Hiring software developers in Poland

7 years ago admin Comments Off on Hiring software developers in Poland

Foreign entities are increasingly turning to Polish software developers, whose professionalism has already made a name in the world.

When hiring a developer in Poland you must remember the differences between the Polish law and the other common law legislations.

The essence of a developer’s work is to create a computer program which mainly means some creative work. Unlike in countries with a common law tradition, the Polish legal system does not provide regulations for patenting computer programs as well as does not provide any other kind of public registration of rights to computer programs.

Adopted in the EU solution provides the protection of computer programs from the very beginning moment of its existence. In practice the protection begins since we may indicate a piece of code that can be recognized as a specific computer program.

Simplifying, each piece of creative work of the software developer will be a subject of copyright.

The tradition of the civil law legal systems, and thus also the Polish legal tradition, presupposes the existence of comprehensive regulation of labor law and copyright law, which in limited scope can be modified by the parties (the developer and the employer).

If regards the effective acquisition of the copyright to a computer program by the company that employs the developer in Poland, this is good news.

According to Polish law, the copyrights to a computer program created by an employee, from the very beginning belongs to the company, which employs the developer.

It is not necessary to separately regulate the issue of purchasing copyright to a computer program that has been originally created for the employer. It is simply not necessary to make any contractual transfer of copyright.

Because of this reason, the employment contract with a Polish developer does not have to contain extensive provisions on the transfer of copyrights because these rights under the Polish law belongs to the employer from the very beginning.

However, you should remember that developers in Poland often work on the basis of specific contracts for freelancers. This kind of cooperation with the developer is different from an employment contract and requires first an agreement in writing, second detailed records of the copyrights transfer as well as provisions governing the personal rights of the author, which according to Polish law, cannot be transferred – always belong to the author.

So, before entering into a contract with a Polish developer it is recommended to consult with a local attorney some legal issues to confirm what kind of agreement is going to be concluded and what will be the consequences for the acquisition of copyright by the foreign entity.