*Lavinia

About me

I am an IP specialist with expertise in the industrial property law and with an extensive knowledge of different areas of civil law.

Dr. habil. at Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Law Studies in Warsaw, with the monograph ‘EU Trade Mark Law and Product Protection: A Comparative Analysis of Trade Mark Functionality’, published by Routledge (2023), which won the IPKat ‘Best Book on Trade Mark Law in 2023’ award. Currently I hold the position of Associate Professor at Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Legal Studies, Center of New Technologies Law. I earned my previous Dr. iur. degree at the University of Warsaw, Faculty of Law and Administration, Institute of Civil Law, with an awarded doctoral dissertation in design law. In the years 2002-2018 I held two academic positions at Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, Faculty of Canon Law, with lectures on civil law, industrial property law and unfair competition law.

In the years 2014-2016 I was also a lecturer conducting tutorials of civil law at University of Warsaw, Faculty of Law and Administration, Department of Civil Law.
Born in Bucharest, Romania, where I accomplished secondary education, I held one-year scholarship at Robert Schuman University in Strasburg, Faculty of Law, and afterwards graduated cum laudae (wyróżnienie) from Warsaw University, Faculty of Law and Administration. All my Polish diplomas are also nostrified at Bucharest University, Faculty of Law.

Apart from the academic activity, I am actively involved in sharing knowledge in my field of expertise while participating at conferences on IP topics, or giving lectures/presentations at the Polish Patent Office or conducting workshops intended for patent & trademark attorney trainees. I am also a collaborator of prestigious IP Polish law firms.

One area of my specialization focuses on the product protection with a specific emphasis on designs, but also by means of trademarks, unfair competition and copyright. The doctoral dissertation on the notion and scope of protection of community designs received the award of the Polish Minister of Science and Higher Education in the 2010 annual competition organized by the Polish Patent Office for the best dissertations in the field of industrial property. A specific topic of my interest constitutes trade dress protection and trademarks’ functionality and the possibility of transferring certain US concepts to the European practice. My current research focuses on the new EU design package, spare parts and the right to repair, protection of trade dress by various IPRs and the interface with competition (antitrust) law with specific attention paid to branding phenomenon.

My publications include: ‘Prior art in EU design law and its worldwide implications – taking advantage of flexibilities or being obstructed by ambiguities’ in: ‘Design Law. Global Law and Practice’ (ed. Dana Beldiman), Edward Elgar 2024; ‘A multi-perspective view on visibility in design law’, ‘Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice’ 8/2024;‘Alternative products as a factor to determine the functionality of trade marks – How the criteria from the US functionality doctrine could be applied in the EU law?’, in : ‘Is Intellectual Property Pluralism Functional ?’ (ed. Susy Frankel), Edward Elgar 2019; ‘Assessing the Impact of Registering Non-Traditional Marks in the EU law : A Competition Law Analysis’, in : ‘The Protection of Non-Traditional Marks : Critical Perspectives’ (ed. Irene Calboli, Martin Senftleben), Oxford University Press 2018; chapters to ‘Community Design Regulation. Article-by Article Commentary’ (ed. Gordian Hasselblatt), 2nd ed. 2018, CH Beck & Hart & Nomos; a chapter to the Polish Treatise on Private Law (vol. XIV C, ed. Ryszard Skubisz), C.H. Beck Warsaw 2017 on the cumulative protection in industrial property law.

I speak four languages fluently (Romanian – mother tongue, Polish, English, French) and have a basic knowledge of German.

Memberships : ATRIP (International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property); AIPPI (International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property)