SSW Pragmatic Solutions and Soltysinski Kawecki i Szlezak have successfully represented the interests of Cinkciarz.pl in its dispute with Currency One regarding the latter's use of the “cinkciarz” and “cinkciarz.pl” keywords in Google Ads.
According to SSW, “a Polish court has ordered the owner of the Internetowykantor.pl and Walutomat websites (offering online currency exchange services) to apologize and pay compensation to Cinkciarz.pl and to donate an additional sum to charity. It must also refrain from any further illegal activities involving the use of its competitor’s name as keywords in Google Ads (previously AdWords).”
Furthermore, SSW reports that “the case concerned the use of “cinkciarz”, “cinkciarz.pl” and similar words (including deliberate typos) as keywords to advertise a competitor’s websites in the Google Chrome search engine. Currency One continued these illegal activities despite receiving a pre-litigation notice, so, in 2013, Cinkciarz.pl commenced litigation and obtained an injunction for the entire duration of the litigation. The respondent alleged that the “cinkciarz” trademarks were invalid, which triggered parallel proceedings before the Polish Supreme Administrative Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). Final and binding judgments from these courts confirmed that the Polish word “cinkciarz”, which was historically used to describe illegal activities, has no contemporary linguistic meaning and so is capable of being a business name and a registered trademark.”
“We are happy to finally announce our victory,” Cinkciarz.pl Founder and President Marcin Pioro commented. “However, we will continue to seek a higher amount of compensation, to which we believe we are entitled. After all, we have endured many years of court battles and the unlawful marketing practices of our competitor. We are the leader in multi-currency exchange services in Poland and we are not afraid of competition, but fairness is a condition for healthy competition.”
Back in 2020, SK&S had also represented Cinkciarz in the trademark dispute in question before the General Court of the EU (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on January 2, 2020).
SSW’s team included Partners Janusz Mazurek, Filip Balcerzak, and Lukasz Cudny, Of Counsel Stephen Terrett, and Associates Katarzyna Rozaniecka and Helena Czechowska.
The SK&S team included Senior Partner Ewa Skrzydlo-Tefelska and Senior Counsel Maciej Zwolinski.
