Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of trademark information activities and expected time frames for their realization
In 2013 strategy of the Office's activities by 2016 was adopted. It contains inter-alia activities in the patent information area:
- To prepare the draft of the conception of the Office's information services development for 2014 - 2016 in accordance with the Strategic Plan of the Office;
- To identify the WIPO standards related to public services and data providing which are not or are partially implemented at the Office and to prepare the proposal for their implementation with the publication of their content in Slovak language for public;
- To prepare the proposal for implementation of new standardised processes and outputs of the Office related to provided services;
- To prepare the proposal for implementation of new and modification of existing public services of the Office;
- To implement a new complex package of public services with relevant information materials and documents.
Evaluation of the period 2013 - 2016 in the area of information services and the report on their status and perspectives is planned for the end of 2016.
New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies and plans mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks
The Office has been realising projects of the Co-operation Fund of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (trade marks and designs - OHIM) since 2011 aimed at more effective services provided to national offices experts and clients and harmonization of the practice of national offices in proceedings on trade mark and design applications.
In 2013 projects CESTO, Quality, Seniority and Similarity were realised; projects TMview and TMClass continued.
TMview - Trade mark search tool
TMclass - Trade mark classification tool
Quality - Centralising information on IP Office quality standards
Similarity - IP Office assessments of similarity between goods and services
CESTO - A common support tool for examiners
More information on the web page https://www.tmdn.org/.
Main areas of trademark information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year
Maintenance and updating the search system for trade marks - Acsepto® containing bibliographic data and images of national, international trade marks and Community trade marks.
The projects and activities mentioned in the item above have been realised in the co-operation with the OHIM.
Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and registrations with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes
During 2013 the Office received 3,170 trade mark applications, what represents increase by 10.5 per cent in comparing with the previous year. When compared with 2012, the number of domestic trade mark applications increased by 10.3 per cent to 2,447.
In 2013, 1,861 international trade mark applications were filed under the Madrid Agreement and Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement. It represents increase by 0.3 per cent when compared with 2012.
Total number of registered national trade marks decreased by 1.1 per cent to 2,525.
The number of domestic registered trade marks decreased by 0.4 per cent (1,885), the number of trade marks registered for foreign applicants decreased by 3.0 per cent to 640.
For comparison, there is the statistics on trade mark applications and registrations of the years 2005 - 2013:
Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
Annual Technical Reports on Trademarks:
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
Trademark-related news
http://www.upv.sk/
Useful links
http://www.upv.sk/?linky
http://www.upv.sk/?dalsie-uzitocne-linky
Intellectual Property Magazine
http://www.upv.sk/?dusevne-vlastnictvo
IPO SR and IPO CZ Publications
http://www.upv.sk/?publikacie
IPO SR E-Zine
http://www.upv.sk/?e-zine-upv-sr
Information and support provided by the Office to applicants regarding filing on paper and/or e-filing (instructions, seminars, etc.) - URLs
Basic information which are useful for the applicant by filing the application of particular type of industrial property right are available on Office's website http://www.upv.sk/. These are mainly application forms of particular type of industrial property right, legislation, instructions of the IPO SR, information for applicant, administrative fees, contact to expert assistance, etc. and other relevant information related to subjects of industrial property right laying within the authority of the IPO SR:
Trademarks http://www.upv.sk/?trademarks
What Is a Trademark?
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 - Trademarks
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
Trademark 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/?downloads
http://www.upv.sk/?ochranne-znamky-dokumenty-na-prevzatie
Contacts
http://www.upv.sk/?contacts
The Office does not provide services for electronic filings with electronic signature in relation to trade marks.
In 2013 the Office in cooperation with the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market created and made available intelligent electronic forms available on the web seat of the Office with the address: http://www.upv.sk/?elektronicky-vyplnitelne-formulare. Filings realised via these forms are not possible to sign with electronic signature/guaranteed electronic signature. This is the reason why they need to be filed in the paper form within the period of one month.
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
This service is provided by the Office with Helpdesk http://www.upv.sk/?helpdesk to obtain requested information.
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
(ii) Use of electronic classification systems and pre-defined terms of the classification applied
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.
The WIPO Standard ST.60 is used for trademark 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 in the Internet.
Classification symbols were checked by internal electronic classification system built in Office registry software.
In accordance with the Act No.506/2009 the applicant is obliged to indicate in the application the goods and services for which the trademark 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, three-dimensional marks within the application shall be processed in printed presentation.
Other activities
Information Centre
http://www.upv.sk/?information-centre
Within their professional consultancy activities, the Centre staff provides the public with the necessary IPR-related information personally, by telephone (+421 48 4300 131), mail or e-mail infocentrum@indprop.gov.sk or by fax. The Information Centre includes also "Helpdesk" providing information about electronic on-line filing.
The number of requests for information increased in comparing to 2012 up to 8,020 requests. Information Centre provided 6,291 pieces of information by phone; 1,345 by e-mail; 244 personally; 139 by post and 1 piece of information was sent by fax.
Pre-diagnostics of industrial property rights
http://www.upv.sk/?prediagnostika-priemyselnych-prav
To increase the awareness of industrial property, to support innovations, creativity and competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises are the primary goals of industrial rights pre-diagnostics performed by the IPO SR experts since 2008. During 2013 the Office employees visited 13 companies from the whole Slovakia. The most of them were from Bratislava (4), Trenčín (3), Banská Bystrica (2), and Nitra (9) Self-Governing Regions. Although filing applications is not the primary goal of the pre-diagnostics, totally 155 applications in 6 years were received since implementation of this service.
Workplace of the IPO SR in Bratislava
Workplace of the Office, which was opened in 2004 offered information relating to filing applications for industrial property rights subjects last year. In the workplace, there is a filing room.
Main types of publications in the field of trademark information, outline of the content and medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URLs)
Publication of trademarks
The Office publishes announcements relating to published trademark applications and registered/ renewed trademarks in the Official Gazette.
The following numbers of registered trademark and trademark application publications were announced in the Official Gazette in 2013:
2 584 published trademarks applications
2 423 registered trademarks
2 177 renewed trademarks
Official Gazette "Vestník ÚPV SR"
http://www.upv.sk/?vestnik-uradu-priemyselneho-vlastnictva-slovenskej-republiky
Trademark information forms part of the Official Gazette - "Vestník ÚPV SR", covering all industrial property rights in one publication. In 2013 the Gazette had a circulation of 130 copies, of which 28 were distributed monthly by subscription. Other copies were sent free of charge to patent information centres and contact and information points of the IPO SR, to information and consulting sites INNOINFO, within the frame of industrial property information exchange to foreign offices and as statutory copies according to the act as well.
Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online, URL), etc.
IPO SR publishes official version of the Official Gazette in electronic form on CD ROM in PDF format. The electronic version of the Gazette in PDF format is available via Internet address http://www.upv.sk/?vestnik-uradu-priemyselneho-vlastnictva-slovenskej-republiky.
The Gazette contains trademark announcements arranged in following main chapters:
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
External databases
Internet databases in particular:
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.)
ON-LINE DATABASES
http://www.upv.sk/?databases-and-registers
IPO SR makes accessible various databases on its web site.
Freely accessible national databases are:
- "Data extracted from Registers" http://registre.indprop.gov.sk/registre/?lang=en also called "Webregisters" give public access to data extracted from trademark register, which are kept by the Office with the possibility of simple and advanced search or browsing results. Data concerning in particular pending trademark applications, all filed applications or registered trademarks in the register are daily updated.
- "Classification Systems" http://www.upv.sk/?systemy-triedenia contains trademark classifications used in Slovakia, links to other classifications systems for classifying trademarks 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. At the same time it is divided into PDF files containing only selected parts of the gazette, e.g.: patents, designs, trademarks or official announcements. 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 on-line databases 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
The Office library provides following services to the public:
Trademark and related information on the World Wide Web:
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 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 Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market based on the information from the IPO SR within the common project.
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. Server - Client - DB environment in based on the WINDOWS 2003/2008 Server; working stations PC Pentium, Windows XP / 7, thin client WYSE V10, WYSE S10, HP t5740; Citrix XenApp 5.0 FP3; MS SQL Server 2005 / 2008.
Disc arrays are of the SAN HP MSA 1500 CS, SAN HP MSA P2000 G3 Type; backup is realised by the tape technology HP MSL 4048 LTO 4 Ultrium using the software HP OpenView Storage DataProtector A.07.0.
Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
The online trademark database kept by the Industrial Property Office serves for national trademarks searches and purposes of proceedings on trademark applications. Selected register data are available to the public in the Internet http://www.upv.sk/?databases-and-registers.
International trademarks searches were performed in the ROMARIN Internet database 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.
Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file
The Office builds, keeps and completes regularly 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 Community trade marks applications or Community trade marks via the internal system Inventio. Selected data are available to 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 trademarks.
Documentation from other offices maintained and/or considered part of the available search file:
In 2013, within the frame of mutual exchange, the IPO SR continued in receiving trademark gazettes from the following states and organizations: Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Benelux, Brazil, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Germany, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Spain, United Kingdom, Turkey, Ukraine and WIPO. The previously received gazettes from: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia , Egypt, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland and US also constitute the available search files of the office.
The collection of search CD-ROMs and databases; some of them have been made available via the local CD-ROM network by the Ultranet 2000 system:
Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)
Official automated system for managing the industrial property subjects "INVENTIO" contains registers of national and international trademarks (data since 1990 - national trademarks and data since 1947 - international trademarks).
Administrative management system is based on Lotus Domino and Fabasoft eGov Suite.
Office's library (if deals with trademark information): equipment, collection management, network of libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign libraries
In 2013, the Office's reading room has been visited by 1 242 users and 1 218 of it were from the public. In total there were provided 6 142 borrowings of patent and other literature made available to the public and 19 554 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 2013 there were performed 827 trademark searches and 40 searches on bibliographic data.
The Office's reading room serves as a WIPO deposit library as well. The deposit library fund includes 196 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 8:00 to 15:00.
In 2013, within the frame of mutual exchange of industrial-property information, the IPO SR continued in receiving of trademark 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 via in-house database system "Knižnica" to the staff.
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 (SNK) in Martin and Centre of Scientific and Technical Information (CVTI) in Bratislava. A list of centres and points is available on the Office's web site http://www.upv.sk/?partners.
The main goal of patent information centres is to provide complex information services in the field of patent, trademark 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 serve 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 resources 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 office's databases via Internet etc.
Information and Advisory Points for Innovations (InnoInfo)
The mission of InnoInfo centres http://www.upv.sk/?information-and-advisory-points-for-innovation-innoinfo operating in the regions of Slovakia is to orientate especially the small and medium sized entrepreneurs in the field of innovations and industrial property. InnoInfo centres are established in business incubators, regional advisory and information centres, regional chambers of the Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry and at the Universities of technical orientation.
In 2013 the Office co-operated particularly with Incubator Malacky and with University Technological Incubator of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, and also with Košice Regional Chamber of the Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry. (We have to also point out the co-operation with the SCSTI of SR in Bratislava and the Slovak Scientific Library in Košice as PATLIB Centres.) The co-operation with the Slovak Library of Forestry and Wood Sciences in Zvolen, with the Technical University in Zvolen and with the Faculty of Industrial Technology in Púchov developed in a promising way.
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 (e. g. WIPO information brochure - Making a Mark) providing valuable information on industrial property field to public.
The major popularisation activities of the Office in 2013 included:
For more information please see the list of publications issued by the Office http://www.upv.sk/?publikacie
WEB SITE OF THE OFFICE - WWW.UPV.SK
The Office also in 2013 continued with updating the web site daily to provide visitors new information on IP, to inform about upcoming conferences and other events and to update information of all relevant sites within the whole web site.
Except the updating the Office also focused on revitalisation of the web site content in 2013 resulting in easier access to searched information and better orientation of a user on the web site. The Office also started to work on new concept and structure of www.upv.sk as one of its strategic goals within the Strategic Plan of the Office for 2012 - 2016.
There were 135,828 visitors of the web site recorded in 2013; the average number of users was 445 during working days and 163 during weekends. Trade Marks, Patents, Registers and Databases, Utility Models and Contacts were the most visited sites. 66 % of visits were from Slovakia, 5.5 % from Czech Republic and the rest 28.5 % from abroad.
WWW.PATENTOVAT.SK
The Industrial Property Office of SR created the new internet portal - www.patentovat.sk - available to increase the awareness of IP and its protection in the beginning of April. It is an update of the informative multi -medial DVD Intellectual Property - the Unique Deserves Protection! issued by the Office in 2007. The portal reflects new trends in promotion of IP protection and information technologies and is linked to the official web site of the Office www.upv.sk and also the social network
Facebook. The portal www.patentovat.sk focuses on public to popularise IP and to provide information on possibilities of IP protection and related services and products of the Office.
Cooperation with universities, technology and innovation support centers, etc.
In 2013 3 specialised seminars took place within the international co-operation. The Industrial Property Office of SR in co-operation with the Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information organised the seminar IP Protection in EU - services of the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (trade marks and designs) for Businessmen in Bratislava on September 24, 2013. The seminar with the same name was also organised in co-operation with the Košice Regional Chamber of SCCI in Košice on September 26, 2013. In November 2013 the 5th year of the international conference IP Protection at Universities took place in Zvolen in co-operation with the WIPO and Technical University in Zvolen. The conference focused on national and international designs protection, since the Office co-operates intensively with the Department of Furniture Design and Wood Products, the Faculty of Wood Sciences and Technology, Technical University Zvolen.
Education and training: training courses, e-learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.
In 2013 the Office continued successfully with implementation of the project of education about intellectual property for pupils of elementary and high schools. During 2013 the Office organised 13 excursions with the lecture about IP protection for elementary and high schools and 17 seminars.
IPO SR continued the education programme Intellectual Property accredited by the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the SR also last year. From September 2012 to May 2013 the Modules A - Intellectual Property and Copyright Basis; B - Creativity, its Management, Marketing and Economy and C - Information in the Field of Intellectual Property were running. 16 participants terminated the study in the module C - Information in the Field of Intellectual Property. 46 participants entered the education programme in September 2013.
Presentation of the IPO SR at fairs and exhibitions in Slovakia and also abroad is an important means for providing information and consultations on IP protection. In 2013 the Office participated in five international exhibitions:
The Office also participated in 65th International Trade Fair Ideas - Inventions - New Products iENA 2013 in German Nuremberg in the common stand of European patent offices Internationales Patentinformationszentrum.
During 2013 the exhibitions were installed in the IPO SR premises:
The Office participated in the 9th year of the European festival of science - Researchers' Night. The Office had its expositions in the Avion Shopping Park, Bratislava, Europa Shopping Centre, Banská Bystrica and in the Shopping Centre Optima, Košice.
Other activities
WWW.NEFEJKUJ.SK
Information campaign Intellectual Property: Education, Awareness, Enforcement.
IPO SR under the guidance of the World Intellectual Property Organization launched in May 2013 information campaign "Intellectual Property: Education, Awareness, Enforcement". The first stage www.nefejkuj.sk is aimed at children in the age 10 - 15 years. The campaign's objective is to increase the awareness of young people about IP, its protection and methods of infringing IP rights. The children learn to think, why an original product is better and more moral than a fake and to point out fakes and piracy as the problem of the whole society. Also a questionnaire survey focusing on the knowledge level of young people between 10 - 15 years about IP and forums for discussions at 5 elementary schools in SR were realised within the campaign.
International exchange of trademark information in machine-readable form (e.g., Official Gazettes)
In 2013 followed the mutual exchange of trademark information in the form of official gazettes between the IPO SR and other offices also international organizations, including the OHIM and the WIPO.
Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to trademark information
CTM searches
In accordance with the EU Council Regulation No.40/1994 on the Community Trademark, the Office continued performing the searches about subjects of the Community trademark (CTM) 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 OHIM.
Similarly as in case of the services provided to the public the search system Acsepto® has been used also for CTM searches. It enables making searches of word, picture and combined trademarks within all designations applied for or protected in the territory of the Slovak Republic.
The number of requests under the system effective for CTM applications filed on March 10, 2008 or after this date was stabilised at the level of average 28 trademarks per week. 1,374 searches on designations of products and services were made in 2013.
Project TMview
In 2013 the Office made Slovak trade marks available periodically within the project 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.