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In 2017, the Office received 412 new utility model applications; it has increased by 14.8 % compared to the previous year. The number of applications filed by domestic applicants increased by 14.3 % (343). Domestic applicants make a83a 83.3 % share of the total number 412 filed applications.
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The most registered utility models were in the following areas: Civil Engineering, Construction, Mining (13.36 %), Analytical, Measurement, Control Technologies (11.40 %), Transportation (11.07 %), Handling, Printing (10.10 %).
For comparison there is the , here are statistics on filed patent applications and granted patents, on filed utility model applications and registered utility models and on translations of European patent specifications in the years 2013 – 2017:
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Basic information for applicants related to IP subject matters applications are available on the website of the Office at www.upv.sk. These are mainly application forms of particular type types of industrial property right, legislation, instructions of the IPO SR and information for applicant, administrative fees, contact to expert assistance, etc. Below there are the individual areas of IP subject matters and relevant information sources with links to website of the Office, where they are available:
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Contacts
http://www.upv.sk/?contacts
In the past, the Office in the cooperation with the European Patent Office implemented the EPTOS system EPTOS enabling to file with the Office:
- European patent applications
- National patent applications
- National utility model applications
- Applications for granting supplementary protection certificates
- Translations of patent claims of published European patent applications with designation for the Slovak Republic into the Slovak language
- Translations of European patent files with designation for the Slovak Republic into the Slovak language
- Subsequently filed documents to:
national patent applications
national utility model applications
translations of patent claims of published European patent applications into the Slovak language
translations of European patent files into the Slovak language
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The Office offers a customer service for electronic filing issues. The users may find the help desk contact information at the following link: http://www.upv.sk/?uzivatelsky-servis-a-helpdesk. At the help desk they may get general information on electronic filing via the EPTOS system and troubleshoot potential problems. In this part of the website can also be found user manuals and FAQs, which are available at the following link: http://www.upv.sk/?elektronicke-podavanie-prihlasok-faq.
In comparison to the last year has , the number of national patent applications, utility models and supplementary protection certificates filed electronically via EPTOS has decreased by 2.1 per cent%.
Since February 1 February , 2014, the Central Public Administration Portal offers a form to serve the general agenda. By means of this form it is possible to make electronic filings to every public institution in the Slovak Republic, thus also to 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 the nationally registered trademarks had been filed this way. Regarding patents, utility models and supplementary protection certificates, these services are used minimally.
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The Office conducts the application file only in the paper form.
Classification1, preclassification2 (if applicable), reclassification3 activities; classification systems used (e.g., International Patent Classification (IPC)); matters concerning indexing of patent information
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The IPC 2017.01 had been used in the Office for classification of the Slovak patent documents until the end of 2017.
Software tools to operate the Slovak version of the IPC in standardized electronic form in on the Internet were implemented within co-operation in cooperation with the WIPO. The tools simplify the preparation of Slovak translations of the IPC issued annually after changes effective since 2011. Slovak editions of the IPC in the electronic form are made accessible to the public and the Office employees on the site at http://ipc.indprop.gov.sk.
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In 2017, the Office continued in the regular monthly digitalisation of new entries of national patent documentation (patent applications, patent specifications, utility model applications, utility models), corrected documents to relevant patent documents issued by the Office, translations of patent claims of European patent applications and translations of European patent specifications with designation for SK.
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The WIPO Standard ST. 9 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 daily in on the Internet.
Abstracting, reviewing, and translation of the information contained in patent documents
An abstract is an obligatory part of a patent application and a utility model application (Article 37(4) (b) of the Act No 435/2001 Coll. and Article 32(4)(b) of the Act No 517/2007 Coll.); i.e. an applicant is obliged to file an abstract together with an application. The Office may amend an abstract ex officio (Article 7(2) of the Decree No 223/2002 Coll. and Article 5(2) of the Decree No 1/2008 Coll.), but in the case of abstracts to utility model applications, their content can not be amended (Article 5(2) of the Decree No 1/2008 Coll.).
When publishing applications, the Office shall translate the names of patent and utility model applications into English. When granting a patent and entering a utility model into the Register, the Office shall also translate also an abstract into English. Translations of these abstracts and names into English are being sent to the European Patent Office regularly to publish them in the Espacenet database, in which their machine translations are available in 29 other languages.
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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 were was provided (European patent, international application filed under PCT).
The information were was provided personally, by phone (+421 48 4300 131), by post and e-mail address infocentrum@indprop.gov.sk.
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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, 32 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.
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Patent documents are available in the paper form in the study room of the IPO SR. Moreover, all kinds of patent specifications published in the Official Gazette regularly in the PDF format are available in the Office´s web databases https://wbr.indprop.gov.sk/webregistre/, in the system http://sk.espacenet.com/ and also http://worldwide.espacenet.com/?locale=en_EP.
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Patents and utility model information forms form part of the Official Gazette - “Vestník ÚPV SR”, covering all industrial property rights in one publication.
The following numbers amount of documents were was published in the Official Gazette in 2017:
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52 applications for granting SPC's
24 granted SPC's
1 translations translation of patent claims of European patent applications with designation for SK
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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.
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- "Data extracted from Registers" https://wbr.indprop.gov.sk/webregistre/ also called "Webregisters", give public access to data extracted from patent, utility models, European patents with designation for SK, supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) registers, which are kept by the Office with the possibility of simple and advanced search or browsing results. Data concerning in particular pending patent, utility model and SPC applications, all filed applications or granted patents, SPCs and registered utility models in the register are daily updated. Full texts of all kinds of patent documents in the PDF format are available in the Office´s webregisters.
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- “Classification Systems” http://www.upv.sk/?systemy-triedenia contains patent classifications used in Slovakia and abroad http://www.upv.sk/?systemy-triedenia-patenty including various additional information.
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In the part ”International and EU databases” there are links to the most frequently used on-line online databases: http://www.upv.sk/?zahranicne-online-databazy#patenty.
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- IPC 2017.01 in standardized electronic form https://ipc.indprop.gov.sk/classifications/ipc/ipcpub
- on-line online order forms http://www.upv.sk/?online-orders
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- sale of special monographs and periodical publications (“Intellectual Property” in electronic form) upon request or on the placeonsite
- reprographic services upon request or on the placeonsite
- sending of copies of patent documents upon request
- searches on state of the art, international patent search, searches on patent families, bibliographic data upon request in written or on-line online form
- on-line online searches in Office’s databases for patents, European patents with designation for SK, utility models and supplementary protection certificates and self-service during a personal visit
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The IPO SR maintains the online database of patents, utility models and supplementary protection certificates necessary for searches and proceedings on patent applications, utility model applications and requests for granting and extension of the validity of supplementary protection certificates. Selected data are available to the public on the internet at: https://wbr.indprop.gov.sk/webregistre/.
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 regularly the examination file containing national patent applications, utility model applications, requests for granting supplementary protection certificates, granted patents, registered utility models, granted supplementary protection certificates and translations of European patents and patent claims of European patent applications with designation for the Slovak Republic via the internet system INVENTIO II. Selected data are available to the public in webregisters and are updated daily.
It is possible to carry out searches according to bibliographic data in all the databases used for granted patents, published patent applications, registered utility models, utility model applications, European patents with designation for SK and supplementary protection certificates.
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- from 1993 to the present: national documentation CZ
In the past, the Office had received patent documents stored on optical discs from following countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, France, Georgia, Italy, Japan, Canada, China, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Switzerland, Slovenia, Spain, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Hungary, United States of America, United Kingdom and from international organisations EPO, OAPI and WIPO. In 2017 the patent documents collection was supplemented by documents stored on optical discs from these states: Austria, Canada, China, Denmark, Japan, Republic of Korea and United Kingdom.
Patent and utility model gazettes also form also part of the available search files of the Office. In 2017, within the frame of mutual exchange, the IPO SR continued in receiving gazettes from the following states and organizations: Bulgaria and Kyrgyzstan.
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In 2017, the Office’s reading room has been visited by 144 users. In total there 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 there were performed , 20 state-of-the-art patent searches, 20 patent searches with commentary and 8 searches on bibliographic data were performed.
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.
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A list of the complete patent documentation was regularly updated on the Office’s web sitewebsite. Non-patent literature was processed, stored according to librarian rules and made available via in-house database system “Knižnica” to the staff.
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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 web site 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, 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 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 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 regularly sending Slovak patent specifications in paper 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.
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Publications related to different business procedures and patent information sources available to users, for example , books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.
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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.
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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 quickly to information and databases related to IP. Both Slovak and English versions provide information about upcoming conferences, seminars and other events.
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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 4040%, at the end of 2017 this number reached nearly 410.
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The Office sent the copies of patent documents in electronic form monthly within the bilateral cooperation with the European Patent Office related to patent information. The data were subsequently provided for the database Espacenet – administered by the EPO – freely accessible to the public in Slovak language on the address http://sk.espacenet.com/ and European patent translations into the Slovak language were used for corpus of language necessary for realisation of another project of bilateral cooperation – Patent Translate.
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