The latest edition of the TKP Legal newsletter is now available! This issue features 11 expert articles analyzing current legal changes and challenges – from technology and financial market regulations, through competition law, to matters related to the employment of foreign nationals. These topics are particularly relevant for lawyers, managers, entrepreneurs, and anyone keen to stay up to date with the evolving legal and regulatory landscape.

The registration of a trademark is associated with an important obligation involving its use. Simply referring to high brand recognition or extensive operations may prove insufficient in evidence proceedings before intellectual property authorities. The use of the trademark must be real (it cannot be apparent or symbolic), it must take place in the territory where the trademark is registered, and refer precisely to the goods or services for which it is registered. Otherwise, the entrepreneur may lose protection.

In today’s IP Insights, we wonder, whether there is room for copyright in packaging protection. In one of the previous issues, we described the IP protection of packaging based on trademark and industrial design law. How does copyright relate to that? 

On 1 June 2025, the Act on the conditions of permissibility of entrusting work to foreigners on the territory of the Republic of Poland entered into force. The Act maintains the general rules for entrusting work to foreigners that were previously contained in the Act on employment promotion and labour market Institutions. However, the new legislation introduces significant restrictions which, in practice, may make the process of hiring foreigners more difficult.

RozporządThe Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the framework for access to financial data and amending Regulations (EU) No 1093/2010, (EU) No 1094/2010, (EU) 1095/2010 and (EU) 2022/2554 (FiDAR) will impose new obligations on financial institutions. These relate to the provision of data on certain types of customer contracts to financial information service providers (FISPs) or other financial institutions. At the same time, financial institutions remain obliged under national regulations to maintain secrecy in respect of a significant part of their activities.  

Competition law explicitly prohibits price-fixing arrangements. This applies not only to collusion between competitors, but also to cases of resale price maintenance (RPM), in which a supplier (usually a manufacturer or importer) imposes fixed or minimum resale prices on its distributors.

Work on amending the Act of 11 September 2019 on Public Procurement Law is in progress. Their aim is to enable the restriction of the participation of economic operators from the so-called third countries in public procurement procedures. The proposed amendment responds to the judgement of the EU Court of Justice (C-652/22; Kolin Inşaat Turizm Sanayi ve Ticaret AȘ v Državna komisija za kontrolu postupaka javne nabave; ECLI:EU:C:2024:910). It confirmed that economic operators from countries that have not concluded relevant international agreements with the EU do not have guaranteed access to the EU public procurement market. 

The provisions of the EU Regulation on Artificial Intelligence (AI Act) start to come into force in stages and we are now approaching another important milestone. On 2 August 2025, further regulations will start to apply that will affect the activities of entities developing and making AI systems available, in particular the so-called General Purpose AI (GPAI) models. These models play a key role in the AI value chain, often providing the foundation for solutions developed by others. The new obligations may therefore affect not only the original suppliers of these models, but also the organisations that modify or integrate them in their products. 

Entrepreneurs should verify whether references to the beneficial health effects of botanicals do not appear on the packaging of their dietary supplements. Indeed, such a practice is not allowed, as confirmed by the Court of Justice of the EU in its latest judgement in case C-386/23. 

On 21 May 2025, the Sejm adopted an amendment to the Development Act, which aims to increase transparency in the real estate market and better protect buyers of dwellings and houses. The new regulations introduce, among others, an obligation of open publication of the prices of premises on developers’ websites, which should prevent unfair practices and facilitate comparing of offers. The amendment introduces new obligations for developers, in particular the requirement to disclose real estate prices. This will translate into new administrative and organisational challenges for companies operating in the development industry. Foreign entities planning to enter the Polish market will have to adapt their current practice to Polish regulations, which may have a direct impact on their existing business strategies.