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Legislative work on the implementation of European Parliament and Council (EU) Directive 2015/2436 of 16 December 2015, to approximate the laws of the Member States relating to trade marks trademarks was finalised in 2018. The amendment to Act No. 441/2003 Coll. On Trade Markstrademarks, which came into effect on 1st January 2019, eliminated the requirement of graphic representation of trade marks trademarks from the trade mark trademark law. According to the amendment it is sufficient that the sign applied for is capable of being represented in the Register of Trade marks trademarks in a manner which enables the competent authorities and the public to determine the clear and precise subject matter of the protection afforded to its proprietor. Annex No 1 to the Act No. 441/2003 Coll. defines 10 types of trade markstrademarks, including those trade marks trademarks considered non-traditional (e.g. position, sound, motion, multimedia, holographic marks) and means of their representation. Certain types of trade marks trademarks (position, motion) may be accompanied by a description. Also other type of trade mark trademark not covered by any of the 10 defined types of trade marks trademarks may be registered if it is represented in any appropriate form utilizing generally available technology if such a form can be clearly, precisely, separately, easily, comprehensibly, durably and objectively represented in the Register for the competent authorities and the public to be able to clearly and precisely determine the subject of protection granted to the trade mark trademark proprietor. The representation of „other“ mark may be also accompanied by a description.
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The Office provides free access to the database comprising the data concerning not only the Czech national trademarks but also the international trademarks (applied for or registered) valid in the territory of the Czech Republic or EU, WIPO – 6ter and the European Union trademarks applied for or registered by EUIPO at the IPO CZ website http://www.upv.cz/en/client-services/online-databases/trade-mark-databases.html. In summer 2018, the Office launched a pilot version of new national industrial property rights information databases in parallel with existing national databases. Until the end of 2018, when the original databases´operation databases' operation was ended, users had the ability to test these databases and provide their suggestions and observations.
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The Office uses the internal information system SYPP2 (starting from January 2014) to proceed the applications of patents, supplementary patent certificates, utility models, industrial designs, trademarks and appellations of origin/geographical indications. The system has been developed since 2011 as a major upgrade of previous version SYPP which was used from 2004 until 2013. The new application is more flexible, based on Oracle Forms with easier maintaining and more flexible data structure. Data is stored in xml format including the history. The system is also more user-friendly. System is connected with central registers of the Czech Republic (ISZR). The project was co-financed by the European fund for regional development within the EU project Enforcement of Industrial Property Rights. . The system enables to maintain official registers of all the industrial property rights. Furthermore it archives all incoming and outgoing communications of the Office, provides the information on the state of proceeding, legal status of registrations and statistical data. The Document Management System (DMS) is integrated as well.. The system also processes international trademarks with designation of the Czech Republic and international trademark applications, where the IPO is office of origin pursuant to Madrid Agreement and Madrid Protocol. The data are transferred to the electronic Office’s Bulletin and to the The current version of on-line filing system was launched in 2017 and is based on web application. This system has replaced the previous application which was based on pdf forms.. Starting from January 2008, the system produces automatic electronic extracts from registers upon online request. In 2018 the system was adjusted in connection with amendment to Act No. 441/2003 Coll. On Trade Marks trademarks which came into force on 1st January 2019. E.g. functions for work with non-traditional trademarks have been introduced.
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Lectures were held at a number of innovation, technology and Patlib centres. The seminar on “Reform of Trade Mark trademark Law – the Registrability of New Types of Trade Marks” trademarks” was organised in cooperation with EUIPO.
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The Office was continuing in the system of national searches for the identity and similarity of EU trade mark trademark applications with earlier marks valid in the Czech republic. In 2018, 618 searches were processed for EUIPO. In May 2018, the Office joined the EUIPO Language Check option project, the purpose of which is to find out whether the verbal element contained in EU trade mark trademark applications has any meaning in any Member State´s language. As part of the continuing EUIPO Academy eLearning Portal project, three educational videos were produced in 2018 (TMClass tutorial”, “How to register a trade mark trademark in the Czech Republic” and “How to register an industrial design in the Czech Republic”.
In 2018, the IPO CZ together with other participating Offices reviewed and updated the Common Communication on the representation of new types of trade markstrademarks, the first version of which had been published in 2017. This exercise will continue also in following years. In the Czech Republic, the Common Communication started to be applied when the respective amendment of the Act on Trademarks eliminating the graphical representation requirement from the definition of trade mark trademark came into effect (1st January 2019).
In addition to the aforementioned, in 2018 the IPO CZ, other EU Intellectual Property Offices, the EUIPO and the European Commission continued work on a convergence practices (ECP4), in particular focusing on CP8 (Use of a Trade Mark trademark in a form differing from the one registered) and CP9 (Distinctiveness of shape marks containing other elements when the shape itself is non-distinctive) projects which progressed up to the completion of first drafts of the Common Practices. In this year two new projects were approved and launched, CP11 (New types of marks: examination of formal requirements and grounds for refusal) and CP12 (Evidence in Appeal Proceedings: filing, structure, presentation and treatment of confidential evidence). The IPO CZ is represented in the working group of CP11 project.
In May 2018, the Office joined the ECP4 Collaborative Network, Language Check option project, the purpose of which is to find out whether the verbal element contained in EU trade mark trademark applications has any meaning in any Member State’s language.
As part of the continuing ECP3 Academy eLearning Portal project, two educational videos related to trademark were produced in 2018. The very first focusing on classification of goods and services, “TMClass tutorial,” and the latter, “How to register a trade mark trademark in the Czech Republic“ dealing with registration process. These videos are published on the Office website.