| In Principle

China-based businesses have specific objectives and are working hard to achieve a presence on the global markets. The world does not have a plan for dealing with Chinese commercial expansion – commentary on the Inter-Pacific Bar Association conference.

Will the amendment to the Road Traffic Law draw investors wishing to test autonomous vehicles in Poland?

Designs of products or parts of products are protected if they are new and the overall impression they make differs from designs know to the public up until that time. Certain features, determined solely by the technical function of the product, are not protected. Until now there were various interpretations as to what in fact determines that a particular feature is solely a result of the product function. The issue was clarified in a recent CJEU judgment.

Ignoring industrial designs or treating them as the least important option is a thing of the past. Designs will increase in importance and therefore need to be part of the intellectual property portfolio. This was the main message at the INTA Designs Conference 2018 on 26–27 February 2018 in London.

Reports released by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance leave no doubt that Europe has fallen a long way behind the United States and Asian countries in development of modern financial services. This is especially noticeable in crowdfunding. In Asia Pacific countries, this method generates more than USD 200 billion per year, but only some USD 8 billion in Europe. The proposed crowdfunding regulation is intended to change this by harmonising European laws and introducing a European passport for service providers operating crowdfunding platforms.

The consequences of a transaction falling outside the scope of business specified in the articles of association.

In public procurement, persons acting for the contracting authority must not have a conflict of interest, or they must be excluded. A contractor can also be excluded from a tender if its ties to the contracting authority could affect the result of the procedure.

In various types of financing transactions, one of the borrower’s main assets is a portfolio of receivables, e.g. under leases (when financing commercial property) or under loans (when the borrower is in the business of granting loans). In such cases, the lender seeking effective security will often require such a portfolio to serve as collateral.

Genuine commercial exploitation of a trademark can also be shown when a position trademark is used in combination with other graphic elements.

On 5 February 2018 the CJEU issued long-awaited judgments in three cases in one day concerning release to third parties of medicinal product registration documentation. These rulings confirm the European Medicines Agency’s current data transparency policy. How are conflicting interests weighed regarding release of medicine registration data?

The National Centre for Research and Development (NCBiR) is testing pre-commercial procurement on the energy market. More such projects will soon be launched in other sectors. What is PCP and who can benefit from it?