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Frequently asked Questions

In industrial property legal protection, a distinction is made between industrial property rights in respect of the results of creative intellectual activity and industrial property rights in respect of signs. The first group of industrial property rights includes patent law, utility model law, design law and semiconductor topographies law. Industrial property rights relating to designations include the trade mark law, the law for designations of origin of products and geographical indications of products and the law for trade names.

You select the service you are interested in from the main menu. For example, in the "applications" section you will find together an application for registration of a trademark, an application for registration of a design, an application for a patent for an invention and so on. The services are not divided according to the subjects of industrial property law protection, but according to the type of filing you want to make. This means that you first select a new filing, then choose the subject of industrial property protection and add the file number if you have already been assigned one. The system will generate the relevant form for you, or if you enter a file number, the data provided in the original form will be filled in automatically. Once you have completed the form, you have the option of signing the form.

A domestic applicant has the right to choose his/her representative. The applicant may be represented by a patent attorney, a lawyer or a professional, especially if the representation is in proceedings concerning company inventions or designs. The right for representation must be evidenced by a power of attorney in writing. Persons who do not have their domicile or registered office in the territory of the Slovak Republic must be represented in proceedings before the Office either by a patent attorney or by a lawyer.

Act No 344/2004 Coll. on patent attorneys regulates the prerequisites and the manner of performing the activities of patent attorneys, the duties of patent attorneys, the establishment, status and scope of the Slovak Chamber of Patent Attorneys. A patent attorney is a natural person registered in the list of patent attorneys. His/her activity is to represent natural and legal persons before the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic and before other state administration bodies in proceedings relating to industrial property. In the performance of his/her activities, the patent attorney also provides expert advice in the field of industrial rights, writes documents for the purposes of legal acts in the field of industrial rights and provides other forms of expert advice and professional assistance in the field of industrial property.

A patent is a protective document by which the State grants its holder the exclusive right to exploit an invention for a certain period of time. Patents are granted for inventions in all fields of technology that are new, involve inventive activity and are capable of industrial application. New products, devices, technologies, chemically produced substances, pharmaceuticals, industrially produced micro-organisms, biotechnological processes and products obtained by means thereof may be patented. The owner of the patent has exclusive rights to the invention, i.e. no one may use it without his consent. A patent is valid for twenty years from the filing of the patent application, with maintenance fees being payable to maintain the validity of the patent. An administrative fee shall be paid to the Office for the acts related to the proceedings on the subject-matter of industrial property rights in accordance with Act No 145/1995 Coll. on Administrative Fees, as amended.

If the applicant decides to obtain patent protection in two or more states that are members of the European Patent Organisation (EPO), he can file a European patent application with the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic or directly with the European Patent Office (EPO). A European patent application with a designation for the Slovak Republic shall have the same effects as a national patent application filed on the same day or an application with the same priority date, as from the granted filing date or as from the priority date claimed by the applicant for the European patent application. A European patent granted by the European Patent Office with a designation for the Slovak Republic shall have the same effects as a national patent from the date of the notification of the grant of the European patent in the European Patent Journal. The fees for the application for a European patent shall be set out in the fee schedule and shall be paid into the account of the European Patent Office (EPO).

By filing an international application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), the applicant can apply for protection of the invention abroad. The PCT is administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), based in Geneva. By filing an international application, all states that are contracting states to the PCT at the date of filing of the international application are automatically designated as the states in which the applicant seeks protection for the invention. An international application may be filed with the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic by any citizen of the Slovak Republic or by any person residing or having his/her registered office in the Slovak Republic. The filing of an international application and further proceedings on it are subject to the payment of the relevant fees and consist in principle of two basic phases - the international phase of the proceedings and the national phase of the proceedings.

A supplementary protection certificate provides additional protection to the protection of basic patents and takes effect upon the expiry of the basic patent. The supplementary protection certificate cannot protect any invention, but only products that can be placed on the market exclusively on the basis of an authorisation granted by the competent authority. Such products are pharmaceuticals and plant protection products. The term of protection of an SPC is not fixed - it is calculated individually for each certificate and can last from one day to five years. In the case of medicinal products tested for paediatric use, the period of protection of the certificate may be extended to up to five and a half years. The term of protection of the supplementary protection certificate depends on the length of time elapsed between the date of filing of the basic patent application and the date of authorisation to place the medicinal product or plant protection product on the market. An administrative fee shall be payable to the Office for the acts connected with the proceedings on the subject-matter of industrial rights in accordance with Act No 145/1995 Coll. on Administrative Fees, as amended.

A utility model may protect a technical solution in any field of technology which is new, is the result of an inventor's activity and is industrially exploitable. A utility model can therefore protect new solutions to any technical problem which are not obvious to a person skilled in the art and can be regarded as inventive. The subject matter of utility model protection may be new products, devices, methods of production, technologies and others. It does not always have to be revolutionary solutions; improvements to already known solutions can also be protected by utility models. A utility model is valid for a maximum of 10 years from the filing of the application. An administrative fee shall be payable to the Office for the acts connected with the proceedings on the subject-matter of industrial rights in accordance with Act No 145/1995 Coll. on administrative fees, as amended.

A trade mark may consist of any sign, in particular words, including personal names, drawings, letters, numerals, the shape of goods or the shape of their packaging or sounds, provided that the sign is capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one person from those of another and is capable of being expressed in a manner which enables the competent authorities and the public to determine clearly and precisely the subject matter of protection. The following types of trade marks may be entered in the register of trade marks: word, figurative, shape, position, pattern, trade mark consisting exclusively of one colour or a combination of colours, sound, motion, multimedia, holographic or other, provided that it is expressed in a suitable manner and is clearly and accurately reproducible. The registration of a trade mark shall be valid for ten years from the date of filing of the application. At the request of the proprietor of the trade mark or of the pledgor (filed not earlier than in the last year of the validity of the registration, but not later than six months after the expiry of the validity), the Office shall renew the registration of the trade mark for a further period of ten years. An administrative fee shall be payable to the Office for the acts connected with the proceedings on the subject-matter of industrial rights in accordance with Act No 145/1995 Coll. on Administrative Fees, as amended.

Filing an application in several countries of the world is appropriate under the Madrid Agreement or the Protocol to the Madrid Agreement. International registration in the contracting parties to these agreements can be obtained on the basis of a single application filed with the International Office of the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva through the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic, provided that the applicant has a business or domicile in the territory of the Slovak Republic or is a Slovak national. The filing of the international application and further proceedings on it shall be subject to payment of the relevant fees.

A design protects external features of a product or part of a product consisting of features, in particular the lines, contours, colours, shape, structure or material of the product itself or of its decoration. Such a design may be registered in the Register of Designs. A design shall be eligible for protection if it is new and has a distinctive character. The validity of a registered design is five years from the date of filing of the application. At the request of the holder of a registered design received by the Office, the validity of the design shall be extended up to four times for a maximum of five years each, up to a total period of protection of 25 years from the date of filing of the application. An administrative fee shall be payable to the Office for the acts connected with the proceedings on the subject-matter of industrial property rights in accordance with Act No. 145/1995 Coll. on administrative fees, as amended.