Important judgment of Court of Conciliation for Internet Domains at PIIT concerning desa.pl domain name

We are pleased to announce that our law firm successfully represented DESA Unicum S.A. before the Internet Domain Arbitration Court at the Polish Chamber of Information Technology and Telecommunications (“PIIT”) in a case brought by Desa Dzieła Sztuki i Antyki sp. z o.o. concerning the infringement of rights as a result of the conclusion of an agreement for the maintenance of the internet domain name ‘desa.pl’.

Both parties to the dispute were associated with the state enterprise ‘DESA’ Dzieła Sztuki i Antyki, which was split into two entities in 1991. Over the years, both entities also changed the form of their business, which in both cases, however, concerned trading in works of art and antiques. At the time of the split, it was not possible to establish the consensual use of the disputed ‘Desa’ name.

In dismissing the action of Desa Dzieła Sztuki i Antyki sp. z o.o. against DESA Unicum S.A., the Internet Domain Arbitration Court emphasised that the fact that the respondent had succeeded in demonstrating the continuity of the use of the desa.pl domain for activities conducted under the DESA Unicum designation and the long-standing toleration of this state of affairs by the claimant was of key importance for the decision.

On the part of the law firm, the case was handled by Marcin Maruta, managing partner, and Dr Zbigniew Okoń, a partner and head of the intellectual property law practice. In their words:

“The judgment in this case is one of the most important, if not the most important, domain judgment in Poland in recent years.”