RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONIP/Q3/POL/1/Add.1
26 June 1998
(98-2565)
Council for Trade-Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property RightsOriginal:  English
REVIEW OF LEGISLATION IN THE FIELDS OF PATENTS, LAYOUT-DESIGNS
(TOPOGRAPHIES) OF INTEGRATED CIRCUITS, PROTECTION OF
UNDISCLOSED INFORMATION AND CONTROL OF
ANTI-COMPETITIVE PRACTICES IN
CONTRACTUAL LICENCES
Poland
Addendum
The present document reproduces complementary responses from Poland to questions which
the United States and the European Communities and their Members had posed to Poland in thecontext of the Council's review meeting that took place from 26 to 30 May 1997.  For the sake of
convenience, the initial questions and answers, which have already been distributed in document
IP/Q3/POL/1, are reproduced in the present document as well.
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COMPLEMENTARY REPLY OF POLAND TO A QUESTION FROM THE
UNITED STATES
3. Please indicate the nature of measures, if an y, that are taken by judicial authorities in
Poland to protect the confidentiality of undisclosed information furnished by a party to the
court during legal proceedings, when the informat ion has been provided either to enforce rights
in such information, or for other purposes.
Initial reply
The question refers to activities taken by judicial authorities to protect confidentiality of undisclosed
information furnished by a party to the court during le gal proceedings.  This issue requires consultation with
Poland's Ministry of Justice.
Complementary reply
1.  The court which examines a case, orders or may order that the whole or a part of the session
is held behind closed doors, i.e. without participation of the public.
(a) the civil proceedings:
In a situation where a public examination of the case could result in a possible
disclosure of a trade (state) secret the cour t shall issue an applicable order ex officio
(Article 153, paragraph 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure);  in a situation where it islikely that the circumstances constituting the manufacturer's or trade secret of a party
will be revealed in the course of proceedings in business-related cases, the order
concerning the closed session is issued ex officio or upon the motion of a partyIP/Q3/POL/1/Add.1
Page 2
(Article 479 of the Code of Civil Procedure);  in the event that a party indicates other
reasons which in the opinion of the court justify the necessity of examining the case
in a closed session, the order is issued upon the motion of the party (Article 153,
paragraph 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure);  in the event that the court issues an
order on conducting the whole or a part of the proceedings behind closed doors, onlythe parties, intervening third parties, statutory representatives of the parties, attorneys,
ad litem, public prosecutor and two men of trust for each party may be present at the
proceedings (Article 154, paragraph 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure).
(b) the penal procedure:
The court shall decide on holding the whole or a part of the session with door closed
when it is required by essential private interest (Article 308, paragraph 1 of the Code
of Penal Proceedings);  closed session is also held for the purpose of hearing personsobliged to maintain confidence with respect to trade secrets or secrets related to the
profession or functions performed in a situation where their testimony is to concern
circumstances falling under this obligation (Article 164, paragraph 1 in connection
with Article 163 of the Code of Penal Proceedings);  in addition to persons
participating in the proceedings, two persons accompanying each party appointed bythe public prosecutor, private prosecutor and the accused may be present during a
closed session;  if there is more than one accused, each of them may demand that
each of the public prosecutor, private prosecutor and the accused designate only one
person for participation in the proceedings (Article 309, paragraph 1 of the Code of
Penal Proceedings).
2. The access to the court files and documents enclosed herewith is limited (paragraphs 101-104
of the Ordinance of the Minister of Justice dated 19 November 1987 – Rules and Regulations for
Internal Procedure of Common Courts of Law, Jo urnal of Laws, No. 38, item 218, as subsequently
amended);  parties are authorized to reviews files and obtain excerpts and copies of documents
enclosed with files only after they prove their id entity;  persons other than parties must prove that
such authorization has been granted to them pursuan t to regulations on legal proceedings or they have
to obtain a separate consent for reviewing files and obtaining excerpts and copies therefrom issued by
the chairman of a court division;  additionally with comprising explanations, testimonies, opinions or
documents which contain company secrets or trade secrets, it is necessary, according to applicable
regulations, to mark them as "confidential", and to make a note every time they are made available for
review, specifying the first and family name of the reviewing person (paragraph 9 of the Ordinance of
the Minister of Justice dated 9 October 1978 on the Storage of Records of Testimonies and OtherDocuments and Objects Constituting a State, Comp any or Trade Secrets, Journal of Laws No. 27,
item 217);  the judges are obliged to keep secret all circumstances of a case about which they learned
during a closed session in connection with a position held by them (Article 67, paragraph 1 of the Law
dated 20 June 1985 on the System of Common Courts of Law, consolidated version – Journal of Laws
of 1994, No. 7, item 25 as amended);  the same refers to other employees of the court who receivedinformation of such circumstances in connection with the performance of their duties, e.g. when
taking minutes during a closed session or when executing orders issued in such sessions (Article 150
of the above-mentioned Law on the System of Comm on Courts of Law in connection with Article 17,
Section 2, item 5 of the Law dated 16 September 1982 on Employees of Public Authorities, Journal of
Laws, No. 31, item 214).IP/Q3/POL/1/Add.1
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COMPLEMENTARY REPLY OF POLAND TO QUESTIONS FROM THE EUROPEAN
COMMUNITIES AND THEIR MEMBERS AND THE UNITED STATES
Initial question from the European Communities
2. Please explain how Poland ensures protection of undisclosed information submitted to
the government as a condition of marketing approval for pharmaceutical or agricultural
chemical products as required by Article 39.3 of the TRIPS Agreement.
Initial reply
These questions refer to procedures connected with undisclosed information submitted to the
government as a condition of marketing approval for pharm aceutical or agricultural chemical products.  Our law
does not deal with specific products and specific procedur es related to them.  The Law on Counteracting Unfair
Competition is more general – it applies to the secret of an enterprise in the following way:  "By a secret of an
enterprise it is meant technical, technological, trade or organizational information of an enterprise not revealed
to public knowledge, with respect to which an entr epreneur undertook necessary actions to protect the
confidentiality of the information" (Article 11, Section 3 of the Law).  Protection of information is dealt with bythe Law on State and Professional Secr ets, too, but also in a general way.  It cannot be applied directly to
pharmaceutical or agricu ltural chemical products.
Initial question from the United States
4. Please explain the measures, if any, that have been implemented in Poland to protect
against unfair competition those parties that ha ve provided confidential test or other data
concerning a pharmaceutical or agricultural chemical product to Polish regulatory authorities
pursuant to a request for marketing approval.  Please explain how such measures, if any, are
consistent with Article 39.3 of the TRIPS Agreement.
Initial reply
See reply to question 2 posed by the EC.
Complementary reply to both questions
In Poland the Law on Combating Unfair Competition dated 16 April 1993 (Journal of Laws,
No. 47, item 211 of 8 June 1993) has come into force.  This law regulates effects of liability in theevent of transferring, disclosing or using someone else's information that constitutes a trade secret or
acquiring such information from an unauthorized person, if it threatens material interests of the
company.
Pursuant to the Law dated 14 December 1982 on the Protection of State and Trade Secrets,
each employee, regardless of the post held by him/her, kind of work done, place of work and nature ofthe employment relationship, is obliged to maintain confidence with respect to trade secrets, both
during the term of his/her employment relationship and after its termination.IP/Q3/POL/1/Add.1
Page 4
With regard to pharmaceutical products, Article 6, Section 4 of the Law dated
10 October 1991 on Pharmaceutical Surveillance (Journal of Laws, No. 105, item 452 as subsequently
amended) provides that:
"The register of pharmaceutical products and medicaments is
accessible to persons who have legal interest therein, excluding datacovered by state or trade secrecy and protection of the manufacturer's
intellectual property."
With regard to plant life protection products – pursuant to paragraph 4 of the Ordinance of the
Minister of Agriculture and Food Economy dated 12 March 1996 on Detailed Rules of Issuing
Permits for Admitting Plant Life Protection Products to Trade and their Application, data contained in
the detailed documentation of a product may not be used without the manufacturer's consent in the
procedure for admission to trade and application of another product.
This regulation does not apply to:
(a) names and consent of biologically active substances;
(b) data regarding physico-chemical properties of a product and biologically active
substances;
(c) synthetic description of results of tests for applicability of a product in accordance
with its purpose;
(d) recommended methods and its residues;
(e) analysis methods and its residues;
(f) procedures applied in the event of intoxication of persons and contamination of
environment;
(g) procedures applied with respect of packaging of the used product and to products
which are not suitable for use.
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