Dr hab. Lavinia Brâncuși (Brancusi)

Department of Private Law
Centre of New Technologies Law

Associate Professor

Dr habil. at Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Law Studies

Law degrees at Warsaw University, Faculty of Law and Administration (dr. iur., master), with an awarded doctoral dissertation in EU design law

Previous academic positions at Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw, Faculty of Canon Law, with lectures in the field of Polish civil law and industrial property law

Peer reviewer for monographs at Elgar Edward Publishing and Routledge as well as for academic journals ‘Glosa. Prawo Gospodarcze w Orzeczeniach i Komentarzach’, Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (Oxford Academic), Cogent Arts & Humanities (Taylor& Francis)

Collaboration with IP law firms for issues related to product protection

More information at: http://www.laviniabrancusi.edu.pl/en/homepage/

Research interests:

cumulative protection in intellectual property law;
designs and trade marks in the realm of new technologies;
spare parts and the right to repair;
functionality in trade mark and design law;
interfaces between intellectual property rights and competition rules, with a specific focus on brands.

Research projects:

The new EU design law package – Commentaries to the new Directive and Regulation
MedTech innovation
Fashion law
Trade Marks’ Functionality in the EU Law. An approach embracing the US functionality doctrine and competition rules – habilitation project – Grant within DIALOG competition (0008/DLG/2019/10): ‘Excellence in Legal Research. Promoting Polish achievements in the area of legal sciences abroad’ (2020-2023)

Prizes

The habilitation monograph EU Trade Mark Law and Product Protection: A Comparative Analysis of Trade Mark Functionality, (Routledge 2023), won in January 2024 the IPKat ‘Best Book on Trade Mark Law in 2023’ award

The doctoral dissertation 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

Selected publications:

EU Trade Mark Law and Product Protection. A Comparative Analysis of Trade Mark Functionality, Routledge 2023, pp. 352, OA at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003376040
Wzór wspólnotowy i jego zakres ochrony [A Community Design and its Scope of Protection] C.H. Beck Warszawa 2012, pp. 388
‘Not-so-great expectations of the EU Directive promoting repair and its nexus with IP protection’, Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice 10/2025
‘Części zamienne w świetle prawa wzorów, prawa konkurencji oraz regulacji prokonsumenckich dotyczących prawa do naprawy’ [Spare Parts in the Light of Design Law, Competition Law, and Pro-consumer Regulations on the Right to Repair], Zeszyty Naukowe Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, Prace z Prawa Własności Intelektualnej, 2/2025
‘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. D. Beldiman), Edward Elgar 2024
‘A multi-perspective view on visibility in design law’, ‘Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice’ 8/2024
‘Znaki towarowe jako wskaźnik innowacyjności?’ [ Trade Marks as Indicator of Innovation?] in: Ad cuius bonum? O wartościach i interesach zasługujących na ochronę prawną. Księga pamiątkowa dedykowaną Prof. Heleny Żakowskiej-Henzler (ed. Z. Zemła-Pacud, T. Zimny), Warszawa 2023
‘The Procrustean fitting of trade marks under the requirements of clear and precise subject-matter in the EU trade mark law – a case of position marks’, ‘Journal of World Intellectual Property’ 1-2/2022, OA https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jwip.12205
‘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. S. 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. I. Calboli, M. Senftleben), Oxford University Press, 2018