Brancusi Lavinia, The functionality of three-dimensional trade marks in the Polish practice

Customers are generally interested in acquiring products with attractive shape features, either due to their usefulness or eye appeal. Such a product becomes a powerful instrument able to affect competition in the market. This fact triggers the need on the part of entrepreneurs to cover shapes by exclusive rights. Protection under design rights – though the most suitable one – soon becomes unsatisfactory due to its temporal restriction, especially in case of successful products. That is the reason why trade mark protection still remains the object of entrepreneurial interest. The subject matter of the present article is to focus on aspects of the Polish practice related to the protection of shapes as a trade mark.