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Since 2011 the Office has realised the Projects of the Cooperation Fund of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) aimed at more effective effectively providing services to national offices offices experts and clients and harmonization of the practice of national offices in proceedings on applications of trade marks and designs.
In 2017 the tools realised through the mentioned mentioned projects continued to be used actively and were available not only to national Office experts but also to public. These are tools in applications DesignView (Registered designs search tool) and Quality (Centralising information on IP Office quality standards).
More information is on the web site https://www.tmdn.org/
In 2014 also 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 IPO SR cooperated in 2017 and still cooperates with the EUIPO within the project CP 7 to update the joint harmonised database for product indication – DesignClass.
The Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic, in co-operation 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 industrial design information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year
Plans about design 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 international systems (eSearch, Designview, Hague Express,etc.).
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The largest number of foreign applications is from Sweden (15) and from the Czech Republic (8). Slovak applicants filed 118 applications (43.9 % increase). The share of domestic applications is 81.4 % of total number of filed applications.
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Industrial design statistics_2017.docx
Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
Annual Technical Reports on Designs:
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http://www.upv.sk/?e-zine-upv-sr
II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN 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 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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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 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 relation to designs, these services have been used at 14 %14%.
Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
The Office conducts the application file only in the paper form.
Classification and reclassification activities; classification system used, e.g., International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification), other classification
The current version of the International Classification for Industrial Design (Locarno Classification) is used for classifying of designs, which are classified by Office´s experts.
The WIPO Standard ST.80 is used for design 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.
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 were was provided (Community design, international application filed under the Haag Hague System for International Registration of Industrial Designs).
The information were 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 1509 by e-mail, 186 personally and 6 by post.
Pre-diagnostics of industrial property rights
http://www.upv.sk/?prediagnostika-priemyselnych-prav
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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 also 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 INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE
Main types of publications in the field of industrial design information, outline of the content (industrial design applications, design patents, registrations, etc.) and medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URLs)
Publication of designs
The Office publishes announcements relating to registered design publications in the Official Gazette.
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74 registered designs with the extended term of validity
Official Gazette “Vestník ÚPV SR“
http://www.upv.sk/?vestnik-uradu-priemyselneho-vlastnictva-slovenskej-republiky
Design 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 design announcements arranged in following main chapters:
- registered designs (list of registered designs and their bibliographic data arranged according to the classes of the Locarno Classification)
- registered designs with extended term of validity (list of registered designs with extended term of validity and their bibliographic data arranged according to the classes of the Locarno Classification)
- registered designs with postponed publishing (list of registered designs with postponed publishing and their bibliographic data arranged according to the classes of the the Locarno Classification)
- published registered designs after expiration of adjournment term of publishing (list of published registered designs after expiration of adjournment term of publishing and their bibliographic data arranged according to the classes of the Locarno Classification)
- assignments and transfers of rights and other changes of owners
- cancellation of design registrations
- partial cancellation of design registrations
- registered designs lapsed by abandonment
- registered designs partially lapsed by abandonment
- registered designs lapsed by expiry of the validity
- extension of the validity of registered designs
- forfeitures of protection and transfers of an owner (on the basis of the court decision)
- changes of the rights of disposal to registered designs (lien)
- changes of the rights of disposal to registered designs (termination of lien)
- registration of licensing contracts
- termination of licensing contracts
- 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#dizajny
External databases
Internet databases in particular:
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-EUIPO Community Designs Database accessible via e-search at the EUIPO portal, coverage: RCD applications
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Freely accessible national databases are:
- "Data extracted from Registers" https://wbr.indprop.gov.sk/webregistre/ also called called "Webregisters" give public access to data extracted from design register, which are kept by the Office with the possibility of simple and advanced search or browsing results. Data concerning in particular pending design applications, all filed applications or registered designs in the register are daily updated.
- “Classification Systems” http://www.upv.sk/?systemy-triedenia contains design classifications used in Slovakia, links to other classifications systems for classifying designs used in the world and other useful information http://www.upv.sk/?systemy-triedenia-dizajny
- 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#dizajny.
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 online 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 Designview https://www.tmdn.org/tmdsview-web/welcome.html?lang=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
- on-line online searches in Office’s search system, self-service during a personal visit
- searches upon request - orders in written and online form
- registry information provided in the reading room
Industrial design 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)
- Locarno Classification (11-th 11th edition)
- design classifications and related information
- annual technical reports on design information (2002-2017)
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Information on the legal status is in the internal register of trade markstrademarks. 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 the Register; similar to the system Designview 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.
Other sources
IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN 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.
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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,
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HP open view Storage Data Protector version A.09.05
Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
The online design database kept by the Industrial Property Office serves for national design searches and purposes of proceedings on design applications. Selected register data are is available to the public in on the Internet at: http://www.upv.sk/?databases-and-registers.
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 registered designs via the internal system Inventio. Selected data are is 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 designs.
Documentation from other offices maintained and/or considered part of the available search file: Design 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 design gazettes from the following states: Bulgaria and Kyrgyzstan.
The IPO SR received registered designs from JPO registered designs stored on CD-ROM in the past year.
Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)
Official automated system for managing the industrial property subjects “INVENTIO II” contains designs register (data since 1991).
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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 INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION
Office's library (if deals with industrial design 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, there were provided 290 borrowings 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 In 2017 there were performed , 6 design searches 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.
The Office’s reading room including the search workstation opens open daily from 8:00 to 15:00.
In 2017, within the frame of mutual exchange of industrial-property information, the IPO SR continued in receiving of design 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 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 http://www.upv.sk/?partners.
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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 resources made available to the public, publications published by the Office, information pamphlets, documents and forms relating to applying for protection of industrial property rights, access to office¢s 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”.
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- 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 20th 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 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 quickly to 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 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 14 th 14th year of the National Prize for Design (NPD) was aimed at product design in 2017.
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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.
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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 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.
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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 7th 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 INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION
International exchange of industrial design information in machine-readable form (e.g., Official Gazettes)
In 2017 followed the mutual exchange of design 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 industrial design information
In 2017 the IPO SR made Slovak designs available periodically in the search system Designview https://www.tmdn.org/tmdsview-web/welcome.html?lang=sk. This searching tool contains data of registers of involved national offices, WIPO and OHIM. Designview provides centralised access to information on registered designs, which is at disposal of the offices involved in the Project.
Assistance to developing countries
Other activities