Spain (all procedures are online).

Term: 5 years, renewable every 5 years, up to a maximum of 25 years.

Other regional systems: ARIPO (African Regional Intellectual Property Organization), BOIP (Benelux Office for Intellectual Property), OAPI (African Intellectual Property Organization), and EAPO (Eurasian Patent Organization, which since 2021 also grants industrial design protection). These can be useful if you target those markets.

International (Hague system): The Hague System allows registration of designs in 99 countries worldwide through a single international application. No prior national or regional filing is required. The application is filed directly with WIPO in Geneva.

Initial term: 5 years.Maximum term depends on the national law of each designated country.

Post-Brexit situation

Since Brexit, EU design rights no longer extend to the UK. If you target the UK market, you must file separately with UKIPO or rely on the UK Unregistered Design Right (UK UDR). UK UDR lasts for 15 years from creation or 10 years from first marketing of the product (whichever is shorter).

Step-by-step registration process

1. Identify target markets. Decide which registration path suits your business (national, regional, or international). Note that national filings may serve as a priority basis for subsequent regional or international filings within a limited period (6 months).
2. Identify goods. Determine the list of goods according to the Locarno Classification.
3. Design search. It may turn out that a similar design has already been registered. A design search helps to check this. If needed, adapt your design so that it can be registered. Keep in mind that too much time between search, design adjustment, and filing may allow others to register before you. Sometimes it is reasonable to disclose the design to secure a priority date, even before commercialization. But disclosure triggers the 12-month grace period, so timing must be carefully planned.
4. File the application. Submit your application to the chosen office, with properly prepared drawings or images. This is crucial: poorly prepared images may cause objections. For example, in one our USPTO case, the applicant had to amend drawings after the grace period had ended, which triggered an additional fee (over USD 1,000). Fees vary depending on the office. 
   Note: applicants without residence or business in the EU or EFTA must file in Poland only through a representative (advocate, legal adviser, or patent attorney).
5. Decision and registration. If no obstacles are found, the office issues a decision and your design is registered. However, even a registered design may later be challenged by third parties – for example, if an earlier design is discovered that you overlooked during the search.

Enforcement after registration

Once registered, you can monitor infringements and enforce your rights. Specialized software tools can assist in monitoring, since manual tracking is impossible worldwide. Enforcement options include cease-and-desist letters, cancellation of conflicting registrations, takedown of infringing listings on platforms (e.g. Allegro, Amazon, Google Ads), and, of course, litigation – including injunctions, removal of infringing products, and damages.

Conclusion

Design registration is not just another certificate or entry in your company’s records. It is a reliable way to protect your rights as a design creator or investor, and also a tool to increase the recognition and value of your business.

 

Author: Inna Semenova

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