Press Releases 2003

2002 SPECIAL 301 REPORT: POLAND

April 2003

Despite intensified USG engagement with the Polish government, the IPR situation in Poland has not improved since the 2002 review. The main concern substantively with Poland is the lack of political will by the Polish Government to shut down the open air market inside the Government owned Warsaw Stadium, which is awash in pirated optical media products and counterfeit goods. Although police raids at the stadium occur, the penalties imposed after prosecutions are light, if imposed at all, and do not act as a deterrent to continued illegal trade. In addition to the Stadium problem, optical disc piracy in Poland is on the rise and becoming a greater problem. While Poland has nine operating optical disc plants that produce legitimate products, we are concerned that pirated product may be produced at some of these plants as well. Pirate optical media product is entering Poland via its porous borders, and there are reports of exported pirated product to other Eastern and Western European countries. Given the growing problem of optical disc piracy, legislation is needed to control optical media production in Poland. We urge the Polish Government to swiftly enact an optical disk licensing regime and significantly improve enforcement in the major cities and border towns.

In addition, despite a new pharmaceutical law that came into effect on October 1, 2002, there are still significant shortcomings with the protection of confidential test data submitted for marketing approval. Specifically, the fact that data protection is linked to the existence of a patent is troubling, since these two types of rights, patent protection and data protection are independent of each other. Also problematic is the fact that the period of protection is calculated based on first registration globally, which significantly diminishes the period of protection in Poland, since most pharmaceuticals are first registered outside of Poland.