Annual Technical Report 2003 on Trademark Information Activities submitted by Slovakia (SCIT/ATR/TM/2003/SK)
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I. Evolution of registration activities
Changes experienced in terms of application filings and registrations with respect to the previous year
In 2003 when compared with the year 2002, the number of trademarks applications from Slovak applicants decreased slightly by 1.9 %, the total number of national applications was 3 812, 0.6 % higher than in 2002.
In 2003, in the international procedure under the Madrid Agreement and Protocol to the Madrid Agreement 6 817 applications for trademarks were filed, representing a growth by 3.4 % as compared in 2002.
The total number of registered trademarks decreased by 8.2 %. The number of domestic registered trademarks was less by 3.4 %, the number of trademarks registered for foreign applicants significantly decreased by 14.5 %.
In comparison with the statistics of the years 1999 - 2003, there are following results in trademark area.
By December 31, 2003, there were 37 966 trademarks registered in the national trademark register of the Slovak Republic.
Tables - Trademarks statistical data
II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, and distribution of secondary sources of trademark information, i.e., trademark gazettes
Publishing, printing, copying techniques
Publication of trademarks
The Office publishes published trademarks applications and registered/ renewed trademarks in the Official Gazette.
Trademarks 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 2003 the Gazette had a circulation of 250 copies, of which 113 were distributed by subscription. Other copies were sent free of charge to patent information centres and contact and information points of the IPO, 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.
The following numbers of trademarks were published in the Official Gazette in 2003:
Published trademarks applications 3 476
Registered trademarks 3 634
Renewed trademarks 1 744
Main types of announcements of the Office in the field of trademark information
The Gazette contains trademark announcements arranged in following main chapters:
- publications of trademark applications
- trademark registrations
- trademark renewals
- trademark assignments
- partial assignments
- change of data concerning trademark owners
- change in the list of goods and services
- change of wording or reproduction of trademarks
- lapse of trademark rights
- registration of licence agreements in respect of trademarks
- international registration of trademarks
- official decisions (cancellation, etc.)
- the right of lien
- the termination of sub-licence contracts
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, QuarkXpress 5.0 for Windows and Corel Draw 10, Photoshop 6.0, FineReader 6.0, Adobe Acrobat 5.05 CE, 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.
III. Matters concerning classifying, reclassifying and indexing of trademark information
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 (please state whether goods and services for the registration of marks and whether the figurative elements of marks are classified by your Office and, if so, which classification(s) is (are) used)
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 (Viena 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
In accordance with the Act No.55/1997 amended by the Act No.577/2001 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.
Bibliographic data and processing for search purposes
The WIPO Standard ST.60 is used for patent and utility model 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 each 15 minutes in the Internet.
IV. Trademark manual search file establishment and upkeep
File Building
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
In 2003, within the frame of mutual exchange, the IPO SR received trademark gazettes from the following states and organizations: AT, BA, BG, BR, CH, CZ, DE, EE, FR, HR, HU, IT, KG, LT, LV, MD, MK, PL, PT, RO, RU, Sl, SM, UA, US, OHIM and WIPO.
V. Activities in the field of computerized trademark search systems
In-house systems (online/offline)
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 are performed in the ROMARIN database on CD-ROM received from the WIPO; also the joint CD-ROM ESPACE TRACES was used for searching (both accessible on local network through the UltraNet 2000system).
List of search CD-ROMs and databases used on local network through the UltraNet 2000system:
EUROM - Community trade mark
ROMARIN
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)
External databases
Czech registered trademarks database in the Internet
Madrid Express Database
Administrative management systems (e.g., register, legal status, statistics, administrative support, etc.)
Office automation management system containing trademark registry.
Administrative databases based on Lotus Domino.
Equipment used (hardware, including the types of terminal and network used, and software), carriers used
Fast ETHERNET 1000/100/10 Mbit/s, WINDOWS 2000 for servers; workstations PC Pentium, Windows 2000; HP Unix for database, Informix Dynamic Server 9.21, Citrix Metaframe 1.8.
VI. Administration of trademark 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)
Planning, administration, automation, security
In 2003, the office’s reading room has been visited by 2028 users and 1539 of them were from the public. In total there were provided 9671 borrowings of patent and other literature made available to the public and 31558 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 2003 there were performed 296 patent searches, 2627 trademark searches and 74 design searches based on 1200 written and 136 personal requests.
The office’s reading room including the search workstation opens daily from 7:30 to 15:00 except Wednesday (8:00-16:00).
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 library provides following services to the public:
- sales of the Gazette in paper form.
- general information provided by Office's experts.
- 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.
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
- relevant laws
- Annual Reports
- selected registry data
- Official Gazette
- order forms (searches, non-patent literature)
- Nice Classification (8-th edition)
- Viena Classification (5-th edition)
In 2003, four patent information centres and 10 contact and information points of the IPO SR were established under assistance of the EPO for the purpose of raising awareness about IP rights,. The new form of co-operation was iniciated by Office with regional, state and district libraries; with the State Scientific Library in Banská Bystrica and Košice and with other libraries in Zvolen, Žilina, Prešov, Trenčín, Trnava a Nitra as well as Slovak National Library in Martin and Slovak Centre of Scientific a Technical Information in Bratislava.
Patent information centres
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.
Contact and information points
The main goal of contact and information points of the Office is to inform the public about where they 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 also on optical discs (fulltext ESPACE-PRECES CD-ROM, bibliographic data thereof on ESPACE ACCESS PRECES ) as well as announcements concerning industrial property rights in the Official Gazette form, all information materials and recources 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.
VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of trademark documentation and information
International or regional cooperation in the exchange of trademark information, e.g., in the form of official gazettes
In 2003 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.
Exchange of machine-readable 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
Training courses for national participants
Four Module Accredited COURSE ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY conducted by the Intellectual Property Institute of the Industrial Property Office for office employees and professional public continued in 2003 with 42 participants, out of which 27 employees of IPO SR. An excursion to M.O.C Stará Turá – a factory manufacturing dental and medical machinery – was introduced for the first time in order to become acquainted with IP processes in SMEs conditions.
Supporting activities:
CONFERENCE
The Conference on INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN SLOVAKIA IV. was organized by the office celebrating April 26, the World Intellectual Property Day. The conference was attended by 20 lecturers and more than 60 participants, out of which 36 external ones.
The Conference on INNOVATORY ACTIVITIES IN SLOVAKIA in the framework of UMINEX exhibition with exchange of practical information among 10 lecturers and 60 participants was organized by IPO SR.
Two day seminar on ENFORCEMENT OF IP RIGHTS for judges with 13 lecturers, 3 judges and 40 other participants, mainly from the Bureau of Customs was organized by IPO SR.
LECTURES
Lectures outside Industrial Property Office SR for seminars covering IP rights and their enforcement.
Lectures for students of economic, technical, pedagogical, environmental and law faculties of universities in Slovakia.
Special lectures in cooperation with the Slovak Association of Inventors and Innovators, Chamber of Patent Attorneys aimed at ministries and branches of economy and defense.
JOURNAL
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY magazine (“Duševné vlastníctvo”) published by Industrial Property Office was issued 4 times in 2003 covering all relevant fields in IP rights, copyright, trade names, domain names, logos, licenses, creativity and management with 50 original extensive papers and a number of translations, news, decisions of Industrial Property Office, Grur International and Supreme court etc.
EXHIBITIONS
Participation at INCHEBA Fair in Bratislava, the International Engineering Fair in Nitra, the FOR ARCH Fair in Banská Bystrica, IENA Fair in Nűrnberg (Germany) and EUREKA in Brussells (Belgium) with aim to provide free information and consultations in IP field.
Organisation of the third exhibition UmInEx - national invention and technical novelties exhibition in Banská Bystrica.
PUBLICATIONS
Updates of brochures on Industrial Property Office ACTIVITIES, PATENTS, UTILITY MODELS, TRADEMARKS, DESIGNS, PRODUCTS AND SERVICES and OFFICE HOME PAGE were published for the purposes of awareness campaign aimed at universities, SMEs, regional libraries, companies and broad public.
The Office issued publication 10 YEARS OF IPO SR on the occasion of decennial activity of IPO SR.
In June the first COLLECTION OF SELECTED DECISIONS of IPO SR was issued.
Two new publications covering Slovak translation OF LEGAL REGULATIONS VALID IN THE EUROPEAN UNION IN INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY FIELD and CONVENTION ON GRANTING EUROPEAN PATENTS as well as eighth edition of INTERNATIONAL CLASSIFICATION FOR INDUSTRIAL DESIGNS (Locarno classification) were issued.
Two COLLECTIONS OF SPEECHES presented at conferences were issued.
OTHER
The OPEN DOOR DAY celebrating the World Intellectual Property Day was held on April 25, 2003 in IPO SR premises.
IX. Other relevant matters