Types of intellectual property:

1.) INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY, PROTECTED ON THE BASIS OF THE "INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY LAW ACT";

a.) Inventions - these are the following solutions:

• new - i.e. those that have not been previously made available to the general public in the form of a description, through use, exhibition at a fair or otherwise disclosed.
• having a degree of inventiveness - i.e. those solutions that do not appear to be obvious to a person skilled in the solution's field.
• applicable for industrial use - i.e. those whose application makes it possible to obtain products or use methods, in the technical sense, in any industrial activity, not excluding agriculture.

Duration of protection: 20 years

Granting a patent is confirmed by the Patent Office by issuing a patent document.

b.) Utility models - these are new and suitable for industrial application solutions of technical nature, concerning the shape or structure of an object.

Duration of protection: 10 years

Granting a protection right for a utility model is confirmed by the Patent Office by issuing a protection certificate.

c.) Industrial designs - are new and having an individual character of the form of products or their parts, given to them in particular by the features of lines, contours, shapes, colors, texture or material of the product and by its ornamentation. Such subject is any item manufactured in an industrial or handicraft manner, including in particular packaging, graphic symbols and typographic typefaces, with the exception of computer programs.

Duration of protection: 25 years

The grant of a right in registration of an industrial design is confirmed by the Patent Office by issuing a registration certificate.

d.) Trademarks - a trademark may be any designation that makes it possible to distinguish the goods of one company from the goods of another company and that can be presented in the register of trademarks, in a way that allows to identify an unambiguous and precise subject of the protection granted, in particular a word, including a surname, a drawing, a letter, a digit, a color, a spatial form, including the shape of the goods or packaging, and a sound.

Protection time: unlimited (the first protection period is 10 years and may be extended unlimitedly for subsequent 10-year periods)

Granting a protection right for a trademark is confirmed by the Patent Office by issuing a protection certificate.

2.) INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY, PROTECTED AS A SECRET OF AN ENTERPRISE ON THE BASIS OF THE "UNFAIR COMPETITION ACT", ART. 11 AND "REGULATIONS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT AT THE SILESIAN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY";

Know-how - (colloquial term, not having a statutory definition in the Polish legal system)

It may be technical, technological, organizational, economic, marketing information of a company or other information having economic value, which as a whole or in a specific combination and set of elements are not commonly known to people who usually deal with this type of information or are not easily accessible to such persons, as long as the person authorized to use the information disposed, taken due diligence, to maintain its confidentiality.

In the case of a technical university, this is usually technical / technological information which, due to the potentially high economic value, is not protected on the basis of the provisions of the "Industrial Property Law", which involves disclosure or which is not patentable, despite the potentially large economic value.

3.) WORKS PROTECTED ON THE BASIS OF THE "ACT ON COPYRIGHT AND RELATED RIGHTS";

Works - are all manifestations of creative activity of individual character, determined in any form, regardless of value, purpose and manner of expression.
In the practice of a technical university, these are most often: expert opinions, reports, projects, computer programs, databases, etc.
As a rule, the subject of protection of a work under the "Copyright and Related Rights Act" is the manner of expression of the content and not the content itself.

Duration of protection: 70 years after the death of the creator or co-creator who survived the others.