Administrative adversarial procedures in national trademark cases – legislative challenges

The provisions of the Act - Industrial Property Law in respect to trademarks provide for proceedings regarding opposition to a trademark application, as well as proceedings for invalidation of the protection right. The aim of this study is to analyze selected regulations of the above-mentioned proceedings compared to the procedures in force before European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO, and in particular showing the shortcomings of the procedures before the Polish Office. Such shortcomings include the separation of the application proceedings from the opposition proceedings, different treatment of these proceedings by the legislator, e.g. in terms of hearings, regulations on requesting proof of use of the mark that is the basis for the opposition.