Legal opinion on a bill to amend the Act – Law on Higher Education and some other Acts (Sejm Paper No. 2085) (BAS‑WAL 282/14)

The author claims that the proposed amendment requires more work on the part of the legislature. Among the deficiencies of the bill he points out that it needlessly distinguishes among public and non‑public higher education institutions in relation to the legal framework of intellectual property rights resulting from research and development activities of scientific workers, students and doctoral students of. According to the author, there is no possibility to establish, on the basis of the bill, the results of which scientific research or development activity carried out by a particular employee of a public higher education institution has been achieved “within the performance of duties resulting from the contract for work in that educational institution”, which provides a reason for application of the proposed provisions of the above‑mentioned act in relation to those results. The author makes a lege ferenda proposal that the right of precedence should not be applied to intellectual property rights to scientific works. He also points out that the proposal does not contain an authorisation for public higher education institutions to specify the “procedure” for expiry of the mandate