The Polish Patent Office in its recent decision (act signature Sp. 470/07) of 10 September 2008, set the date of expiry of protection right for CODE trade mark (IR-0693581) on 9 October 2007 (the date a request for declaring the expiration was filed).

On 25 April 2006, Zywiec Group applied for trade mark protection for the CODE sign for goods (beer) in class 32 (application no. Z-310020). However, during the application proceedings the PPO found that there existed an obstacle in the form of earlier international trade mark registration owned by the Albert J. Weber Company from Switzerland which was registered among other things for goods in class 32 such as beer, mineral and carbonated water. Zywiec Group filed a motion for a declaration of the expiry of Albert J. Weber's trade mark before the Polish Patent Office. The trade mark holder did not defend his registration and hasn't produced any evidence of its use on the Polish market.