Law applicable to the contractual obligations in intellectual property law, with emphasis on license agreements

Abstract

This article deals with the issue of determining the law applicable to contracts in the field of intellectual property law in general. After Poland joined the European Union, in a relatively short period of time, various legal acts regulating the above-mentioned matter were in force. The author presents the current procedure for determining the law applicable to contracts for the transfer of intangible rights and license contracts on the basis of the Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations (Rome I). Author presents the sequence of actions in determining the applicable law – from the freedom to choose the law, through set decisive rules and the concept of characteristic performance, to correction clauses. At the same time, the text compares the current regulations with the provisions of the Rome Convention of 1980, which was the basis of today’s EU legal solutions. The author put particular emphasis on agreements for the use of intellectual property rights, for which the determination of the applicable law brings about more practical problems.