POLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Agnieszka Janicka and Krzysztof Hajdamowicz, Clifford Chance
Copyright consists of economic rights and moral rights. Economic rights entitle the copy - right holder to use and dispose of a work and receive fair and appropriate remuneration for the use of it, and these rights may be transferred or assigned. Along with the economic rights, there is also the exclusive right of the author to authorise the use of derivative rights to the origi - nal work (eg, translation). Moral rights entitle the author to sign the work with their name, decide on its first publication and allow modification thereof. Moral rights can - not be transferred, assigned or licensed, but it is common practice to oblige the author in con - tracts transferring economic copyrights not to exercise the moral rights. Economic rights are generally protected until 70 years after the death of the author of the work; moral rights last indefi - nitely. Economic rights may be transferred (or licensed) only within the fields of exploitation explicitly specified in an agreement. A field of exploita - tion means any manner of exploitation consid - ered technically and economically independent in trading practice. Omitting a field of exploita - tion in the agreement deprives the acquirer (or licensee) of the rights to exploit a field not listed therein. The fields of exploitation make it pos - sible to seek remuneration for each of them. Copyright protection does not depend upon a registration process or satisfaction of any for - mal requirements. Once the work is established (even if not completed), it automatically receives protection. In the event of an infringement of economic rights, the author may demand cessation of the infringement, remedy of the results of the infringement, damage compensation and the
surrender of any unlawfully obtained benefit. The author may also request publication of an announcement in the press or payment of an appropriate sum of money to the copyright hold - er, determined at twice the amount of remunera - tion that would be required for a licence to use the work. 7.5 Others There is no special regime for the protection of software, which basically enjoys protection covered by copyright law with minor differences when compared to the works described in 7.4 Copyright . Databases that are collected in a way that requires substantial investment of effort to com - pile, verify or present their content, in terms of quality or quantity, are protected by the Act on the Protection of Databases. Such protection does not depend on registration and lasts for 15 years. Regardless, databases may be protected by copyright if they can be considered a “work”. Business Secrets Business secrets are protected under the Pol - ish Act on Combatting Unfair Competition, and may be violated if unlawfully disclosed, used or obtained. In the violation of a business secret, the entrepreneur may demand cessation of the violation, removal of the effects of the violation, a relevant statement, redress of damage, the surrender of any unlawfully obtained benefits, or the award of an appropriate sum of money for social purposes associated with supporting Polish culture or protecting the national heritage. In addition, the entrepreneur may demand that the ruling concerning the violation of the busi - ness secret is made public.
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