Intellectual property issues in managing a Smart City

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to examine the specific issues concerning intellectual property protection in the development and functioning of smart city. The authors describe Polish law of intellectual property protection and interpret it in terms of actions carried out when the smart city is created, implemented, and then managed. Design/methodology/approach: This work uses the formal and dogmatic method typical of legal sciences. It contains the content of legal norms and their interpretation, and is based on the analysis of the literature as well. Findings: There are many areas where the law of intellectual property protection is directly related to acts taken when a city is transformed into smart city, covering the scope of copyright and industrial property. They are mentioned and analysed and their implications for city management are discussed. Practical implications: We have shown what smart city managers should know from the scope of intellectual property regulations. This lets them to avoid infringement of someone else's intellectual property on the one hand and to be aware of how to protect the effort put into development work. Social implications: The article enriches the theory both of legal sciences and management sciences. From the managerial point of view, it broadens the competences of local government managers. From a legal point of view, the work analyzes provisions on the protection of intellectual property in the context of reforming the city towards a smart city as well as of its functionning. Originality/value: It is one of the few, if not the first, study in Polish literature dedicated to the issues of intellectual property protection in smart city.