Competition

Competition for an outstanding scholarly work on trademark, competition or antitrust law

Results of the first edition of the Prof. Irena Wiszniewska-Białecka Award competition for outstanding scholarly work on trademark, competition law or antitrust law

On March 19, 2026, during the plenary session opening the conference “The Regulation of Markets in Defence of Democratic Principles,” in the presence of the members of the competition jury, the results of the competition for the Prof. Irena Wiszniewska-Białecka Award were announced.

Over 40 entries were submitted to the competition. After deliberations, the members of the Jury, composed of distinguished representatives of the Polish and international legal community, awarded three equal prizes:

Dr. Or Brook of the University of Oxford for the monograph Non-Competition Interests in EU Antitrust Law: An Empirical Study of Article 101 TFEU (Cambridge University Press)
Dr. Klaudia Majcher of Vrije Universiteit Brussel for the monograph Coherence between Data Protection and Competition Law in Digital Markets (Oxford University Press)
Dr. Joanna Wiśniowska of the University of Nottingham for her doctoral dissertation The morality exception in European patent law: a universal theory of interpretation devised for the United Patent Court.

The awards were presented by Prof. Marek Safjan and Dr. Maciej Bernatt in the presence of the other members of the jury, namely Prof. Annette Kur, Dr. Lavinia Brancusi, Dr. Tomasz Koncewicz, and Dr. Grzegorz Materna.

The Board of the Irena and Jerzy Wiszniewski Foundation congratulates the winners!

^{photo: Andrzej Stawiński}

Competition Rules

Prize

The aim of the Prof. Irena Wiszniewska-Białecka Prize is to provide substantial support for scholars studying trademark, competition and antitrust law, and thus promote the advancement of learning and innovation.

To this end, the author (or authors) of the best work in the competition, chosen by the award committee, will receive a cash prize of USD 20,000.

Send your submission to the e-mail address contact@wiszniewski-foundation.org.

Competition Committee

Maciej Bernatt

Maciej Bernatt is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Warsaw. He holds the Chair in European Economic Law at the Faculty of Management, University of Warsaw and he is the director of the Centre for Antitrust and Regulatory Studies. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies and the co-director of ASCOLA Central Europe Chapter. Maciej holds a Habilitation, PhD and MA titles in law and a second MA title in international relations (political sciences). He held visiting fellow appointments at the University of Melbourne, the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition (Munich), the UNSW (Sydney), and the Loyola University Chicago.

Maciej's research interests lie at the intersection of competition law and constitutional law, administrative law and EU law. His publications appeared in, inter alia, the Common Market Law Review, the European Law Review, the Journal of Antitrust Enforcement, the Columbia Journal of European Law, the World Competition, and the European Law Journal. He is also an author of three monographs and numerous articles in Polish journals as well as a co-author of two leading commentaries to the Polish Competition Act and Polish Unfair Competition Act. His newest book, published by the Cambridge University Press, discusses the illiberal influence of populist governments on competition law system.

Maciej teaches EU law, competition law, as well as course in business and human rights. He has received scholarships and research grants from several institutions, including the Polish-U.S. Fulbright Commission, the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, and the Polish National Science Centre. In the past he worked as a référendaire in the Polish Supreme Court and in the Constitutional Tribunal of Poland as well as in the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, where he coordinated the Strategic Litigation Program. He has been involved in cases litigated before the European Court of Human Rights and Polish courts.

You may view Maciej's research at SSRN Author page:
http://ssrn.com/author=1183912

Lavinia Brancusi

Lavinia Brancusi (Brâncuşi) is an Associate Professor at Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Law Studies in Warsaw. In 2025 she earned the degree of habilitated doctor in legal science based on the awarded monograph ‘EU Trade Mark Law and Product Protection: A Comparative Analysis of Trade Mark Functionality’ (Routledge 2023).

She holds law degrees from the University of Warsaw, Faculty of Law (master, dr. iur.) with an awarded doctoral dissertation in design law. Previously she held academic positions at Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw and University of Warsaw, Faculty of Law, and lectured in the fields of Polish civil law, industrial property and unfair competition. Since 2011 she has also counselled to IP departments of reputable Warsaw law firms in matters related to product protection.

Her research interests cover cumulative protection in intellectual property, with a specific focus on product protection, functionality in trademark and design law, as well as the interface between IP and competition rules, especially in relation to brands.

She is an active member of ATRIP (International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property), as well as a member of EPIP (European Policy for Intellectual Property) and IPIRA (IP & Innovation Researchers of Asia).

Marko Ilesic

Marko Ilesic (until June 2024) - Doctor of Law (University of Ljubljana); specialism in comparative law (Universities of Strasbourg and Coimbra); judicial service examination; Professor of Civil, Commercial and Private International Law; Vice-Dean (1995-2001) and Dean (2001-04) of the Faculty of Law at the University of Ljubljana; author of numerous legal publications; Honorary Judge and President of Chamber at the Labour Court, Ljubljana (1975-86); President of the Sports Tribunal of Slovenia (1978-86); President of the Arbitration Chamber of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange; Arbitrator at the Chamber of Commerce of Yugoslavia (until 1991) and Slovenia (from 1991); Arbitrator at the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris; Judge on the Board of Appeals of UEFA and FIFA; President of the Union of Slovene Lawyers' Associations (1993-2005); member of the International Law Association, of the International Maritime Committee and of several other international legal societies; Judge at the Court of Justice from 11 May 2004 to 20 June 2024, the date of his death.

Alison Jones

Alison Jones is Professor of Law at King’s and a solicitor at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP. Alison teaches and researches in the sphere of competition law. Prior to joining King's, Alison read law at Girton College, Cambridge, worked at Slaughter & May and completed a BCL at Christ Church, Oxford. She holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge. Alison has held visiting positions at the Universities of Oxford, San Diego, Fribourg, and Zürich and at the College of Europe.

Annette Kur

Annette Kur held a tenured position as senior member of research staff and Head of Unit at the MaxPlanck-Institute (MPI) for competition and Innovation until her retirement in 2015 and continues to work as an affiliated fellow at the MPI. She is also an affiliated professor at the University of Stockholm and honorary professor at the University of Munich (LMU), and she holds honorary doctor degrees from the University of Stockholm and the Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki.

She teaches inter alia at Munich Intellectual Property Law Center (MIPLC) and was a visiting professor (Hauser Global Law School Program) at NYU, New York, as well as at sev era I European universities and at the National University of Singapore (NUS). She was President of the International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property (ATRIP) for the term 2007-2009.

She is the author of books and numerous articles in the field of national, European and international trademark, unfair competition and industrial design law as well as international jurisdiction and choice of law.

Tomasz Tadeusz Koncewicz

Tomasz Tadeusz Koncewicz is an associate professor at the University of Gdańsk, specialist in public international law and European Union law.

Director of the Department of European and Comparative Law, University of Gdańsk

2021 - 2022 Visiting Professor and Fellow, European University Institute

Graduate of law of the Universities of Wroclaw and the School of Law of the University of Edinburgh

Member of the Council of the Jean Monnet Fondation pour l’Europe in Lausanne

Member of the Editorial Board of the Oxford Encyclopedia of EU law

Member of the Advisory Committee on the Award for Good Admnistration at the Office of the European Ombudsman

Co-Founder and Member of the Good Lobby Professors

2015-2016 Fulbright Visiting Professor, University of California, Berkeley

2017-2018 LAPA Crane Fellow; Princeton University

2019 Fernand Braudel Fellow, European University Institute

Principal Investigator, H2020 Reconciling Europe with its citizens through rule of law and democracy (RECONNECT)

Principal Investigator, JUSTICE: Trust, Independence, Impartiality and Accountability for judges and arbitrators under the EU Charter (TRIIAL)

Principal Investigator, Judges and Virtues. A study in the aretaic theory of the judiciary

Expert for “New Opportunities for Research Funding Agency Cooperation in Europe” (NORFACE) and member of the NORFACE Expert Writing Group on “Negotiating democratic governance in a turbulent age”

Honorary Ambassador of Polish Congresses

2017 - 2018 Member of the Organizing Committee of the Younger Scholar’s Forum at World Congress of Comparative Law, Fukuoka, 2018;

2018 - 2019 Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Global Dean’s Forum of the International Association of Law Schools (IALS) and of the Annual Meeting of the International Association of Law Schools (IALS)

Attorney specializing in strategic litigation before supranational, international and highest domestic courts

Former référendaire in the Court of Justice

Former adviser to the Polish Constitutional Court

Author of 11 books and over 300 scholarly papers

David Llewelyn

David Llewelyn is widely recognised as one of the world’s leading experts on the protection and commercialization of intellectual property (IP) rights.

After spending time as a Stipendiat at the Max Planck Institute in Munich, where he met Irena Wiszniewska in 1980-1, he has combined legal practice with academia for more than 35 years. He qualified as a solicitor in England & Wales in 1985, and an Advocate & Solicitor in Singapore in 2017. From 1999 until 2010 when he moved to Singapore, he was a partner and European head of the IP/IT/Technology group in the London office of international law firm White & Case.

He is Professor of Law (Practice) at Singapore Management University and Professor of Intellectual Property Law at King’s College London, as well as Managing Director of the David Llewelyn & Co LLC law firm in Singapore.

David sits as an IP Adjudicator at the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore and hears disputes as a Singapore Domain Names Dispute Resolution Panelist.

He has written extensively on IP, IT and other aspects of commercial law, including co-authoring Cornish, Llewelyn & Aplin, Intellectual Property: Patents, Copyright, Trade Marks & Allied Rights (9^thedition, 2019), Kerly’s Law of Trade Marks & Trade Names (16^thedition, 2018; Supplement, 2021) and Cases, Materials & Commentary on [Singapore] Intellectual Property Law (2018). He has also explained the commercial aspects of IP law in Asia in his business book Invisible Gold in Asia: Creating Wealth through Intellectual Property (2010).

David has been appointed amicus curiae by the Singapore Court of Appeal to advise it in a number of cases involving IP.

He is an international commercial arbitrator on the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (main and IP panels), Asian International Arbitration Centre, Korean Commercial Arbitration Board and Chinese Arbitration Association International panels of arbitrators.

Grzegorz Materna

Grzegorz Materna, PhD, is Associate Professor of the Institute of Legal Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences (INP PAN), holding a postdoctoral degree in legal sciences (2017), head of the Department of Competition Law at INP PAN, head of “Competition Law” and “Consumer Protection Law” postgraduate studies at INP PAN, as well as the Institute’s Legal Doctoral Programme. Member of the editorial board of the “Internet Quarterly on Antitrust and Regulation” (iKAR).

Specializes in Polish and European competition law, he is an author or co-author of over one hundred publications on competition law, consumer protection law, digital market regulation and intellectual property law, including the monographs “The concept of undertaking in Polish and European competition law” (Wolters Kluwer 2009) and “Bid-rigging in competition and criminal law” (Wolters Kluwer 2016). Co-author of the “System of European Union Law” (Vol. 9 “Competition Law”, CH Beck 2024), as well as commentaries on the Polish Act on Competition and Consumer Protection (CH Beck 2009, 2014 and 2025), the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (Wolters Kluwer 2012) and the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act (CH Beck 2024).

Attorney-at-Law, member of the Warsaw Bar Association. In the past he also worked for the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (2001-2015), where for six years he held a position of the director of Competition Protection Department.

Marek Safjan

Marek Safjan - Doctor of Law (University of Warsaw, 1980); habilitated Doctor in Legal Science (University of Warsaw, 1990); Professor of Law (1998); Director of the Civil Law Institute of the University of Warsaw (1992-96); Vice-Rector of the University of Warsaw (1994-97); Secretary-General of the Polish Section of the Henri Capitant Association of Friends of French Legal Culture (1994-98); representative of Poland on the Bioethics Committee of the Council of Europe (1991-97); Judge (1997-98), then President (1998-2006), of the Constitutional Court; member (since 1994) and Vice-President (since 2010) of the International Academy of Comparative Law, member of the International Association of Law, Ethics and Science (since 1995), member of the Helsinki Committee in Poland; member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences; Pro Merito Medal conferred by the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe (2007); author of a very large number of publications in the fields of civil law, medical law and European law; Doctor honoris causa of the European University Institute (2012); Judge at the Court of Justice since 7 October 2009 till 31 January 2024 r.