Warsaw Court of Appeal ruled that there is no civil liability for using in administrative proceedings confidential internal documents including trade secrets of the other party.
Within patent invalidation proceedings party "A" provided evidence including eleven internal documents of party "B", including trade secrets. These documents were provided by one of the inventors previously working for B. Court of first instance and court of appeal shared the defendant's position that patent invalidation proceedings require submitting evidence, which as such cannot be assessed from the point of view of an infringement of the principle of fair competition. Everyone with a legal interest has a right to request the invalidation of a patent. Such interest cannot be equated with economic interests within the meaning of the Act on combating unfair competition (VI ACa 1478/13).