...
During 2006 the Office received 3.907 trademark applications, what represents a slight increase when compared with the previous year.
In 2006 when compared with the year 2005, the number of trademark applications from Slovak applicants increased by 3.2 % to 2.828.
In 2006, in the international procedure under the Madrid Agreement and Protocol to the Madrid Agreement 4.379 applications for trademarks were filed, representing a decrease by 14.6 % as compared in 2005.
The total number of registered trademarks decreased by 12.6 % to 3.755. The number of domestic registered trademarks was lower by 11.5 % (2.542), the number of trademarks registered for foreign applicants decreased by 14.2 % to 1.216.
On December 31, 2006, there were 45.526 valid trademarks registered in the Office register and the 113.000 international trademarks in the Slovak Republic.
In comparison with the statistics of the years 2000 - 2006, there are following results in trademark area.
URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide statistics related to trademarks
URL to annual technical reports on trademarks:
http://www.wipo.int/scit/en/atrs/
http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=sk&idd=9&idd2=909
URL to the Annual Reports of the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic:
http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=11&idd2=92
II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, and distribution of secondary sources of trademark information, i.e., trademark gazettes
...
Publication of trademarks
The Office publishes published trademarks applications and published registered/ renewed trademarks in the Official Gazette.
Official Gazette "Vestník ÚPV SR"
Trademark information forms part of the Official Gazette - " Vestník ÚPV SR", covering all industrial property rights in one publication. Paper form issued monthly is published in standard size A4, paperback and usually in cca 300 pages. In 2006 the Gazette had a circulation of 250 copies, of which 99 were distributed monthly by subscription. Other copies were sent free of charge to patent information centres and contact and information points of the IPO, to information and consulting sites INNOINFO, within the frame of industrial property information exchange to foreign offices and as the statutory copies according to the act as well. Electronic form of Official Gazette, available to the public in the Internet free of charge, contains searchable data, which are regularly updated.
The following numbers of trademarks were published in the Official Gazette in 2006:
published trademarks applications 4.130
registered trademarks 4.124
renewed trademarks 2.059
Main types of announcements of the Office in the field of trademark information
The Gazette contains trademark announcements arranged in following main chapters:
- list of published trademark applications (numerical series)
- bibliographic data of published trademark applications including the list of goods and services (arranged according to the application numbers)
- list of published trademark applications converted from the Community trademark applications (numerical series)
- bibliographic data of published trademark applications converted from the Community trademark applications including the list of goods and services (arranged according to the application numbers)
- list of registered trademarks without change in comparison to applied sign (numerical series of applications with the number of registration )
- bibliographic data of registered trademarks without change in comparison to applied sign (arranged according to the registration numbers)
- list of registered trademarks with change in comparison to applied sign (numerical series of applications with the number of registration )
- bibliographic data of registered trademarks with change in comparison to applied sign (arranged according to the registration numbers)
- list of registered trademarks based on the trademark applications converted from the Community trademarks (numerical series of applications with the number of registration )
- bibliographic data of registered trademarks based on the trademark applications converted from the Community trademarks (arranged according to the registration numbers)
- list of renewed registrations of trademark (numerical series of applications with the number of registration )
- bibliographic data of renewed registrations of trademark (arranged according to the registration numbers)
- international registrations of trademarks
- bibliographic data of registered trademarks replaced by an international registration according to the article 4 bis of the Madrid Agreement and article 4 bis of the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks (arranged according to the international registration numbers)
- official decisions (refusal, etc.)
- lapse of trademark rights
- cancellation of the trademark registration
- partial cancellation of the trademark registration
- assignments of rights and other changes of owners
- partial assignments
- right of lien
- registration of licensing contracts in respect of trademarks
- termination of licensing contracts
- registration of sublicensing contracts in respect of trademarks
- termination of sublicensing contracts
- change of data concerning trademark owners
- change in the list of goods and services
- change of wording or reproductions of trademark
- corrections of names, addresses, dates and mistakes
Word processing and office automation
Word processing and office automation is ensured by application over the trademark database.
Techniques used for the generation of trademark information (printing, recording, photocomposing, etc.)
MS Office 97, Photoshop 6.0, FineReader 7.0, Adobe Acrobat 6.0 CE, Agfa FotoLook 3.5. SLEX99 – Lexicon of Slovak Language are used for the data processing; the photocomposing and printing is carried out by the Office.
The Desk-Top Publishing technology is used for data and image inputs processing for the Gazette and first pages of the trademark documents.
URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide access to online trademark gazettes and other sources of trademark information, including download of bulk trademark data
@SKIPO - Electronic Slovak Industrial Property Office Portal
http://www.upv.sk/eskipo.php?lang=en&idd=99
@SKIPO is an integrated system of e-services that offers access to on-line databases, on-line services and @filling room. The purpose of the portal of the Office is to provide the public with all our e-services from one place and in transparent manner and gives the possibility to communicate electronically with the Office. The effort of the Office is to make available as much information in electronic form, which are placed on internal network now, as possible. All data from databases are provided free of charge.
ON-LINE DATABASES
http://www.upv.sk/eskipo.php?lang=en&idd=2
IPO SR makes accessible various databases on its homepage. Most frequently used databases are
- "Data extracted from Registers" also called as "Webregisters", give public access to information from national registers of industrial property rights and are daily updated http://registre.indprop.gov.sk/registre/?lang=en
- "Trademark Classifications" contains Slovak version of 9th edition of Nice and 5th edition of Vienna Classification (fully searchable), links to other classifications systems for classifying trademarks used in the world and other useful information http://www.upv.sk/eskipo.php?lang=sk?idd=13&idd2=1303
- "Official Gazette" enables looking on an single issue, searching in the selected issue and searching in all issues http://www.upv.sk/eskipo.php?lang=en&idd=14.
In the part "Foreign on-line databases" are available links to most frequently used on-line databases http://www.upv.sk/eskipo.php?lang=sk&idd=19.
ON-LINE ORDERS
http://www.upv.sk/eskipo.php?lang=en&idd=1&idd2=
IPO SR makes available electronic order forms on Official Gazette, magazine Intellectual Property and E-zine, publications of the IPO SR and IPO CZ, Annual Reports, patent documents and searches (see the part "Products and services", chapter VI).
@FILLING ROOM
http://www.upv.sk/eskipo.php?lang=en&idd=15
Nowadays, the on-line filing room enables only filing the European patent applications and international patent applications PCT in electronic form (see the part " Medium allowed for filing applications", annual technical report on patent information, chapter VII).
III. Matters concerning classifying, reclassifying and indexing of trademark information
...
Goods and services are classified in accordance with the actual version of the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (Nice Classification). In the IPO SR exist an obligatory classifying system of goods and services by applicant according the said Classification. The last version of the International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks (Vienna Classification) is used as the code system of figurative elements of trademarks, which are classified by Office's expert.
Use of electronic classification systems to check the classification symbols furnished by an applicant and which are contained in the lists of goods and/or services
Classification symbols were checked by internal electronic classification system built in Office registry software.
Obligation for applicants to use pre-defined terms of the classification applied
...
Since the computerized search system for trademark information has been launched the trademark manual search files building and updating has been ceased.
Documentation from other offices maintained and/or considered part of the available search file
...
The online trademark database kept by the Industrial Property Office serves for national trademarks searches and also for trademark procedure. Select registry data are available to the public in the Internet.
It is possible to carry out searches according to bibliographic data in all the databases used for the trademarks.
International trademarks searches were performed in the Internet and in the Office management system "INVENTIO" for administration of international trademarks with designation for SK.
In the beginning of 2006, the Office implemented a new search system Acsepto. It enables performing the professional trademark searches for designations of products and services in databases of national, international and European trademarks as well as in other selected trademark databases.
CTM searches
In accordance with the EU Council Regulation No.40/1994 on the Community Trademark, the Office continued processing the searches about the Community trademark applications also during the previous year. Based on OHIM requests the Office made searches in databases of national and international trademarks with designation for the Slovak Republic, the results of which were regularly sent back to the OHIM in the Spanish Alicante.
For this purpose was successfully used the search system Acsepto®, which enables to perform word, picture and combined searches for trademarks within all designations registered and protected in the territory of the Slovak Republic.
The Office executed average 1.320 CTM application searches weekly, i.e.67.792 searches for designation of products and services per year.
List of search CD-ROMs and databases used on local network through the UltraNet 2000system:
EUROM - Community trade mark
TRACES
NIVILO classifications
WIPO Official Gazette on CD-ROM
CD-ROM CASSIS containing registered and pending trademarks in US
IPLEX CD-ROM – full legislative texts (national original laws, multilateral and bilateral treaties)
translating dictionaries
External databases
Internet databases in particular:
ROMARIN
Madrid Express Database
OHIM – Community Trademarks Database
Administrative management systems (e.g., register, legal status, statistics, administrative support, etc.)
The Office automation management system contains national and international trademarks registry (data since 1990 - national trademarks and data since 1947 - international trademarks) using "INVENTIO" software.
Administrative databases based on Lotus Domino.
Equipment used (hardware, including the types of terminal and network used, and software), carriers used
Equipment used:
LAN is built on base of the Cisco technology, Fast ETHERNET 1000/100/10 Mbit/s, WINDOWS 2000 Server; MS SQL Server 2000; workstations PC Pentium, Windows 2000, Windows XP.
Linux Red Hat Enterprise 4.0,
Informix Dynamic Server 10,
Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server 4.0,
Ultranet – Ultra Console 2000
SAN HP MSA 1500 CS,
HP Storage Works MSL 5000 series library,
HP open view Storage Data Protector version A.05.50
VI. Administration of trademark information products and services available to the public (relating to facilities, e.g., for lodging applications, registering trademarks, assisting clients with search procedures, obtaining official publications and registry extracts)
...
In 2006, the Office’s reading room has been visited by 1.701 users and 1.416 of it were from the public. In total there were provided 7.750 borrowings of patent and other literature made available to the public and 22.634 copies of patent documents for the manual and computer search purposes, as well as copies from technical periodicals and other associated and non-patent literature were made. In 2006 there were performed 173 patent searches, 2.738 trademark searches and 46 design searches based on 1.093 written and 53 personally requests.
The Office’s reading room including the search workstation opens daily from 8:00 to 15:00 except the Wednesday (9:00-16:00).
All online services and other basic information are available via Internet address of IPO SR: www.upv.sk.
Information services available to the public (including computerized services and search files contained in libraries remote from your Office and trademark information posted by your Office on the World Wide Web)
The Office library provides following services to the public:
- general information provided by Office's experts
- lending service (Official Gazettes, special monographs and reference literature) in the reading room
- interlibrary lending service
- international interlibrary lending service
- sale of special monographs and periodical publications ("Intellectual Property", Official Gazette "Vestník ÚPV SR" in paper) upon request or on the place
- reprographic services upon request or on the place
- on-line searches in Office’s search system, self-service during a personal visit
- searches in International Trademarks Database ROMARIN
- searches upon request - orders in written and on-line form
- registry information provided in the reading room
- CD-ROM workstations available in the reading room
At present, traditional methods of searching trademarks (card catalogue) are not used.
Trademark information on the World Wide Web:
- general information
- information about Office activities (seminars, training courses, etc.)
- application guide and forms
- administrative fees
- relevant laws
- Annual Reports
- selected registry data
- Official Gazette
- order forms (searches, Official Gazette, special literature)
- Nice Classification (9-th edition)
- Vienna Classification (5-th edition)
- trademark classifications and related information
- annual technical reports on trademark information (2002-2006)
Patent Information Centres and Contact and Information Points
Since 2003 the Office has established 10 contact and information points, while four of them are the Patent Information Centres. They are located in state, regional and district libraries as well as in the Slovak National Library in Martin and Centre of Scientific and Technical Information in Bratislava. A list of centres and points is available on the Office’s web site http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=10&idd2=. (For more information see the annual technical report on patent information.)
In co-operation with the European Patent Office, the Office secured participation of four employees of the patent information centres in the PATLIB Conference in Prague, where they were familiarised themselves with activities of similar PATLIB centres and they acquired knowledge about development of the patent information market. At the same time they have an opportunity to establish new personal contacts with the experts from the field of patent information.
Employees of the centres and contact points of the Office participated also in the seminar organised by the Office during the European Week of Science in the IPO SR and one employee participated in the Intellectual Property Course.
Information and consulting sites for innovations
During 2006 the Office completed extending the number of information and consultancy points of the IPO SR for innovations – "innoinfo". The Regional Chamber of the Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Lučenec, Technical University in Košice and the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava all became the new partners of the Office. (For more information see the annual technical report on patent information.)
Information Centre
In the end of 2006, the Information Centre started its work at the Office. The main goal of the Centre is to receive and to deal with the problems of the Office´s clients and the public centrally. Within their professional consultancy activities, the employees inform the public about the possibilities and most suitable ways of protection of individual subjects of industrial rights personally, by telephone (+421 48 4300 131) or in writing – its e-mail is infocentrum@indprop.gov.sk.
Workplace of the IPO SR in Bratislava
Workplace of the Office, which was opened in 2004 in the building of the Ministry of Finance in Bratislava offered especially services concerning the searches in the fields of trademarks, designs and patents in the last year. In the workplace, there is a filing room and room for discussions and negotiations .
URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide information on business procedures such as: filing, publication, examination and registration procedures related to trademarks; opposition and appeal procedures related to trademarks; etc.
Webregisters
http://registre.indprop.gov.sk/registre/?lang=en
IPO SR makes accessible various databases on its homepage. Most frequently used databases are "Data extracted from Registers" also called as "Webregisters". Webregisters give public access to data extracted from trademark register, which is kept by the Office. Data concerning in particular pending trademark applications, all filed applications or registered trademarks in the register are daily updated.
URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide a description of information products and services offered by the Office (e.g., trademark search service(s), trademark databases, etc.), as well as information on how to access and utilize them
Products and services
Comprehensive information concerning the products offered by the Office and other relevant information relating to accession and utilization of the products are on http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=sk&idd=27
- Official Gazette
- magazine Intellectual Property
- IPO SR and IPO CZ publications
- E-zine IPO SR
- on-line order forms
- price list
Basic information about following information services offered by the Office including the contact and the way of their utilization are on http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=sk&idd=28
- IPO SR reading room
- trademark databases, information and searches
- order of technical publications
- on-line order forms
- price list
Information services offered by the Office, see the part “Information services available to the public“, chapter VI.
VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of trademark documentation and information
...
In 2002 the IPO SR stopped the participation in the joint ESPACE TRACES CD-ROM project (Trademarks of BG, CZ, HU, PL, RO and SK).
VIII. Matters concerning education and training including technical assistance to developing countries (please indicate URLs of web pages of the Office’s website wherever appropriate)
...
CONFERENCE (http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=sk&idd=31)
Almost 60 participants took part in the sixth year of the Conference Intellectual Property in Slovakia, held on the occasion of the World Intellectual Property Day, the main topic of which were the national IP protection in the context of international IP developments. On this occasion, an open door day of the IPO was held, during which the Office opened its non-public premises to people. Excursion was connected with presentation of the Office and provision of information and consultancy services.
LECTURES AND SEMINARS (http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=sk&idd=31)
In July 2006 the IPO SR in co-operation with the World Intellectual Property Organisation organized an international seminar on the strategic use of IP for economic and social development in Bratislava. The objectives of the seminar were to deliberate on strategic approaches to making use of IP as an effective tool for development and to ensure their integration into national development strategies and plans, depending on specific requirements.
In November the IPO SR joined the EU initiative to devote one week to celebrate science, innovation and creativity – so-called "European Science Week". On the occasion, the IPO SR presented translation of the WIPO publication "Learn from the Past, Create the Future: Inventions and Patents", held a meeting with the press representatives who had made extraordinary contribution to popularize the IP domain in Slovakia, and held II. Users’ Day on electronic filing of international and European applications (the I. Users’ Day was held in May).
In pursuance of specific requirements the Office provided for a variety of specialisation oriented groups the lectures, presentations and educational courses related to industrial property rights protection.
EXHIBITIONS (http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=sk&idd=30&idd2=3006)
The IPO SR is continuously enhancing the public awareness on industrial property protection also by means of presentations of fairs and exhibitions. The IPO SR took part at 26th International Building Fair CONECO in Bratislava, at the 36th International Chemistry Fair INCHEBA in Bratislava, at the 13th International Mechanical Engineering Fair in Nitra, and the Exhibition of Innovations IENA 2006 in Nuremberg within a joint stand of the European Patent Offices: "Internationales Patent-Informationszentrum"
The public awareness on industrial protection is also enhanced by holding exhibitions in the internal premises of the IPO SR. Almost entire entrance premises of the IPO SR had been reconstructed to serve as an exhibition hall. In December the first exhibitor, the Slovak Technical Museum in Košice, installed an exposition called "The Personalities of Science and Technology in Slovakia". The exposition was prolonged due to success.
PUBLICATIONS (http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=sk&idd=27&idd2=2703)
List of publications for sale in Slovak and Czek http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=sk&idd=27&idd2=2703
Last year the Office released several publications. Besides the Intellectual Property in Slovakia Conference workshop VI included an adapted translation of the WIPO publication "Learn from the Past, Create the Future: Inventions and Patents" and information materials focused on a general mission of the Office, as well as new products and services provided by the IPO SR.
The trademark department processed the changes and prepared the translation of 2-volume 9th edition of the International Classification of Products and Services. Classification system is available in the Office, in the patent information centres, contact and information points of the IPO SR and "innoinfo" since January 2007.
Training courses for national and foreign participants
THE COURSE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY (http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=sk&idd=31)
The Office’s Institute for Education was established in year 2000, when the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic granted the accreditation to the IPO SR for a period of five years. In January 2005 the Office has obtained a new five-year period accreditation. The lecturers are university teachers, experts from practice and the IPO SR experts. An overall number of training lessons extends to 342 hours, out of which 227 hours are lectures and the remaining training hours are devoted to hands-on practical exercising and training.
The Intellectual Property course consists of four separate parts: module A: Intellectual Property and Copyright Law Essentials; module B: Creativity - Management of Creativity, Marketing and Economics; module C: Information in the field of Industrial Property Protection; module D: Industrial Property Law. In 2006 the course was attended by 52 participants, out of which 20 employees of the IPO SR.
Main trademark and industrial property information magazines/journals published in the country or region of the Office
JOURNAL (http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=sk&idd=27)
Awareness of the public in the field of intellectual property is increased also by the professional magazine INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY magazine ("Duševné vlastníctvo") issued quarterly by the Office.
12 editions of the E-zine IPO SR e-mail magazine were released last year. The magazine in electronic form released regularly each month consists of permanent sections with information from the IPO SR, the world, monitoring of periodicals, selected information from the separate editions of the Intellectual Property Magazine and not missing was also the knowledge contest in the area of science and technology, receiving much acclaimed by E-zine readers.
IX. Other general information related to the Office that is available on the Internet -- URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that:
...
Information on legislation related to trademarks
- legislation in force http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=21
- related legislation http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=22
- multilateral treaties http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=24
- EU legislation http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=25
contain the Annual Report of the Office
The Annual Report of the Office
http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=9&idd2=92
if necessary, provide further information related to the topics referred to in the current ATR
Further information related to the topics referred to in the current ATR:
Industrial property
http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=2
Web page contains basic information which are useful for the applicant by filing the application of particular type of industrial property right, such as application forms, legislation, instructions of the IPO SR, information for applicant, administrative fees, contact to expert assistance, etc.:
Patents http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=14
SPC http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=20
Utility models http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=15
Designs http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=16
Topographies http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=17
Trademarks http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=18
Geographical indications http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=19
contain trademark-related news regarding the Office
Trademark -related news regarding the Office
http://www.upv.sk/index.php?lang=en
X. Other relevant matters
Relations with mass media
The IPO SR continued in excellent cooperation with mass media for which the IP domain is no longer an issue of marginal interest. The total number of articles, TV spots and radio reports in the most significant mass media companies reached 80 in 2006.