Law / Prawo autorskie - copyright / trademark of a business name in Poland [18]

I think I just need something for Poland as any franchise plans I have would be for Poland alone and I have recently been talking to guys who own Piwoteka and they got battered by people stealing their name and twisting it.

Keep it short, got it.

Maybe trademark is a better way to go. I just don't want someone to say, "that's a good idea, I'll just use his name since it's not trademarked and..."

Am I being a bit paranoid?

Anyone know costs for trademarking in Poland (12-15 letters, 2 words) and who to contact for this?

Law / Prawo autorskie - copyright / trademark of a business name in Poland [18]

Thanks darius. I just happen to be visiting one tomorrow morning. I will post his advice here for anyone else who may need it.

I will try to summarize my meeting with a lawyer last week about copyrighting (wrong term), trademarking a company name. Basically, it is pretty simple process to find if your desired name is taken or not. If you go to the Urząd Patentowy website, uprp.pl you can search through a database of trademarked names. His advice was to pick something more than one word unless your one word is made up and extremely unlikely to be considered common by the board who will make the decision concerning your trademark case.

English names are good, but if you decide to name your company in Polish, using normal words, then you will need to choose two or more of the words to be considered unique enough. For example, you couldn't name you company "Woda" or "Woda Naturalna" as the first is a thing commonly used and the second is a specific type of the previous thing. You could, however, name is "Excellsior Woda" or whatever.

I am not sure of the prices, but I will write some further information as I find out; I will start the process sometime this month or next.

As far as legal advice goes, anyone know how to legally dispose of a yapping dog that seems to have the endurance and stamina to go 22 hrs a day, 'YAAAAAaaaaaaap' in a shrill, high-pitched voice?

Law / EU grants to small business in Poland-advice needed [27]

I would like to bring this thread back to life, it is very old I can see...

I am interested in grants or funding of any sort for small businesses, I have a business currently and we are looking to expand from an internet store only to a traditional brick & mortar location (possibly 2 locations). We have some private equity to invest in our ideas, but we need more to make them work. Lets say it is in the restaurant industry, or gastronomy without being too specific here.

My questions would be:

1. does anyone know any grants or additional resources other than the website previously mentioned?

2. Has anyone worked with a firm that specializes in the application process for these grants? What are the costs? What are the typical results? Impressions generally?