Annual Technical Report on Trademark Information Activities in 2017 submitted by Slovakia
Please fill in your items before submitting your report
Where URLs are requested below, it is preferred that either URLs which are likely to remain stable over time (three years or more) are provided, or home (main) page URLs are provided with a short explanation of how to access the corresponding information.
I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN TRADEMARK INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of trademark information activities and expected time frames for their realization
In 2017 within the project, the IPO SR Electronic Services (IPO ES) the new integrated information system was launched. The basic goal of the national project IPO ES or the Office priority for 2017 was identifying with project results and introducing project functionalities into all areas of the Office´s activities. The result of the project is the digitisation of procedures linked to other changes in legislation (in terms of ensuring a legislative procedure in relation to the draft law amending and supplementing the Act No. 435/2001 Coll. on patents, supplementary protection certificates and amending and supplementing certain acts (Patent Act), as amended and amending certain laws), changes in the functioning of electronic filing within the Central Public Administration Portal and consequential changes in the functioning of the IPO ES. Given the above-mentioned IPO ES project, it was necessary to provide service and technical support for the project.
At the same time the operation of e-filing and e-services in the Office environment and availability of TMview and Designview on the new platform were provided. In terms of cooperation with foreign institutions, tools for data conversion according to the WIPO standards were implemented for the purposes of the "Data Acquisition Based on Quality at Source" project.
New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies and plans mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks
The results of the cooperation of industrial property offices of the EU member states through the European Trade Mark and Design Network within the EUIPO Convergence Programme, aimed at harmonization of the practices and eliminating differences of national industrial property offices procedures, are agreements about a common practice. The Office applies the agreed rules within the joint announcements in its trade mark law practice.
In 2017, within the cooperation with the EUIPO, the IPO SR was involved in the projects CP 8 - the Use of Trade Mark other than Registered Trade Mark – and CP9 – the Distinctive Character of Three-Dimensional Trade Marks Containing Verbal and/or Visual Elements, if the shape itself has no distinctive character. The project CP 9 will be terminated in the 2nd half of 2018 by the adoption of the Joint Communication of the EU Member States.
Over the course of the year 2017 had the Office assisted in the maintenance and updating of the electronic tools that are a result of the projects in cooperation with the EUIPO. It is mainly concerning a harmonized database of the goods and services - TM Class, on which the Office is cooperating with the EUIPO within the convergent programs. The IPO SR regularly updates and votes on the submitted proposals regarding this database.
Moreover, the Office has engaged in the testing of the updated version of the tool eSearch plus.
In 2017 the tools realised through the Projects of the Cooperation Fund continued to be used actively and were available not only to national Office experts but also to the public. These tools are eFiling, eServices and tools in applications CESTO (a common support tool for examiners), Quality (Centralising information on IP Office quality standards), Seniority and Similarity (IP Office assessments of similarity between goods and services), portals like TMview (trade mark search tool) and TMClass (trade mark classification tool).
More information is on the web site at https://www.tmdn.org/.
In 2014, the Project Common Central Database, implemented in EUIPO and used by experts of the Office´s Call Centre to build so-called Knowledge Database, was launched. It means that questions about EUTM or RCD or related questions are transferred by the Office´s experts to EUIPO experts to harmonise answers about EUTM or RCD.
The Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic, in cooperation with an external contractor, terminated the IPO Electronic Services project in the 1st quarter of 2017 and deployed the solution in full operation. The result of the project is making electronic forms available for electronic filing, modernisation of backend systems of the Office and access to modernised Webregisters on the Office's website in March 2017.
Main areas of trademark information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year
Plans about trade mark information relate to implementation of a new system for making data from the Office registers available on the internet (Webregisters II) interconnected with European and international systems (eSearch, TMview, Romarin,etc.).
Maintenance and updating the search system for trade marks – Acsepto® containing bibliographic data and images of national, international trade marks and European Union trade marks.
The projects and activities mentioned in the item above were realised in cooperation with the EUIPO.
Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and registrations with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes
In 2017, the Office received 2,962 trade mark applications; it is a 7.5 % decrease compared to the previous year.
Compared to 2016, the number of domestic applications decreased by 6.2 % to 2,326 applications.
In 2017, 1,415 trade mark applications were filed under the Madrid Agreement and Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks; it is a 23.6 % increase compared to the previous year.
Total number of national registered trade marks decreased by 24.9 % to 2,107 registered trade marks.
The number of registered domestic trade marks decreased by 26.6 % (1,595 trade marks); the number of registered foreign trade marks decreased by 19.0 % (512 trade marks).
By December 31, 2017, there were 47,677 valid national trade marks within the territory of the Slovak Republic.
For comparison, there are statistics on trade mark applications and registrations of the years 2013 – 2017:
Trade mark statistics_2017.docx
Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
Annual Technical Reports on Trade marks:
http://www.upv.sk/?vyrocne-technicke-spravy
http://www.wipo.int/cws/en/atrs/
Annual Reports of the IPO SR:
http://www.upv.sk/?annual-reports
Trade mark-related news
Useful links
http://www.upv.sk/?dalsie-uzitocne-linky
Intellectual Property Magazine
http://www.upv.sk/?dusevne-vlastnictvo
IPO SR and IPO CZ Publications
IPO SR E-Zine
http://www.upv.sk/?e-zine-upv-sr
II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO TRADEMARK INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Information and support provided by the Office to applicants regarding filing on paper and/or e-filing (instructions, seminars, etc.) - URLs
Basic information for applicants related to IP subject matters applications are available on the website of the Office www.upv.sk. These are mainly application forms of particular type of industrial property right, legislation, instructions of the IPO SR and information for applicant, administrative fees, contact to expert assistance, etc. Below are individual areas of IP subject matters and relevant information sources with links to website of the Office, where they are available:
Trade marks http://www.upv.sk/?trademarks
What Is a Trade mark?
http://www.upv.sk/?what-is-a-trademark
Information for Applicants
http://www.upv.sk/?information-for-applicants
Legislation
http://www.upv.sk/?legislation-in-force
Administrative Fees - Trade marks
http://www.upv.sk/?administrative-fees-trademarks
Madrid Protocol Concerning the International Registration of Trade Marks
http://www.upv.sk/?madrid-protocol-concerning-the-international-registration-of-marks
Filing Abroad
http://www.upv.sk/?ochranne-znamky-prihlasovanie-do-zahranicia
Application Forms To Be Filled Out Electronically
http://www.upv.sk/?application-forms-to-be-filled-out-electronically
Renewal of international registrations(WIPO Marks E-Renewal System)
http://www.upv.sk/?madridska-dohoda-a-protokol-o-medzinarodnom-zapise-ochrannych-znamok
Madrid System Fees
http://www.upv.sk/?ochranne-znamky-sadzobnik-poplatkov-madridsky-system
Trade mark Classifications
http://www.upv.sk/?ochranne-znamky-systemy-triedenia
Data Extracted from Registers
http://registre.indprop.gov.sk/registre/searchForm.do?lang=en®ister=oz
Downloads
http://www.upv.sk/?ochranne-znamky-dokumenty-na-prevzatie
Contacts
Since February 1, 2014 the Central Public Administration Portal offers a form serving the general agenda, by means of which electronic filings can be made to every public institution in the Slovak Republic, thus also the IPO SR. From the 1st quarter of 2017, the Office also made specific application forms available to users during the deployment of the IPO Electronic Services Project. These services are most commonly used for trade mark proceedings. In the year 2017 had been filed this way more than 34% of the total number of nationally registered trademarks.
In cooperation with the EUIPO, the Office had in the past created and made available electronic forms that can be found on the website of the Office at the following link: http://www.upv.sk/?efiling-eservices-1. The applications filed using these forms cannot be signed with an electronic signature/guaranteed electronic signature. For this reason, it is necessary to subsequently provide them in paper form within one month.
These filings can be made via electronic forms:
Request for entry of a sign as a trade mark into the Register
Request for entry of transfer of a trade mark
Request for renewal of a trade mark
Request for the amendment of the name/surname or the name/corporate name and address of the proprietor (applicant) of a trade mark
Oppositions against the registration of a sign
Request for revocation of a trade mark
Request for declaration of invalidity of a trade mark
The Office offers a customer service for electronic filing. The helpdesk contact information is available on the website of the Office at http://www.upv.sk/?uzivatelsky-servis-a-helpdesk. At the helpdesk they may get general information on the e-filing, electronic forms created by the Office in the cooperation with the EUIPO and also troubleshoot potential issues.
Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
The Office conducts the application file only in the paper form.
Matters concerning classifying
(i) Classification and reclassification activities; classification systems used, e.g., International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (Nice Classification), International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks (Vienna Classification), other classification
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 trade marks, which are classified by Office's experts.
The WIPO Standard ST.60 is used for trade mark bibliographic data coding in all relevant outcomes or records. All bibliographic data are being processed in electronic database form. The fully searchable data are updated and made available to the public daily on the Internet.
(ii) Use of electronic classification systems and pre-defined terms of the classification applied
Classification symbols were checked by internal electronic classification system.
In accordance with the Act No.506/2009, the applicant is obliged to indicate in the application the goods and services for which the trade mark is filed, according to the International Classification (Nice Classification) accompanied with the appropriate number of this Classification. But there is no obligation for applicants to use pre-defined terms of the classification.
Matters concerning processing of different types of non-traditional marks (e.g., three-dimensional, motion, hologram, color mark, etc.)
In case of processing non-traditional marks, the Office receives three-dimensional marks and colorful signs, which shall be processed in two-dimensional representation within the application.
Other activities
Information Centre
http://www.upv.sk/?information-centre
The Information Centre provided the clients of the Office with general information on IP protection for individual subject matters, on filing applications and related administration fees. Within the consultations also information on IP protection in the Slovak Republic and also abroad was provided (European union trade mark, international trade mark).
The information was provided personally, by phone (+421 48 4300 131), by post and e-mail address infocentrum@indprop.gov.sk.
In 2017 the Information Centre dealt with 6 460 requests for information; 4 759 thereof were provided by phone, 1 509 by e-mail, 186 personally and 6 by post.
Pre-diagnostics of industrial property rights
http://www.upv.sk/?prediagnostika-priemyselnych-prav
To increase the IP awareness, to support innovations, creativity and competitiveness of small and middle-sized enterprises is a primary goal of the IP pre-diagnostics, which have been provided by the IPO SR experts since 2008.
During 2017 3,2 pre-diagnostics focused on innovative companies were performed; e. g. SCP Ružomberok (Mondi), HERN Ltd. (former ZTS Strojárne Námestovo), Žilinská teplárenská Inc. Besides that employees visited also two research facilities – VULM Ltd. and NPPC, Research Institute of Animal Production. For the first time this consultation form was provided also to universities – Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin, Comenius University, Faculty of Security Engineering, University of Žilina and Department of Furniture and Interior Design, Technical University in Zvolen.
Promotion of craft products protected by geographical indications, e. g. on the grounds of the Budatín castle (propagation of tinkery), in Pozdišovce and Sekule (ceramics), in Detva (embroidery with a curved needle), in Hrušov and Hažlín (food products), also continued.
III. SOURCES OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE
Main types of publications in the field of trademark information, outline of the content and medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URLs)
Publication of trade marks
The Office publishes announcements relating to published trade mark applications and registered/ renewed trade marks in the Official Gazette.
The following numbers of registered trade mark and trade mark application publications were announced in the Official Gazette in 2017:
2 396 published trade mark applications
2 207 registered trade marks without change after publishing an application
111 registered trade marks with change after publishing an application
2 643 renewed trade marks
Official Gazette “Vestník ÚPV SR“
http://www.upv.sk/?vestnik-uradu-priemyselneho-vlastnictva-slovenskej-republiky
Trade mark information forms part of the Official Gazette - “Vestník ÚPV SR”, covering all industrial property rights in one publication.
Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online, URL), etc.
A free official edition of the IPO SR Gazette is available through the Office website as of January 2016 http://www.upv.sk/?vestnik-uradu-priemyselneho-vlastnictva-slovenskej-republiky. It is issued monthly. Older official editions of the Gazette published in the years 1993 – 2007 are published in printed form. In the years 2008 – 2015 the Gazette was published on CD-ROM in PDF format.
The Gazette contains trade mark announcements arranged in following main chapters:
- published trade mark applications (list of published trade mark applications and their bibliographic data including the list of goods and services arranged according to the application numbers)
- registered trade marks without change after publishing an application (list of registered trade marks without change after publishing an application in comparison to applied sign and their bibliographic data arranged according to the registration numbers)
- registered trade marks with change after publishing an application (list of registered trade marks with change after publishing an application in comparison to applied sign and their bibliographic data arranged according to the registration numbers)
- registered trade marks based on trade mark applications resulting from the conversion of the international registration to national application in accordance with the Article 9quinquis of the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement (list and bibliographic data of these registered trade marks arranged according to the registration number)
- renewed registrations of trade mark (list of renewed registrations of trade mark and their bibliographic data arranged according to the registration numbers)
- termination of the proceedings on trade mark applications
- refused trade mark applications
- terminated trade mark
- international registrations of trade marks
- bibliographic data of registered trade marks 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)
- changes of the trade mark proprietor (on the basis of the court decision)
- trade marks declared invalid
- trade marks revoked and declared invalid for certain goods and services
- assignments of rights and other changes of owners
- partial assignments
- changes of rights of disposal to trade marks (lien)
- changes of rights of disposal to trade marks (termination of lien)
- registration of licensing contracts in respect of trade marks
- termination of licensing contracts
- registration of sublicensing contracts in respect of trade marks
- termination of sublicensing contracts
- changes of data concerning trade mark owners/ applicants
- changes in the list of goods and services
- changes of wording or reproductions of trade mark
- changes in the representation of the trade mark
- corrections of names, addresses, dates and mistakes
Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external documentation and databases
- IPO SR Official Gazette http://www.upv.sk/?vestnik-uradu-priemyselneho-vlastnictva-slovenskej-republiky
- Extracted data from register https://wbr.indprop.gov.sk/webregistre/
- Internal database system „INVENTIO“ for managing the industrial property subjects
- Freely accessible foreign databases http://www.upv.sk/?zahranicne-online-databazy#znamky
External databases
Internet databases in particular:
-Registered trade marks database of the IPO CZ, coverage: CZ
-WIPO Gazette of International Marks, coverage: worldwide
-WIPO International Trade mark Information Database ROMARIN, coverage: worldwide
-European Union Trade marks Database EUIPO accessible via e-search at the EUIPO portal, coverage: EUTM applications
-National database USPTO, coverage US
-National database IPO UK, coverage GB
- Research system TMview, coverage: EUIPO, WIPO and national databases of certain EU countries and also outside EU (coverage changes by the access of other countries)
-System on searching and classification of goods and services TMclass
-WIPO Global Brand Database - link: http://www.wipo.int/reference/en/branddb/, coverage: worldwide
See also foreign collections of gazettes, optical discs and databases as parts of the examination file mentioned in the Chapter 4.
Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) and services available to external users; conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)
ONLINE DATABASES
http://www.upv.sk/?databases-and-registers
IPO SR makes accessible various databases on its website.
Freely accessible national databases are:
- "Data extracted from Registers" https://wbr.indprop.gov.sk/webregistre/ also called "Webregisters" give public access to data extracted from trade mark register, which are kept by the Office with the possibility of simple and advanced search or browsing results. Data concerning in particular pending trade mark applications, all filed applications or registered trade marks in the register are daily updated.
- “Classification Systems” http://www.upv.sk/?systemy-triedenia contains trade mark classifications used in Slovakia, links to other classifications systems for classifying trade marks used in the world and other useful information http://www.upv.sk/?systemy-triedenia-ochranne-znamky
- Official Gazette "Vestník ÚPV SR" may be viewed on the address http://www.upv.sk/?official-gazette - each issue is available as a one PDF file containing the whole issue. In the archive on this webpage are available the previous volumes also in PDF format. The older volumes are gradually being added.
In the part ”International and EU databases” there are links to the most frequently used online databases at http://www.upv.sk/?zahranicne-online-databazy#znamky.
Products and services
URL addresses providing basic information concerning the information services offered and information products issued by the Office and other relevant information relating to their accession and utilization:
- IPO SR Official Gazette http://www.upv.sk/?official-gazette
- magazine “Intellectual Property” http://www.upv.sk/?dusevne-vlastnictvo
http://www.upv.sk/?other-products
- IPO SR and IPO CZ publications http://www.upv.sk/?publikacie
http://www.upv.sk/?other-products
- IPO SR E-zine http://www.upv.sk/?e-zine-upv-sr
- on-line order forms http://www.upv.sk/?online-orders
- price list http://www.upv.sk/swift_data/source/pdf/Cennik.pdf
- data extracted from register https://wbr.indprop.gov.sk/webregistre/
- IPO SR reading room http://www.upv.sk/?other-services
- searches http://www.upv.sk/?searches
- search system TMview http://tmview.europa.eu/tmview/welcome.html?language=sk
- Information centre http://www.upv.sk/?information-centre
- Contacts http://www.upv.sk/?contacts
The Office library provides following services to the public:
- providing general information and professional consulting assistance for the public
- lending service (Official Gazettes, special monographs and reference literature) in the reading room
- sale of special monographs and periodical publications (“Intellectual Property” in paper, Official Gazette “Vestník ÚPV SR” on CD-ROM) upon request or on the place
- reprographic services upon request or on the place
- online searches in Office’s search system, self-service during a personal visit
- searches in International Trade marks Database ROMARIN, in European trade mark databases CTM-online and TMview
- searches upon request - orders in written and online form
- registry information provided in the reading room
Trade mark and related 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
- extracted data from register
- Official Gazette
- order forms (searches, Official Gazette, special literature)
- Nice Classification (11-2017)
- Vienna Classification (7-th edition)
- trade mark classifications and related information
- annual technical reports on trade mark information (2002-2017)
Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)
Information on the legal status is in the internal register of trade marks. The Office provides information on the request in the form of an extract from the Register. In addition, data of this type are also published in the IPO SR database on the internet https://wbr.indprop.gov.sk/webregistre/ but have only informative character and do not substitute the extract from the Register; similar to the system TMview where the data are mentioned by the EUIPO based on the information from the IPO SR within the common project.
Other sources
IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO TRADEMARK INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements
In the 1st quarter of 2017, the Office terminated the IPO Electronic Services project and deployed the solution in full operation. The result of the project is the Unified Information System of the IPO SR, which integrates the following systems operated by the Office: Inventio, Fabasoft, Webregisters and Electronic Forms Module.
The Inventio system is used to manage the data related to the process of proceeding on individual industrial property subject matters, i.e. central management of registers of individual industrial rights subject matters in electronic form. It is a specific system developed by the Office with an external contractor exclusively for the needs of the Office. The system includes export and import mechanisms for exchanging and updating certain data, in particular with international institutions such as the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the European Patent Office (EPO). Exports and imports are based on international WIPO standards.
Fabasoft is a certified system (certificate of Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic on compliance with the standards for electronic information systems for the administration of the registry defined in the Act No. 525/2011 Coll.) for electronic processing and keeping of files, records, documents and work procedures. Document Management System (DMS) has been moved from Inventio to Fabasoft. At the same time, Fabasoft is a central system that is integrated into some common modules of the Central Public Administration Portal (module of electronic mailboxes, authentication module, payment module, central electronic filing module, electronic delivery module and official communication module), the declared reference registers within the Slovak Republic (register of legal entities, register of natural persons and register of addresses) and also with other systems of the Office such as electronic forms module and Webregisters. The Office plans to continue to consider Inventio as a reference data source within the Office.
Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office
LAN is a net built on the technology Cisco, Fast ETHERNET 1000/100/10 Mbit/s,
2012 R2 Server; MS SQL Server 2012; client HP t5740, Zotac Zbox BI323.
Linux Red Hat Enterprise 7.0, CENTOS 7
Citrix XenApp 7.18
SAN HP MSA P2000, G3, EMC VNX 5100
HP MSL LT04 4048, MSL LZ05 2024
HP open view Storage Data Protector version A.09.05
Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
The online trade mark database kept by the Industrial Property Office serves for national trade marks searches and purposes of proceedings on trade mark applications. Selected register data are available to the public on the Internet at http://www.upv.sk/?databases-and-registers.
International trade marks searches were performed in the ROMARIN Internet database and in the Office management system “INVENTIO” for administration of international trade marks with designation for SK.
In the beginning of 2006, the Office implemented a new search system Acseptoâ. It enables performing the professional trade mark searches for designations of products and services in databases of national, international and European trade marks as well as in other selected trade mark databases.
Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file
The Office regularly builds, keeps and completes the examination file containing national trade mark applications and national registered trade marks, international trade marks with designation of the Slovak Republic under the Madrid Agreement and Protocol and trade marks conversed from European Union Trade marks applications or European Union Trade marks via the internal system Inventio. Selected data are available to the public in webregisters and are being updated daily.
It is possible to carry out searches according to bibliographic data in all the databases used for the trade marks.
Documentation from other offices maintained and/or considered part of the available search file: Trade mark gazettes also form part of the available search files of the Office. In 2017, within the frame of mutual exchange, the IPO SR continued receiving trade mark gazettes from the following states: Bulgaria and Kyrgyzstan.
Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)
Official automated system for managing the industrial property subjects “INVENTIO II”contains registers of national and international trade marks (data since 1990 - national trade marks and data since 1947 - international trade marks).
Administrative management system is based on Lotus Domino and Fabasoft eGov Suite.
In January 2017, the Fabasoft specialised registry system was put into operation.
Other matters
V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION
Office's library (if deals with trademark information): equipment, collection management, network of libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign libraries
In 2017, the Office’s reading room has been visited by 144 users. In total were provided 290 borrowings of patent and other literature made available to the public and 509 copies of patent documents and other industrial property 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 2017, 436 trade mark searches, 8 searches on bibliographic data and 655 EUTM searches were performed for the EUIPO.
The Office’s reading room serves as a WIPO deposit library as well. The deposit library fund includes 289 volumes of publications issued by WIPO, which are available for study in reading room.
The Office’s reading room including the search workstation opens daily from 9:00 to 15:00.
In 2017, within the frame of mutual exchange of industrial-property information, the IPO SR continued receiving trade mark information in the form of official gazettes. Non-patent literature was acquired mostly by purchase or as a gift and processed, stored according to librarian rules and made available to the staff via in-house database system “Knižnica”.
Patent Information Centres and Contact and Information Points
Since 2003 the Office has cooperated with Contact and Information Points, while some of them are also the Patent Information Centres (PATLIB). They are located in state, regional and district libraries as well as in the Slovak National Library (SNK) in Martin and Centre of Scientific and Technical Information (CVTI) in Bratislava and within the University of Žilina as the Centre for Technology Transfer. Nowadays 11 Contact and Information Points are located in Slovakia and 5 of them are Patent Information Centres. A list of centres and points is available on the Office’s website at http://www.upv.sk/?partners.
The main goal of patent information centres is to provide complex information services in the field of patent, trade mark and industrial design information, search services, consultation and methodical assistance concerning the searching of information, making copies of required patent documents, printing records from electronic form etc. Every patent information centre serves as a contact and information point.
The main goal of contact and information points of the Office is to inform the public about where can apply for protection of the results of creative activity, and particularly to inform the general public about the existence of the national institution, which protects immaterial goods, industrial property.
The Office supported the activity of centres and contact and information points by regular sending Slovak patent specifications in paper form and the Official Gazette in electronic form, as well as all information materials and recourses made available to the public, publications published by Office, information pamphlets, documents and forms relating to applying for protection of industrial property rights, access to offices databases via Internet etc.
Information and Advisory Points for Innovations (InnoInfo)
The role of fourteen INNOINFOs located in the Slovak regions is to raise awareness on IP protection among SMEs. INNOINFO are placed in business incubators (Incubator Malacky and BIC Bratislava, spol. s r. o.), regional information and advisory centres – RPIC Komárno, Poprad, Prešov, Regional Development Agency Kysuce in Čadca and regional chambers of the Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry and at technical universities– Technical University of Košice, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava and University Science Park, University in Žilina. Currently five regional Chambers of Commerce and Industry – Bratislava, Trenčín, Banská Bystrica, Košice and Prešov are partners of the Office as the ”innoinfo”.
In 2017 the IPO SR Open Day was held at the Regional Chamber SCCI Banská Bystrica. The seminar with the possibility to provide short individual consultations took place at the BIC Bratislava, s.r.o., SCCI Bratislava, RPIC Poprad and at the University in Košice. The lecture on the IP Protection System was presented at the Regional Chamber of SCCI Trenčín.
Publications related to different business procedures and trademark information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.
The Office publishes classifications, miscellanies, expert monographs, acts and related commentaries, promotional and information brochures, leaflets or translations of the WIPO and the EPO original publications providing valuable information on industrial property field to the public.
Publication activities of the Office during 2017 include:
- Annual Report of the Industrial Property Office of SR 2016;
- The magazine Duševné Vlastníctvo - currently is the only Slovak periodical focused on the issue of industrial rights and copyright. In 2017, the Office issued three issues of the magazine in electronic form, issue 2/2016 and Duševné vlastníctvo – selection 2017 was published in printed form.
On the occasion of the 20 th anniversary of the first issue of Duševné Vlastníctvo Magazine, the festive printed edition of the Magazine: Duševné Vlastníctvo 1997 – 2017 was issued.
For more information please see the list of publications issued by the Office at http://www.upv.sk/?publikacie.
WEBSITE OF THE OFFICE – www.upv.sk
The website of the Office www.upv.sk is a complex source of information for the public. In addition, it has been becoming the effective means of communication. It allows the public to quickly access information and databases related to IP. Both Slovak and English versions provide information about upcoming conferences, seminars and other events.
From March 1, 2017 new IPO SR webregisters are made available to the public. Databases contain selected data from IP subject matters registers kept by the Office and are updated daily. Details of the records provide bibliographic data, data on the state of applications and legal status, full texts of published patent documents in PDF format, trade mark and designs representations and sequence items.
PORTALS www.patentovat.sk a FACEBOOK
The Office also uses the portal www.patentovat.sk, linked to the social network Facebook to raise public awareness of the IP importance and protection. The Facebook page named The Industrial Property Office of SR – patentovat.sk is updated daily. The number of visitors & fans of the Facebook page increased by 40, at the end of 2017 this number reached nearly 410.
PORTAL http://www.dusevnevlastnictvo.gov.sk/
The IPO SR cooperates with the Ministry of Culture of SR in keeping the portal http://www.dusevnevlastnictvo.gov.sk. This information portal is a digital platform to give a basic overview, orientation and information resources across all IP subject matters. It contains information on copyright and rights related to copyright, IP rights, the law against unfair competition, it also includes information on the legal regulation of trade names, trade secrets and know-how.
Cooperation with universities, technology and innovation support centers, etc.
This year the Office participated for the second time in the competition National Prize for Design 2017 – Product Design organised by the Slovak Design Centre in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture of SR. The 14th year of the National Prize for Design (NPD) was aimed at product design in 2017.
14 interviews with representatives of the public sector, academia and IP professionals were held in the premises of the Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information in Bratislava. Another 2 interviews with representatives of academia and private sector were held on February 16, 2017 at the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice. Interviews were conducted by the international strategy consultant, Alfred Radauer from Technopolis, Tamara Nanayakkara from the Department for Transition and Developed Countries (TDC), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and the national consultant, Darina Kyliánová, in coordination with the representatives of the Industrial Property Office of SR (IPO SR).
Technical University in Zvolen, The Faculty of Wood Sciences and Technology, Department of Furniture and Interior Design, organised the International Conference Creativity in Design III.
Education and training: training courses, e-learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.
Recently the IPO SR recorded increased interest in the lectures on the IP protection by both secondary schools and universities, as well as by the business community and professionals. In total 32 lectures were held for pupils and students of primary and secondary schools, academics and entrepreneurs.
The IPO SR in cooperation with the Slovak Chamber of Patent Attorneys organised professional examination for performing patent attorney activities. The certificate of the successful completion of professional examination in 2017 acquired one applicant.
Seminars and workshops
The Conference for representatives of academia, PhD students, students and all those who were interested in IP issues with presence of Slovak and foreign lecturers under the auspices of the WIPO IPO SR and SCSTI took place in the premises of SCSTI in Bratislava.
The Slovak Chamber of Patent Attorneys in cooperation with the IPO SR organised the Seminar IP Protection XIII in the Hotel Sorea Trigan, Štrbské Pleso. Ing. Peter Hojčuš and JUDr. Ing. Vladimír Neuschl were the professional guarantors of the Seminar.
In the premises of the Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information (SCSTI) the workshop on electronic filing of international applications under PCT via ePCT System was organised at the initiative of the Slovak Chamber of Patent Attorneys, by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), in cooperation with the IPO SR and SCSTI, took place.
Education Programme Intellectual Property
IPO SR provides the education programme Intellectual Property accredited by the decision of the Ministry of Education of the SR of April 30, 2014 and the accreditation certificate No. 1308/2014/44/1.
In 2017 the Programme Intellectual Property continued by the Module C – Information in the Field of IP. The total attendance was 25 participants; 24 of them completed the Module C successfully by obtaining the certificate. Since September the Programme continues by the Module D – Industrial Property Law. In the school year 2017/2018 there are 27 participants of the Programme.
PROMOTIONAL EVENTS
The IPO SR tries to get closer to the public via several popularisation activities. The most important events are those organised on the occasion of the World IP Day, Researchers´ Night, various exhibitions in the IPO SR premises or educational programme Intellectual Property.
The employees of the IPO SR with invited guests commemorated the World IP Day with the Conference Intellectual Property in Slovakia XVII – Innovations in Everyday Life – on April 26, 2017. This day was also the Open Day of the Office when the areas not usually accessible to public were opened.
The IPO SR representatives provided information and consultations on IP protection at the international fairs Furniture and Living in Nitra, CONECO 2017 in Bratislava, the International Engineering Fair in Nitra and the International Agricultural and Food Exhibition Agrokomplex in Nitra. For the 7 th time the IPO SR participated in the European Science Festival – Researchers´ Night 2017 – in Žilina and Košice.
From October 2016 to July 2017 in the IPO SR premises the Exhibition Ján Bobek – Selected Works – was accessible. The exhibition presented decorations made of uncultivated wood and artistic works made by combined techniques.
Other activities
VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION
International exchange of trademark information in machine-readable form (e.g., Official Gazettes)
In 2017 followed the mutual exchange of trade mark information in the form of official gazettes between the IPO SR and other offices also international organization the WIPO.
Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to trademark information
EUTM searches
According to the Council Regulation No. 2424/2015 on the Community trade mark, the Office carries out the searches on EU trade marks. The number of requests under the system applicable to applications for the EU trade marks has been stabilized at an average of 13 trade marks per week and 655 searches were processed in year 2017.
Similarly as in case of the services provided to the public, the search system Acsepto® has been used also for EUTM searches. It enables making searches of word, picture and combined trade marks within all designations applied for or protected in the territory of the Slovak Republic.
Project TMview
In 2017 the Office made Slovak trade marks available periodically in the search system TMview http://tmview.europa.eu/tmview/welcome.html. It is a database of trade marks of the EU member states aimed at searching and informative searches on interchangeability with references and links to national databases in languages of all participated countries and with the system TMclass for the assistance in classification of goods and services.
Assistance to developing countries
Other activities
Based on agreements on data provision the Office sends monthly the data on trade marks published in the Gazette to company Thomson CompuMark.