Annual Technical Report on Patent Information Activities in 2016 submitted by Slovakia
I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN PATENT INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of patent 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 by 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.
New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies and plans mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks
The IPO SR co-operated with the European Patent Office (EPÚ) particularly on projects realised within the Co-operation Plan for 2016 – 2020.The main priorities of cooperation within the European Patent Organisation (EPO) were the implementation of projects Federative European Patent Register and Quality at Source. The aim of both projects is to establish a common European web register containing data on European patents granted by the European Patent Office (EPO) and their status in the national phases of maintaining the European patent by the national offices of the EPO Member States. Register will focus on legal information (e.g. legal status of a patent).
Also in the year 2016 the Office continued to cooperate with an external supplier on the project the Electronic services of the IPO SR. The goal of this project is to make available the electronic forms for electronic filing, to modernize the Office´s backend systems and the disclosure of the modernized web registers on the website of the Office. In 2016 the works continued under the agreed Schedule.
Main areas of patent information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year
Plans about patent information relate to implementation of a new system for making data from the Office registers available on the internet (Webregisters II) interconnected with European and international systems (EPO Register, Espacenet, WIPO Patentscope,etc.).
The projects and activities mentioned in the item above were realised in the co-operation with the EPO.
Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and grants with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes
Patents
Totally 235 patent applications were filed with the IPO SR during 2016. It represents decrease by 8.2 per cent when compared with 2015. PCT applications form 2.6 per cent (6 applications) of all applications.
The number of applications filed by domestic applicants (218) decreased by 4.4 per cent and applications filed by foreign applicants (15) decreased by 46.4 % per cent. The Czech Republic (6) and Switzerland (4) had the largest share in the total number of patent applications filed by foreign applicants (15).
There were 122 granted patents in 2016; the number increased by 48.8 per cent comparing to the previous year.
19 international patent applications were filed with the IPO SR as the receiving office under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) last year; the number is the same as it was in 2015. On behalf of the Visegrad Patent Institute (VPI) acting as the International Searching Authority the IPO SR has drawn up international search and written opinion to one international application (the IPO SR carries out activities on behalf of VPI from July 1, 2016).
There were 16,362 valid patents entered in the Patent Register of the IPO SR by December 31, 2016; 1,701 of them were national patents granted.
Patent applications in the field Electricity (11.06 per cent), Transporting, Conveying and Storing (9.79 per cent), Building (8.94 per cent), Measuring, optics, photographs (8.51 per cent) had the largest share.
Supplementary Protection Certificates
From January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016 there were 48 supplementary protection certificate applications filed. All of them were filed by foreign applicants; the most of them were from the U.S.A. – 29, and from Germany – 6; 42 supplementary protection certificates were granted.
European Patents
2,355 translations of European patent specifications were published in 2016.
There were 14,661 European patents with designation of SR registered by December 31, 2016.
Utility Models
There were 359 utility model applications filed with the IPO SR in 2016. This number decreased by 14.3 per cent in comparison with the previous year. The number of applications filed by Slovak applicants decreased by 19.6 per cent (300). Foreign applicants filed 59 applications in 2016. The share of Slovak applicants in total number of 359 applications is 83.0 per cent. The Czech Republic and Spain had the largest share in the total number of utility model applications filed by foreign applicants.
Increase by 12.7 per cent occurred in the number of registered utility models (363).
By December 31, 2016, there were 1,778 utility models valid in the Slovak Republic.
The most registered utility models were from the fields of Transporting, Conveying and Storing (14.33 per cent), Building (11.29 per cent), Measuring, Optics and Photography (8.82 per cent).
For comparison there is the 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 2010 – 2016:
Patent and utility model statistics_2016.docx
Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
Annual Technical Reports on Patents:
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
Patent, utility models and supplementary protection certificates-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
II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT 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:
Patents http://www.upv.sk/?Patents
What Can Be Protected and How?
http://www.upv.sk/?what-and-how-can-be-protected
Information for Patent Applicants
http://www.upv.sk/?information-for-patent-applicants
Legislation
http://www.upv.sk/?patents-legislation
Instruction of the IPO SR
http://www.upv.sk/?instruction-of-the-industrial-property-office-of-the-slovak-republic-defining-uniform-layout-of-the-patent-application
Administrative Fees - Patents
http://www.upv.sk/?patents-administrative-fees
Maintenance Fees - Patents
http://www.upv.sk/?patents-maintenance-fees
Filing Abroad
http://www.upv.sk/?patenty-prihlasovanie-do-zahranicia
PCT Fees
http://www.upv.sk/?patents-pct-fees
License Offers
http://www.upv.sk/?patenty-ponuky-licencii
Patent Classification
http://ipc.indprop.gov.sk/ipcpub/#refresh=page
Data Extracted from Registers
https://wbr.indprop.gov.sk/webregistre/
Downloads
http://www.upv.sk/?downloads
http://www.upv.sk/?patenty-dokumenty-na-prevzatie
Contacts
http://www.upv.sk/?contacts
Utility models http://www.upv.sk/?utility-models
Why Utility Models ?
http://www.upv.sk/?why-utility-models
Information for Utility Model Applicants
http://www.upv.sk/?information-for-utility-model-applicants
Legislation - Utility Models
http://www.upv.sk/?utility-models-legislation
Instruction of the IPO SR
http://www.upv.sk/?instruction-of-the-industrial-property-office-of-the-slovak-republic-defining-uniform-layout-of-a-utility-model-application
Administrative Fees - Utility Models
http://www.upv.sk/?administrative-fees-utility-models
Filing Abroad
http://www.upv.sk/?uzitkove-vzory-prihlasovanie-do-zahranicia
PCT Fees
http://www.upv.sk/?uzitkove-vzory-poplatky-pct
Downloads
http://www.upv.sk/?downloads
http://www.upv.sk/?uzitkove-vzory-dokumenty-na-prevzatie
Data Extracted from Registers
https://wbr.indprop.gov.sk/webregistre/
Patent Classification
http://ipc.indprop.gov.sk/ipcpub/#refresh=page
Contacts
http://www.upv.sk/?contacts
Supplementary Protection Certificates http://www.upv.sk/?supplementary-protection-certificates
What is a Supplementary Protection Certificate
http://www.upv.sk/?what-is-a-supplementary-protection-certificate
Information for Applicants
http://www.upv.sk/?supplementary-protection-certificate-information-for-applicants
Legislation - Supplementary Protection Certificate
http://www.upv.sk/?legislation-supplementary-protection-certificate
Administrative Fees - Supplementary Protection Certificates
http://www.upv.sk/?administrative-fees-supplementary-protection-certificate
Maintenance fees - Supplementary Protection Certificates
http://www.upv.sk/?supplementary-protection-certificate-maintenance-fees
Filing Abroad
http://www.upv.sk/?dodatkove-ochranne-osvedcenia-prihlasovanie-do-zahranicia
Downloads
http://www.upv.sk/?downloads
http://www.upv.sk/?dodatkove-ochranne-osvedcenia-dokumenty-na-prevzatie
Data Extracted from Registers - Webregisters
https://wbr.indprop.gov.sk/webregistre/
Contacts
http://www.upv.sk/?contacts
In the past the Office in the cooperation with the European Patent Office implemented the 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
The mentioned electronic filings shall be signed with electronic signature.
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 decreased by 11.9 per cent.
Since February 1, 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. This service is most often used for procedures concerning trademarks. In the year 2016 had been filed this way 22% of the total number of the nationally registered trademarks. As far as patents are concerned, in the year 2016 had in this manner been filed over 4% of the applications in Slovakia. For utility models and supplementary protection certificates is this service used at a minimum.
Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
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
Patent applications and utility model applications were classified, preclassified (i.e. preliminarily classified at the subclass level) and reclassified by Office’s experts according to the edition MPT 2016.01 of the International Patent Classification. The WIPO Standards ST.8 and ST.10/C were also used for these purposes. Classification of applications was conducted before the publication of the application, while final specification of the classification symbol can be done during the search of the application. Patent applications were preclassified by allotting subclass symbols to route a patent application to the appropriate examiner or for statistical purposes. Reclassifying of applications according to the current edition of the IPC was carried out after entry of a new edition of the IPC core level into force.
The IPC 2016.01 had been used in the Office for classification the Slovak patent documents until the end of 2016.
Software tools to operate the Slovak version of the IPC in standardized electronic form in the Internet were implemented within co-operation with the WIPO. The tools simplify 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 public and the Office employees on the site http://ipc.indprop.gov.sk.
Digitalisation and indexing
In 2016, the Office continued in 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. The Office also continued the production of Official Gazette on CD ROM.
Patent documents were digitalized by the scanner Canon imageFORMULA DR-9050C and software tools Eposcan, version 1.05.00 (documents scanning and indexing), Wipost33 EPO, version 1.0.0.4 (conversion of scanned and indexed documents to BAC format under the WIPO ST.33 standard) and ST.33 to PDF format (conversion of documents from BAC format to PDF format, version 1.3).
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 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 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.
Abstracts are being published on title pages of patent specifications and as parts of notifications in the Official Gazette in the part related to published patent applications and published utility model applications.
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 provided (European patent, international application filed under PCT).
The information were provided personally, by phone (+421 48 4300 131), by post and e-mail address infocentrum@indprop.gov.sk.
In 2016 the Information Centre dealt with 7,594 requests for information; 5,760 thereof were provided by phone, 1,567 by e-mail, 265 personally and 2 by post.
Pre-diagnostics of industrial property rights
http://www.upv.sk/?prediagnostika-priemyselnych-prav
To increase the IP awareness, to support innovations, creativity and competitiveness of small and middle-sized enterprises is a primary goal of the IP pre-diagnostics, which have been provided by the IPO SR experts since 2008. During 2016 the Office employees visited 26 companies in Slovakia.
III. SOURCES OF PATENT INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE
Main types of publications of the Office (patent applications, full text, first pages, abstracts, bibliographic data, granted patents, etc.), medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URLs)
Main types of publications of the Office are:
Patent documents (codes of documents according to the WIPO ST.16):
- Published patent applications (A3)
- Patent specifications (B6)
- Supplementary protection certificates (without code)
- Translations of patent claims of European patent applications with designation for SK (T1)
- Corrected translations of patent claims of European patent applications with designation for SK (T2)
- Translations of European patent specifications with designation for SK (T3)
- Corrected translations of European patent specifications with designation for SK (T4)
- Translations of amended European patent specifications with designation for SK (T5)
- Published utility model applications (U1)
- Registered utility models without change (Y1)
- Registered utility models with change (Y2)
- Corrections of patent documents (A8, A9, B8, B9, U8, U9, Y8, Y9, T8, T9)
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.
Slovak patent documents from 1993 to 2008 are available on ESPACE ®-PRECES CD-ROM (CD-ROM contains patents from the Region of Eastern and Central European States). ESPACE ® ACCESS PRECES (complete bibliographic information) is used as an index to these fulltext CD-ROMs.
Official Gazette “Vestník ÚPV SR“ http://www.upv.sk/?vestnik-uradu-priemyselneho-vlastnictva-slovenskej-republiky
Patents and utility model information forms part of the Official Gazette - “Vestník ÚPV SR”, covering all industrial property rights in one publication.
The following numbers of documents were published in the Official Gazette in 2016:
146 published patent applications
115 granted patents
386 published utility model applications
338 registered utility models
46 applications for granting SPC's
47 granted SPC's
4 translations of patent claims of European patent applications with designation for SK
2,355 translations of European patent specifications with designation for SK
11 corrected translations of European patent specifications with designation for SK
37 translations of amended European patent specifications with designation for SK
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 announcements on granted patents and patent applications, including translations of European patents and patent claims of European patent applications with designation for SK, announcements on applications for supplementary protection certificates and granted supplementary protection certificates and announcements on utility model applications and registered utility models, arranged in following main chapters:
PATENTS
- published patent applications (list of published patent applications, bibliographic data and abstracts of published patent applications with an image, where available, arranged according to the International Patent Classification)
- granted patents (list of granted patents, bibliographic data of granted patents arranged according to the International Patent Classification)
- suspended patent application procedures
- lapsed patents due to abandonment
- lapsed patents due to expiration of the validity term
- lapsed patents due to non-payment of maintenance fees
- refused patent applications
- revocations of patents
- partial revocations of patents
- assignments and transfers of rights to patents and patent applications
- changes of rights of disposal to patents and patent applications (lien)
- changes of rights of disposal to patents and patent applications (termination of lien)
- license offers to patent applications and granted patents
- withdrawals of license offers to patent applications and granted patents
- license contracts registered or granted to patents
- the termination of force of license contracts to patents
- patents registered in the register after declassification
- corrections and changes of names, addresses, dates and mistakes
UTILITY MODELS
- published utility model applications (list of published utility model applications, bibliographic data and abstracts of published utility model applications with an image, where available, arranged according to the International Patent Classification)
- registered utility models (list of registered utility models, bibliographic data of registered utility models arranged according to the International Patent Classification)
- extension of an utility model validity (list of utility models with the extended validity term and their bibliographic data arranged according to the International Patent Classification)
- suspended proceedings on utility model applications on the applicant´s request
- suspended proceedings on utility model applications
- refused utility model applications
- lapsed utility models due to abandonment
- lapsed utility models due to expiration of the validity term
- cancelled utility models
- partially cancelled utility models
- assignments and transfers of rights to utility models and utility model applications
- changes of the rights of disposal to utility models (lien) and utility model applications
- changes of the rights of disposal to utility models (termination of lien) and utility model applications
- license contracts registered or granted
- termination of force of license contracts
- registered utility models in the register after declassification
- forfeitures of protection and transfers of an applicant or owner (based on the court decision)
- corrections and changes of names, addresses, dates and mistakes
EUROPEAN PATENTS
- available translations and available corrected translations of patent claims of European patent applications (list of available translations and available corrected translations of patent claims of European patent applications with designation for SK and their bibliographic data arranged according to the International Patent Classification)
- available translations and available corrected translations of European patent specifications (list of available translations and available corrected translations of European patent specifications with designation for SK and their bibliographic data arranged according to the International Patent Classification)
- available translations of amended European patent specifications (list of available translations of amended European patent specifications with designation for SK and their bibliographic data arranged according to the International Patent Classification)
- suspended procedures on European patent applications by reason of withdrawal
- conversions of the European patent applications to national applications
- lapsed European patents due to abandonment
- lapsed European patents due to expiration of the validity term
- lapsed European patents lapsed due to non-payment of maintenance fees
- revocations of European patents
- partial revocations of European patents
- revoked European patent after the opposition proceedings before the EPO
- assignment and transfer of the rights to European patents and European patent applications
- European patents amended after the opposition proceedings before the EPO
- changes of the rights of disposal to European patents and European patent applications (lien)
- changes of the rights of disposal to European patents and European patent applications (termination of lien)
- license offers to European patents and European patent applications
- withdrawals of license offers to European patents and European patent applications
- license contracts registered or granted
- termination of force of license contracts
- European patents registered after declassification
- Corrections and changes of names, addresses, dates and mistakes
SUPPLEMENTARY PROTECTION CERTIFICATES
- published requests for granting the supplementary protection certificates (their bibliographic data arranged according to document numbers)
- published requests for granting the supplementary protection certificates containing requests for validity extension
- granted supplementary protection certificates (their bibliographic data arranged according to document numbers)
- suspended proceedings on requests for granting the supplementary protection certificate on the applicant´s request
- suspended proceedings on granting the supplementary protection certificate on the applicant´s request
- refused requests for granting a supplementary protection certificate
- published requests for extension of validity term of supplementary protection certificates
- extension of a supplementary protection certificates validity
- revocations of extended terms of validity of supplementary protection certificates
- suspended procedures and refused applications for extension of validity term of supplementary protection certificates
- declaration of invalidity of supplementary protection certificates by reason of granting contrary to Article 3 of the European Parliament and Council Regulation (EC) No. 469/2009, respectively No. 1610/96
- declaration of invalidity of supplementary protection certificates by reason of lapse of basic patent before expire of validity term
- declaration of invalidity of supplementary protection certificates by reason of revocation or limitation of basic patent
- change of validity term of supplementary protection certificate as amended by Article 17 (2) of the Regulation (EC) No. 1610/96 and Article 18 of the Regulation (EC) No. 469/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council
- assignments and transfers of rights for requests for granting the supplementary protection certificate and the supplementary protection certificate
- lapsed supplementary protection certificates due to abandonment
- lapsed supplementary protection certificates due to expiration of the validity term
- lapsed supplementary protection certificates due to non-payment of maintenance fees
- lapsed supplementary protection certificates due to withdrawal of the authorisation to place the medicinal product or plant protection product on the market in the Slovak Republic
- license offers to requests for granting the supplementary protection certificate and the supplementary protection certificate
- withdrawals of license offers to requests for granting the supplementary protection certificate and the supplementary protection certificate
- license contracts registered or granted to supplementary protection certificate
- changes of the rights of disposal to requests for granting the supplementary protection certificate and the supplementary protection certificate (lien)
- changes of the rights of disposal to requests for granting the supplementary protection certificate and the supplementary protection certificate (termination of lien)
- corrections and changes of names, addresses, dates and mistakes
Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external collections 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/
- Patent documents in the system Espacenet Level I http://sk.espacenet.com/
- Internal database system „INVENTIO“ for managing the industrial property subjects
- Freely accessible foreign databases http://www.upv.sk/?zahranicne-online-databazy#patenty
External databases
- STN online (e.g. database CAS), coverage: worldwide
- access to EPOQUE (search database system EPO), coverage: worldwide
- Database Derwent World Patents Index® (DWPI) available within the EPOQUE, coverage: worldwide
- Database EPO Global Patent Index, coverage: worldwide
- Database EPO Espacenet
- European Patent Register (with links to national registry data, deep linking )
- other free available databases of national offices, e.g.. Czech patent and utility models databases, coverage: CZ, USPTO national database, coverage: US, IPOUK national database, coverage GB
- WIPO PATENTSCOPE (collections of international and national applications), coverage: PCT applications and national collections in the limited scope.
See also foreign collections of patent literature and optical discs as parts of the examination file mentioned in the Chapter 4.
Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) 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" 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.
- Patent documents in the system Espacenet Level I http://sk.espacenet.com/
- “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.
- Official Gazette "Vestník ÚPV SR" may be viewed on the address http://www.upv.sk/?official-gazette - each issue is available as a one PDF file containing the whole issue. In the archive on this webpage are available the previous volumes also in PDF format. The older volumes are gradually being added.
In the part ”International and EU databases” there are links to the most frequently used on-line databases http://www.upv.sk/?zahranicne-online-databazy#patenty.
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
- patent documents http://data.indprop.gov.sk/Patenty/search.php?jazyk=en
- 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
- IPC 2015.01 in standardized electronic form http://ipc.indprop.gov.sk
- on-line order forms http://www.upv.sk/?online-orders
- price list http://www.upv.sk/swift_data/source/pdf/Cennik.pdf
- data extracted from register https://wbr.indprop.gov.sk/webregistre/
- patent documentation fund http://www.indprop.gov.sk/swift_data/source/dokumenty/patfondy.pdf
- IPO SR reading room http://www.upv.sk/?other-services
- searches http://www.upv.sk/?searches
- 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, methodical and professional consulting assistance for the public
- lending service (patent documents, Official Gazettes, special monographs, patent associated literature and reference literature) in the reading room
- sale of special monographs and periodical publications (“Intellectual Property” in electronic form) upon request or on the place
- reprographic services upon request or on the place
- 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 form
- on-line 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
- monitoring of the state of selected technical fields upon request (permanent sending of documents)
- registry information provided in the reading room
Patent 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
- patent specifications (meanwhile since 1993)
- Official Gazette (PDF form)
- order forms (searches, patent documents, Official Gazette, special literature)
- products and services
- 7-th edition of the IPC (fully searchable)
- core level of the IPC 2006 and IPC 2009 (in PDF format only)
- IPC 2009 - IPC 2015.01 in standardized electronic form
- patent classifications and related information
- Annual technical reports on patent information (2002-2016)
Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)
Information on the legal status is in the internal register of patents, utility models and supplementary protection certificates. The Office provides information on the request in the form of an extract from the Register. In addition, data of this type are also published in the IPO SR database on the internet https://wbr.indprop.gov.sk/webregistre/ but have only informative character and do not substitute the extract from the Register; similar to the system Espacenet where the data are mentioned by the European Patent Office based on the information from the IPO SR Official Gazette.
Other sources
IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements
As the main information system for registration and management of data related to the proceedings in the particular subjects of the industrial property rights the Office uses Inventio. The tool is used for central management of the registries of the individual subjects of the industrial property rights in an electronic form. It is a specific system developed in collaboration with an external supplier solely for the Office´s needs. A part of this system are export and import mechanisms arranging the exchange and updating of some data predominantly with international institutions as the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the European Patent Office (EPO). Exports and imports are created on the basis of the international WIPO standards.
The Office is planning on improving the Inventio system in the 1Q 2017, when its updated version will be launched. This version will be integrated with the Fabasoft system, to which the Document Management System (DMS) will be moved from Inventio. 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. Fabasoft system will also ensure the cross connection of particular modules of the Central Public Administration Portal (i.e. electronic mailbox module, authentication module, payment module, central electronic filing module, electronic delivery module and office communications module) with the available reference registers within the Slovak Republic (Business Register of the Slovak Republic, Register of Individuals and Register of Addresses) and with other systems of the IPO SR, like the module of electronic forms and web registers. The Office is planning to continue using Inventio as an internal referential data source.
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, WINDOWS 2003 / 2008 Server, 2008 R2 Server, 2012 R2 Server; MS SQL Server 2005 / 2008 / 2012; working stations PC Pentium, Windows 7, thin client WYSE V10, WYSE S10, HP t5740, Zotac Zbox BI323.
Linux Red Hat Enterprise 7.0
Citrix XenApp 7.13
SAN HP MSA 1500 CS, SAN HP MSA P2000, G3, EMC VNX 5100
HP MSL LT04 4048, MSL LZ05 2024
HP open view Storage Data Protector version A.09.05
Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
The 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 public on the internet 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 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 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.
The patent documentation search file used by the patent examiners and the technical public contains patent documents from 26 countries, the EPO, the WIPO and the OAPI, patent gazettes from 35 countries, including the EPO and the WIPO and the non-patent literature (16 titles of technical periodicals and 9,639 titles of special literature).
Updating of patent documentation search file is performed regularly according to current technical possibilities.
The basis of the patent fund forms the collection stored on the paper medium (cca 10 millions documents). However the majority of the patent documentation is currently received on electronic carriers. In 2016 the regular annual accession of optical discs reached 312 pieces of optical discs with full texts and bibliographic information concerning the patent documents.
IPO SR is maintaining the patent documentation collection stored in paper form, which forms, as a part of PCT minimum documentation, the basis of search files within the range:
- from 1950 to 1992: the documentation DD (from 1958), DE (from 1951), CH (from 1944), FR (from 1945), GB (from 1967), PL (from 1963), SU (from 1941), US (from 1960) and the documentation EPO (from 1978) a WIPO (from 1978)
- from 1919 to the present: national documentation SK and formal CS
- 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 2016 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 form also part of the available search files of the Office. In 2016, within the frame of mutual exchange, the IPO SR continued in receiving gazettes from the following states and organizations: Bulgaria, Kyrgyzstan a Ukraine.
The collection of search CD-ROMs:
ESPACE – ACCESS EP – A (1997-2004)
ESPACE – ACCESS EP – B (1994-2004)
ESPACE – ACCESS EP – A, EP-B (2005-2015)
ESPACE – UK (1979-2016)
ESPACE – AT – A (1990-2016)
ESPACE – AT – B (1990-2016)
ESPACE – AT – U (2005-2016)
ESPACE – DK – B (1990-2016)
ESPACE – DK – C (1990-2016)
ESPACE – SI (1993-2015)
ESPACE – ES (1990-2010)
ESPACE – BENELUX (BE-A, LU-A, NL-A, NL-C) (1991-2011)
ESPACE – CH (1990-2008)
PAJ (Patent Abstracts of Japan) (1976-2016)
KPA (Korean Patent Abstracts) (2007-2016)
Chinese Patent Bibliography Abstract (1985-2016)
Patent Applications of Canada – CA – A (1999-2016)
Granted Patents of Canada – CA – B (2000-2016)
DEPAROM – U (1995-2011)
DEPAROM – ACT (1995-2011)
COSMOS FR – A (1992-2010)
COSMOS FR – B (2000-2010)
ESPACE – ACCESS – EPC (EUROPE) (2005-2009)
ESPACE – FIRST (1978-2009)
ESPACE – WO (2000-2009)
ESPACE – PRECES (1993-2008)
ESPACE – ACCESS – PRECES (1993-2008)
ESPACE – ACCESS – RUSSIA (1924-2004)
ESPACE – BULLETIN (2009)
GlobalPat (1971-2000)
USAPat (1994-2011)
USAApp (2001-2011)
Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)
Official automated system for managing the industrial property subjects “INVENTIO”contains registers of patents, European patents with designation for SK, utility models, supplementary protection certificates and PCT registry (data since 1993 – patents, data since 2003 - European patents with designation for SK, data since 1992 – utility models, data since 2002 - supplementary protection certificates and data since 1995 – PCT applications filed with IPO SR as a receiving office).
Administrative management system is based on Lotus Domino and Fabasoft eGov Suite.
Other matters
V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF PATENT INFORMATION
Patent library: equipment, collection management, network of patent libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign patent libraries
In 2016, the Office’s reading room has been visited by 197 users. In total there were provided 524 borrowings of patent and other literature made available to the public and 1,100 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 2016 there were performed 39 patent searches and 16 searches on bibliographic data.
The Office’s reading room serves as a WIPO deposit library as well. The deposit library fund includes 267 volumes of publications issued by WIPO, which are available for study in reading room.
The Office’s reading room including the search workstation opens daily from 9:00 to 15:00.
Collecting, acquisitions, preparation
In the last year were processed 1,034 patent documents in paper form and 312 optical discs containing full texts and bibliographic information relating to patent documents as well to made them available for search purposes. The entire acquisition of patent documents amounted to 1,243,189 documents, out of which 1,242,155 entries represented documents in electrical form. The patent literature (patent documentation and official gazettes) were acquired within the frame of mutual exchange and the non-patent literature mostly by purchase or as a gift.
A list of the complete patent documentation was regularly updated on the Office’s web site. Non-patent literature was 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. In 2016 the PATLIB centres network cooperating with the Office on the basis of the mutual cooperation agreements
was extended by the centre located at 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 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, 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 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 Institute for Competitiveness and Innovations, 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”.
The first phase of cooperation is focused on providing the partners with promotional and professional publications and training of contact persons. In the second phase the contact persons trained by the Office should be able to give advice to SMEs how to distinguish their intellectual potential and how to protect it.
They are involved in organizing seminars aimed on intellectual property issues with the IPO SR experts as the lecturers.
Publications related to different business procedures and patent information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.
The Office publishes classifications, miscellanies, expert monographs, acts and related commentaries, promotional and information brochures, leaflets or translations of the WIPO and the EPO original publications providing valuable information on industrial property field to public.
Publication activities of the Office during 2016 include:
• Annual Report of the Industrial Property Office of SR 2015;
• The magazine Duševné Vlastníctvo - currently is the only Slovak periodical focused on the issue of industrial rights and copyright. In 2016, the Office issued two issues of the magazine in electronic form, double issue 1 – 2/2016 and Duševné vlastníctvo – selection 2016 was published in printed form.
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 is the most comprehensive source of information for public. In addition, it is gradually becoming the effective means of communication. It gives the public a quick access to information and databases concerning industrial property field. Selected data from the registers of patents, utility models, industrial designs and trade marks are updated daily (except EP). Both Slovak and English versions of the website provides information about upcoming conferences, seminars and other events.
The number of visitors of the website yearly proves an increasing interest of public in such form of communication. During 2016 the Office recorded more than 137,000 accesses. Every seventh visitor of the Office´s website regularly returns and about 55 % accessed the website using the “favourites” bar or directly by writing the address without using a searching tool.
The most visited sub-pages were trade marks (118,416 accesses), patents (58,384), registers and databases (42,151), utility models (17,256) and designs with 11,133 accesses. 68 % of visits were from Slovakia, 7 % from the Czech Republic and 25 % from other countries.
PORTALS www.patentovat.sk and FACEBOOK
In addition to the official website, the Office also uses a portal www.patentovat.sk, linked to the Facebook social network of the Office to raise awareness about importance of intellectual property and its protection.
The Facebook site named “The Industrial Property Offi ce of SR – patentovat.sk” is updated daily. The number of visitors, fans of the Facebook page has increased by 70, at the end of 2016 this number reached nearly 370.
In June 2016 a new account on the social network Twitter called twitter.com/UPV_SR was established to bring the visitors the latest information in the field of industrial property.
PORTAL http://www.dusevnevlastnictvo.gov.sk/
The IPO SR cooperates with the Ministry of Culture in the operation of 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 subjects of the intellectual property. It contains information on copyright and rights related to copyright, industrial property rights, the law against unfair competition, also includes information on the legal regulation of trade names, trade secrets and know-how. In 2016 the English version of the portal was completed.
Office's initiatives on providing foreign patent information in the local language(s) (e.g., machine translation tools, translation of abstracts)
Cooperation with universities, research centers, technology and innovation support centers, etc.
In this year the Office for the first time participated in the competition named the National Award for Communication Design 2016 organized by the Slovak Design Center in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture, with the participation of the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport.
The Office also participated in the 6th annual conference Technology Transfer in Slovakia and Abroad, organized by Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information in Bratislava. The goal of this event was to offer information about the operation of the Slovak technology transfer centres at universities and the Slovak Academy of Sciences and to present to the professionals our experience with technology transfer, the activity of technology transfer centres and the technology transfer support systems abroad. It was also an effort to initiate a discussion on the topic of implementation of the technology transfer process in Slovak environment.
Education and training: training courses, e-learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.
The Office also in 2016 continued in education on IP protection importance for pupils of elementary and secondary schools and also for academic community and entrepreneurs. In total 39 lectures were held. In June 2016 representatives of the Office participated in the launch of a new book on intellectual property rights “Being Earnest” at he grammar school of Juraj Hronec in Bratislava. The book surveys important information on intellectual property and in a simple way introduces teenagers, as well as teachers with the basics of industrial property rights and copyrights.
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 the school year 2015/2016, in the context of lifelong learning in the Office in Banská Bystrica module D – Industrial Property Law – was opened. This module was attended by 20 participants, including four internal staff of the Office. It can be considered the most important for the protection of industrial property, because it gives the participant a comprehensive knowledge of Slovak, international and foreign industrial property protection, its different types and specifications. 17 participants completed this module successfully and the five of them defended thesis in October 2016. From September 2016 the education continued in module A – Intellectual Property and Copyright Basics. Out of 31 participants six were internal out of which 27 completed this module successfully. Since December 2016 20 participants continued in module B – Creativity, its Management, Marketing and Economics.
One opinion of providing information and consultation on the protection of industrial property by the Office’s staff is participation in fairs and exhibitions in Slovakia and abroad. In 2016 experts from the Office provided general information and consultation on four international fairs – CONECO in Bratislava, Furniture and Living in Nitra, International Engineering Fair and Agrokomplex in Nitra. The Office was also represented at the exhibition of technical innovations, patents and inventions INVENT ARENA in Třinec in stand of the Visegrad Patent Institute (VPI).
The tenth annual festival of science in Slovakia - European Researchers‘ Night 2016 took place on 30 September 2016. Science Festival – European Researchers‘ Night is a project supported by the new framework program of the European Commission to support research, development and innovation – Horizon 2020. The Office joined this event for the sixth time already with its participation in the event in Banská Bystrica and Košice.
At the entrance of the Office there were three exhibitions installed in 2016. A succesfull exhibition “Zábavný kalendář 1914“, that was prepared in continuing cooperation with the Postal Museum, has been opened for visitors of the Office since February to October 2016. For the primary school pupils an interactive exhibition “Discoveries and Inventions in Scientific Toys” has been opened in January 2016. In October 2016 at the entrance of the Office has been installed an expositon of Ján Bobek – “Selection of Works” – wooden sculptures and pictures made by combined techniques.
Other activities
The World IP Day
http://www.upv.sk/?aktuality&clanok=svetovy-den-dusevneho-vlastnictva-v-upv-sr-3
The employees of the IPO SR together with invited guests commemorated the World IP Day during the conference ”Intellectual property in Slovakia XVI” on Tuesday, April 26, 2016. The Conference entitled “From idea to patent“ was focused on the legal protection of technical solutions in national and international context with emphasis on current legislation, litigation, enforcement and also on the importance of protection in terms of patent owners. Lectures were sorted into two themes: patent protection in Slovakia and abroad, and patent protection in practice. April 26 was also the Open Day of the Office and for visitors otherwise inaccessible spaces of the Office were opened.
VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF PATENT INFORMATION
International exchange and sharing of patent information in machine-readable form, e.g., priority documents, bibliographic data, abstracts, search reports, full text information
Bibliographic data and abstracts of the published patent and utility model applications, granted patents and registered utility models in English were supplied to the Espacenet and INPADOC database in electronic form.
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 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.
In 2016 continued the mutual exchange of official gazettes between the IPO SR and other offices also international organisations, including the EPO and the WIPO.
Priority documents have been supplied to applicants on request in paper form.
Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to patent information
Participation in the project of the Federative Patent Register conducted by the EPO.
Participation in PATLIB 2016 Conference.
Participation in the EPO Patent Information Conference in Madrid.
Assistance to developing countries
Other activities
VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS
1.Classification is allotting one or more classification symbols (e.g., IPC symbols) to a patent application, either before or during search and examination, which symbols are then published with the patent application.
2. Preclassification is allotting an initial broad classification symbol (e.g., IPC class or subclass, or administrative unit) to a patent application, using human or automated means for internal administrative purposes (e.g., routing an application to the appropriate examiner). Usually preclassification is applied by the administration of an office.
3. Reclassification is the reconsideration and usually the replacement of one or more previously allotted classification symbols to a patent document, following a revision and the entry into force of a new version of the Classification system (e.g., the IPC). The new symbols are available on patent databases.