CWS.ATR.PI.2010.SK

Annual Technical Report 2010 on Patent Information Activities submitted by Slovakia (CWS/ATR/PI/2010/SK)

Where URLs are requested below, it is preferred that either URLs which are likely to remain stable over time (three years or more) are provided, or home (main) page URLs are provided with a short explanation of how to access the corresponding information.

The term "patent" covers utility models and Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs). Offices which issue design patents should report their design patent information activities in their Annual Technical Reports on Industrial Design Information Activities.

I. Evolution of patent activities

Changes experienced in terms of application filings and grants with respect to the previous year

Patents

There were 282 patent applications filed with the IPO SR in 2010 that is increase by more than 18 % in comparison with 2009. PCT applications form 12.4 % (35 applications) of all applications.

The number of applications filed by domestic applicants (235) increased by 33.5 %, and applications filed by foreign applicants (47) decreased by 25.4 %. The largest share in the number of patent applications filed by foreign applicants (47) had the Czech Republic (13), the USA (10) and Germany (7).

In 2010, 4 European patent applications were filed with the IPO SR.

376 patents were granted in 2010 that is decrease by 32.1 % in comparison with 2009.

There were 17 supplementary protection certificate applications filed in 2010. All of them were filed by foreign applicants; the most of them were from the USA - 7, and from Belgium - 3. 12 supplementary protection certificates were granted in 2010.

1,898 translations of European patent specifications were published in the Slovak Republic during the year 2010 that is 1.4% more than during the previous year.

There were 10,907 valid patents entered in the Patent Register of the IPO SR by December 31, 2010; 3,935 of them were national patents granted; 6,972 were European patents with designation for SR.


Utility Models

There were 387 utility model applications filed with the Office in 2010. This number increased by 16.9 % in comparison with the previous year. The number of applications filed by Slovak applicants increased by 29.1% (306 applications). The share of Slovak applicants in total number of 387 applications is 79.1 %.

Increase by 13.2 % occurred in number of registered utility models (283).

On December 31, 2010, there were 1,545 valid utility models in the Slovak Republic.

For comparison, here are the statistics on filed patent and utility model applications, granted patents and registered utility models in the years 2005 - 2010:

Patentandutilitymodelstatistics_2010.doc

Trends or areas experiencing rapid changes with respect to the previous year

Patents

Applications in the field of Medical, Dental or Hygienic Preparations (9.57%), Engines and Pumps (8.51%), Transporting, Conveying and Storing (7.8%), and Engineering in General (7.45%) had the largest share.

Utility Models

The most registered utility models were from the field of Building (16.25%), Transport, Conveying and Storing (13.78%), Lighting and Heating (12.01%).

URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide statistics related to patents

URL to Annual Technical Reports on Patents:
http://www.upv.sk/?vyrocne-technicke-spravy
http://www.wipo.int/cws/en/atrs/

URL to Annual Reports of the IPO SR:
http://www.upv.sk/?annual-reports

II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, distribution and use of primary and secondary sources of patent information

Publishing, printing, copying (main types of publications of the Office in the field of patent information, etc.)

Main Types of Publications of the Office:

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)

Official Gazette "Vestník ÚPV SR"

Patents and utility model information forms part of the Official Gazette - "Vestník ÚPV SR", covering all industrial property rights in one publication. IPO SR started to publish the Official Gazette only in electronic form on CD ROM in PDF format as from 2008. In 2010 the Gazette had a circulation of 150 copies, of which 53 were distributed monthly by subscription. Other copies were sent free of charge to patent information centres and contact and information points of the IPO SR, to information and consulting sites INNOINFO, within the frame of industrial property information exchange to foreign offices and as statutory copies according to the act as well. Electronic form of Official Gazette, available to the public in the Internet free of charge, contained searchable data, which were regularly updated.

The following numbers of documents were published in the Official Gazette in 2010:

153 published patent applications
389 granted patents
297 published utility model applications
293 registered utility models
16 applications for granting SPC's
9 granted SPC's
4 translations of patent claims of European patent applications with designation for SK
1 898 translations of European patent specifications with designation for SK
13 corrected translations of European patent specifications with designation for SK

Distribution

The Office distributed Slovak patent specifications in a paper form to patent information centres and contact and information points of the IPO SR to build territorial funds of national patent documentation and to the IPO of the Czech Republic within the frame of international exchange. The Official Gazette was distributed within the frame of mutual exchange to 30 countries including organisations EPO and WIPO last year.

Main types of announcements of the Office in the field of patent information

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
- list of published patent applications (numerical series with classification symbols)
- bibliographic data and abstracts of published patent applications with an image, where available (arranged according to International Patent Classification)
- list of granted patents (numerical series with classification symbols)
- bibliographic data of granted patents (arranged according to International Patent Classification)
- suspended patent application procedures
- patents lapsed by reason of abandonment
- lapsed (expired) patents
- patents lapsed by reason of failure to pay renewal fee
- 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 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 of names, addresses, dates and mistakes

UTILITY MODELS
- list of published utility model applications (numerical series with classification symbols)
- bibliographic data of published utility model applications (arranged according to International Patent Classification)
- list of registered utility models (numerical series with classification symbols)
- bibliographic data of registered utility models (arranged according to
International Patent Classification)
- list of registered utility models with the extended term of validity (numerical series with classification symbols)
- bibliographic data of registered utility models with extended term of validity (arranged according to International Patent Classification)
- abandoned utility models
- lapsed (expired) utility models
- utility models lapsed by reason of failure to pay renewal fee
- cancelled utility models
- partially cancelled utility models
- assignments and transfers of rights to utility models
- changes of the rights of disposal to utility models (lien)
- changes of the rights of disposal to utility models (termination of lien)
- license contracts registered or granted
- termination of force of license contracts
- registered utility models in the register after declassification
- corrections of names, addresses, dates and mistakes

EUROPEAN PATENTS
- list of available translations of patent claims of European patent applications with designation for SK (numerical series with classification symbols)
- bibliographic data of available translations of patent claims of European patent applications with designation for SK (arranged according to International Patent Classification)
- list of available corrected translations of patent claims of European patent applications with designation for SK (numerical series with classification symbols)
- bibliographic data of available corrected translations of patent claims of European patent applications with designation for SK (arranged according to International Patent Classification)
- list of available translations of European patent specifications with designation for SK (numerical series with classification symbols)
- bibliographic data of available translations of European patent specifications with designation for SK (arranged according to International Patent Classification)
- list of available corrected translations of European patent specifications with designation for SK (numerical series with classification symbols)
- bibliographic data of available corrected translations of European patent specifications with designation for SK (arranged according to International Patent Classification)
- list of available translations of amended European patent specifications with designation for SK (numerical series with classification symbols)
- bibliographic data of available translations of amended European patent specifications with designation for SK (arranged according to International Patent Classification)
- suspended procedures on European patent applications by reason of withdrawal
- conversions of the European patent applications to national applications
- abandoned European patents
- revocations of European patents
- partial revocations of European patents
- lapsed (expired) European patents
- European patents lapsed by reason of failure to pay the maintenance fees
- assignment and transfer of the rights to European patents and European patent applications
- 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
- license contracts registered or granted
- termination of force of license contracts
- corrections of names, addresses, dates and mistakes

SUPPLEMENTARY PROTECTION CERTIFICATES
- bibliographic data of published applications for granting supplementary protection certificates (arranged according to document numbers)
- bibliographic data of granted supplementary protection certificates (arranged according to document numbers)
- suspended procedures on applications for granting a supplementary protection certificate
- refused applications for granting a supplementary protection certificate
- published applications for extension of validity term of supplementary protection certificates
- extended terms of validity of supplementary protection certificates
- 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 of the European Parliament and Article 17 of the Council Regulation (EEC) No. 1768/92
- assignments and transfers of rights for applications for granting the supplementary protection certificate
- lapsed supplementary protection certificates
- license contracts registered or granted to supplementary protection certificate
- assignments and transfers of rights for the supplementary protection certificate
- changes in data of applicants for granting the supplementary protection certificate
- changes in data of owners of the supplementary protection certificates
- corrections of names, addresses, dates and mistakes

Mass storage media used (paper, microforms, optical storage, etc.)

Patent documents are available in paper form in the Office’s library, also in electronic form in the Office’s web site and on ESPACE®-PRECES CD-ROM by the end of 2008 only (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.

Word processing and office automation

Text processing and office administration automation is ensured by application of databases of patents, utility models, European patents and supplementary protection certificates.

(New) techniques used for the generation of patent information (printing, recording, photocomposing, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), etc.)

MS Office 2003, FineReader 10.0, Adobe Acrobat 9 Professional SK, Agfa FotoLook 3.6, Quark Xpress Passport 7.5, Corel Draw 11, Adobe InDesign Standard CS4 are being used for text processing, photocomposing and printing.

For the digitalization of patent documents scanner Fujitsu fi-4340C and software tools Eposcan 1.03.08 (scanning and indexing of documents) are used, along with Wipost33 EPO 1.04.00 (conversion of scanned and indexed documents to BAC format according to the WIPO Standard ST.33) and ST.33 to PDF in version dated 23rd February 2007 (conversion of documents from BAC format to PDF 1.3). Until the end of July 2010 the Office had used the previous version of the BAC to PDF 1.1 converter combined with the applications mentioned above and with the scanner, which replaced the previous model Fujitsu M4097D VRS3 in 2009.

SLEX99 – Lexicon of Slovak Language contains following parts: Short Dictionary of Slovak Language, Slovak Dictionary of Synonyms, Rules of Slovak Grammar, used for the data processing. The photocomposing and printing is carried out by the Office.

The Desk-Top Publishing technology is being used for data and images processing, for the Gazette and first pages of patent documents.

URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide access to online publication of patent documents and gazettes, and to other primary and secondary sources of patent information, including patent publication servers and download of bulk patent data

ON-LINE DATABASES
http://www.upv.sk/?databases-and-registers

IPO SR makes accessible various databases on its homepage.
National databases are:
- "Data extracted from Registers" also called as "Webregisters", give public access to information from national registers of industrial property rights and are updated daily http://registre.indprop.gov.sk/registre/?lang=en

- "Patent documents of the IPO SR" - SK and CS patent documents including bibliographic data and also complete patent documents, utility models documents and European patents documents with designation of SR
http://data.indprop.gov.sk/Patenty/index.php?jazyk=sk&typdokumentu=patenty&new=1

- "Classification Systems" contain classifications used in Slovakia and abroad divided into three groups:

Patent classifications
http://www.upv.sk/?systemy-triedenia-patenty

Trademark classifications
http://www.upv.sk/?systemy-triedenia-ochranne-znamky

Design classifications
http://www.upv.sk/?systemy-triedenia-dizajny

including various additional information.

- "Official Gazette" enabled searching in single issues or in a selected issue or in all issues http://www.upv.sk/?official-gazette

In the part "Foreign on-line databases" there are links to the most frequently used on-line databases http://www.upv.sk/?zahranicne-online-databazy#patenty.

ON-LINE ORDERS
http://www.upv.sk/?online-orders

The IPO SR provides electronic order forms for Official Gazette, magazines Intellectual Property and E-zine, expert publications of the IPO SR and IPO CZ, Annual Reports, patent documents and searches (see the part „Products and Services", chapter VI).

III. Matters concerning abstracting, classifying, reclassifying and indexing of technical information contained in patent documents

Abstracting, reviewing, translating

Abstracts printed on the first pages of patent documents as well as a part of official announcements are revised and in case of need corrected by the Office’s experts before publication of application. Abstracts appear only in case of patent application publications in the Official Gazette. The English translation of abstracts are being sent to the European Patent Office for the publication in the database esp@cenet®.

Classification¹, preclassification² (if applicable), and reclassification³ activities; Classification system used, e.g., International Patent Classification (IPC), other classification (please indicate whether or not patent documents are classified by your Office and, if so, which classification is used)

Patent applications were classified, preclassified (i.e. preliminarily classified at the subclass level) and reclassified by Office’s experts according to the core level of the tenth edition 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 2010 core level had been used in the Office for classification the Slovak patent documents until the end of 2010.

Hybrid system indexing

By reason of application of the reformed IPC core level for indexing of technical information contained in patent documents the hybrid systems of the IPC are not used.

Bibliographic data and full-text processing

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.

Digitalisation

In 2010, the Office continued in regular monthly digitalisation of new entries of national patent documentation, 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.

IV. Search file establishment and upkeep

File building

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 32 countries, including the EPO and the WIPO and the non-patent literature (40 titles of technical periodicals and 9142 titles of special literature).

Updating

Updating of patent documentation search file is performed regularly according to current technical possibilities.

Storage, including mass storage media

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 2010 the regular annual accession of optical discs reached 817 pieces of optical discs with full texts and bibliographic information concerning the patent documents.

Documentation from other offices maintained and/or considered part of the available search file

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

Since 1993 the Office has been receiving 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 2010, within the frame of mutual exchange, the IPO SR received patent and utility model gazettes, as a part of the available search files, from the following states and organisations: AT, AU, BA, BG, BR, CH, CZ, DE, EE, EG, ES, FI, FR, GB, HR, HU, IT, KG, LT, LV, MD, MK, NO, PL, PT, RO, RU, SI, SM, UA, US, EPO a WIPO.

V. Activities in the field of computerized and other mechanized search systems

In-house systems (online/offline)

The Office keeps and creates national search database of granted patents, registered utility models and supplementary protection certificates, which serves for searches and purposes of proceedings on patent applications, utility model applications and applications for granting and extension of validity term of supplementary protection certificates. Nowadays, selected data are also available to public via Internet.

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 and supplementary protection certificates.

Following search CD-ROM are being used through the local CD-ROM network by the Ultranet 2000 system:
IPO SR Official Gazette
ESPACE - ACCESS EP - A (by 2009)
ESPACE - ACCESS EP - B (by 2009)
ESPACE - ACCESS - EPC (EUROPE) (by 2006)
ESPACE – PRECES (by 2008)
ESPACE - ACCESS - PRECES (by 2008)
ESPACE - ACCESS – RUSSIA (by 2001)
ESPACE – BULLETIN (by 2009)
PAJ
legal and economic information, encyclopaedia and statistics
translating dictionaries

External databases

Searches carried out in the STN on-line service, access to EPOQUE, DERWENT WORLD PATENTS INDEX® (DWPI) available within the EPOQUE, CAS, EPO Global Patent Index and the like databases.

Using the esp@cenetInternet database and other free available databases of national offices (e.g. Czech patent and utility models databases, USPTO database, IPOUK database) and WIPO.

Administrative management systems (e.g., register, legal status, statistics and administrative support)

The Office automation management system - software "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.

Equipment used (hardware, including the types of terminal and network used, and software), carriers used

Equipment used:
LAN is built on base of the Cisco technology, Fast ETHERNET 1000/100/10 Mbit/s, WINDOWS 2003 Server; MS SQL Server 2005; workstations PC Pentium, Windows XP, thin client WYSE V10, WYSE S10

Linux Red Hat Enterprise 4.0,
Informix Dynamic Server 10,
Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server 4.0,
Ultranet – Ultra Console 2000

SAN HP MSA 1500 CS, SAN HP MSA P2000, G3
HP Storage Works MSL SDLT 5026 series library, MSL LTO 4048,
HP open view Storage Data Protector version A.06.11

VI. Administration of the industrial property office library, and information products and services available to the public (relating to facilities, e.g., for lodging applications, for assisting clients on searching procedures, for obtaining official publications and registry extracts)

Planning, administration, automation, security, buildings

In 2010, the Office’s reading room has been visited by 1 326 users and 1 291 of it were from the public. In total there were provided 6 926 borrowings of patent and other literature made available to the public and 23 560 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 2010 there were performed 66 patent searches, 1 070 trademark searches and 28 design searches and 64 searches on bibliographic data based on 574 written and 4 personally requests. The number of design and patent searches increased significantly (design searches 100% and patent searches 32%) whereas trademark searches decreased 15%.

The Office’s reading room including the search workstation opens daily from 8:00 to 15:00.

All online services and other basic information are available via Internet address of IPO SR: www.upv.sk.

Collecting, acquisitions, preparation

In the last year were processed 5 883 patent documents in paper form and 817 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
2 247 908 documents, out of which 2 242 025 entries represented documents in electrical form. Other new entries, for instance Official Gazettes of the foreign offices (31) and miscellaneous associated literature, were processed on the monthly basis.

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.

Collection management, preservation

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.

Interlibrary lending, resource sharing, networks of patent libraries in the country

Patent Information Centres and Contact and Information Points

Since 2003 the Office has established 10 contact and information points, while four of them are the Patent Information Centres. They are located in state, regional and district libraries as well as in the Slovak National Library in Martin and Centre of Scientific and Technical Information in Bratislava. A list of centres and points is available on the Office's web site http://www.upv.sk/?partners.

The main goal of patent information centres is to provide complex information services in the field of patent, trademark and industrial design information, search services, consultation and methodical assistance concerning the searching of information, making copies of required patent documents, printing records from electronic form etc. Every patent information centre serve as a contact and information point.

The main goal of contact and information points of the Office is to inform the public about where can apply for protection of the results of creative activity, and particularly to inform the general public about the existence of the national institution, which protects immaterial goods, industrial property.

The Office supported the activity of centres and contact and information points by regular sending Slovak patent specifications in paper form and the Official Gazette in electronic form, as well as all information materials and recourses 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.

The co-operation with patent information centres and contact and information points within the PATLIB network continued also in 2010. Representatives of centres participated at the conference organised by the Office in April on the occasion of the World Intellectual Property Day and at two-day meeting of the Office's electronic services users in November. The workshop aimed at evaluation of the actual co-operation and introduction of the future vision was also a part of the programme.

The European Patent Office proposed and included the Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information in Bratislava in the pilot project of re-orientation of PATLIB centres. The goal of the project is introduction of new innovative and supporting services and co-operation with regional organisations to support innovations.

Information and Advisory Points for Innovations (InnoInfo)

The mission of InnoInfo centres http://www.upv.sk/?information-and-advisory-points-for-innovation-innoinfo operating in the regions of Slovakia is to orientate especially the small and medium sized entrepreneurs in the field of innovations and industrial property. InnoInfo centres are established in business incubators, regional consultancy and information centres, regional chambers of the Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry and at the Universities of technical orientation.

Co-operation with InnoInfo centres in 2010 continued particularly in the field of education and seminar organisation. The seminar "Enterprise Innovation Efficiency Supporting Activities" was organised in the end of February in co-operation with the Regional Chamber of the Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RC SCCI) in Trenčín with participation of two representatives of the IPO SR. Members of InnoInfo could also get information on industrial property (particularly on trademark) at the conference "Intellectual Property in Slovakia X" and at the 6th Electronic Filing Users Day. In May the workshop „Utilisation of Industrial Property in Enterprises" was organised in Košice. Representatives of the Office and entrepreneurs discussed issues on intangible assets protection possibilities and the Office's related services at the workshop. Seminar "IP Rights in European Projects of Research, Development of Technologies and Support" was realised in co-operation with BIC Bratislava and Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information in Bratislava on October 5, 2010. Approximately 50 entrepreneurs were trained this way at the Office last year.

Agreement on Cooperation InnoInfo between the IPO SR and RC SCCI Košice (15th InnoInfo) was concluded on May 24, 2010. The basic and partial commission contract in order to sale expert literature issued by the IPO SR was signed between the IPO SR and RC SCCI Trenčín. By the end of 2010 18 publications of the Office were sold by this way.

Information services available to the public (including computerized services and search files contained in libraries remote from your Office and patent information posted by your Office on the World Wide Web)

The Office library provides following services to the public:

- methodical and consultation assistance for the public
- general information provided by Office's experts
- 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 paper, Official Gazette “Vestník ÚPV SR” on CD-ROM) 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, patent families, bibliographic data upon request in written or on-line form
- on-line searches in Office’s search system, 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
- CD-ROM workstations available in the reading room


Patent 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 (online, 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)
- patent classifications and related information
- annual technical reports on patent information (2002-2010)

Information Centre

Within their professional consultancy activities, the Centre staff provides the public with the necessary IPR-related information personally, by telephone (+421 48 4300 131), mail or e-mail infocentrum@indprop.gov.sk or by fax. The Information Centre includes also “Helpdesk” providing information about electronic on-line filing.

The number of requests for information increased by 25% when comparing with 2009. Information Centre provided totally 7 099 information in 2010. 5 728 information was provided by the telephone, 257 information was provided personally, 959 by e-mail, 155 by post.

Workplace of the IPO SR in Bratislava

Workplace of the Office, which was opened in 2004 offered information relating to filing applications for industrial property rights subjects last year. In the workplace, there is a filing room.

Pre-diagnostics of industrial property rights

The Office analysed industrial property issues in 32 innovative enterprises. The result of pre-diagnostics was that the Office received 68 applications for subjects of industrial rights from analysed enterprises during three years from introduction of this free service. An interest in this kind of service has been increasing particularly by new enterprises. An offer of the European Patent Office to train of the experts from other member countries at the seminar in Brussels as well as directly at national offices in Croatia and Macedonia was an acknowledgement of the word performed by the Office.

URLs of web pages of the Office's website for electronic filing of patent applications

Electronic filing (eOLF a PCT-SAFE)
http://www.upv.sk/?electronic-filing-of-applications

The Office's on-line filing room enables filing of the European patent applications, international PCT patent applications and national patent and utility model applications in electronic form. (For more information see the part „Medium allowed for filing application", chapter VII).

URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide information on business procedures such as: filing, publication, examination and grant procedures related to patents; opposition and appeal procedures related to patents; etc.

Webregisters
http://www.upv.sk/?databases-and-registers

IPO SR makes accessible various databases on its homepage. Most frequently used databases are "Data extracted from Registers" also called as "Webregisters". Webregisters give public access to data extracted from patent, utility models, European patents, 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.

URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide a description of information products and services offered by the Office (e.g., patent search service(s) and patent databases), as well as information on how to access and utilize them

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

- Official Gazette http://www.upv.sk/?official-gazette

- patent documents http://www.upv.sk/?databases-and-registers

- 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

- E-zine IPO SR http://www.upv.sk/?e-zine-upv-sr

- on-line order forms http://www.upv.sk/?online-orders

- price list http://www.upv.sk/swift_data/source/pdf/Cennik_EN.pdf

- data extracted from register http://www.upv.sk/?databases-and-registers

- 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


For more information relating to services offered by the Office, see the part “Information services available to the public“, chapter VI.

VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of patent documentation and information

International or regional cooperation in the exchange of machine-readable information, e.g., bibliographic data, abstract and/or full text information

Regional co-operation

In 2008 IPO SR stopped participation in the joint ESPACE® - PRECES CD-ROM
project (patent specifications of BG, CZ, HU, LT, LV, PL, RO and SK).

International co-operation

Bibliographic data and abstracts of the published patent applications and granted patents in English were supplied to the EPO DOCDB database in electronic form.

In 2010 continued the mutual exchange of patent documentation and official gazettes between the IPO SR and other offices also international organisations, including the EPO and the WIPO.

Medium used for exchange of priority documents

Priority documents have been supplied to applicants on request in paper form.

Medium allowed for filing applications

Patent and utility model applications are filled in paper, fax or electronic form.

The IPO SR enables except on-line filing of European patent applications, European PCT applications and international PCT applications also receiving national patent and utility model applications including subsequently filed documents relating to proceedings on patent applications, utility model applications and applications for translations of patent claims of European patent applications and of European patent specifications with designation for SK in electronic form.

Even the number of applications filed electronically last year decreased slightly in comparison with paper form filings, the number of subsequently filed documents to patent applications, utility models applications, translations of European patent specifications and patent claims of European patent applications with designation for SK increased significantly. Comparing to the previous year 747 more related documents were filed. Significant reduction of administrative fees for electronic filings signed with electronic signature supported an interest of applicants in electronic filing applications and related subsequent documents.

VIII. Other relevant matters concerning education and training in, and promotion of, the use of patent information, including technical assistance to developing countries (please indicate URLs of web pages of the Office’s website wherever appropriate)

Training courses for national and foreign participants, use of audiovisual means

Intellectual Property Course

http://www.indprop.gov.sk/?education

The Office provided education in 4-module Course Intellectual Property accredited by the Ministry of Education of the SR.

The Intellectual Property course consists of four separate parts:
module A: Intellectual Property and Copyright Law Essentials;
module B: Creativity - Management of Creativity, Marketing and Economics;
module C: Information in the field of Industrial Property Protection;
module D: Industrial Property Law.

In the school year 2010/2011 12 graduates finished the Course by their final theses plea. Half of them were extern participants of further education. Final theses of graduates are available in the public study room as study materials for public. Since September there are 15 extern participants and 7 employees of the Office registered in the Course.

Promotional activities (seminars, exhibitions, visits, advertising, etc.)

World Intellectual Property Day

http://www.indprop.gov.sk/?ipo-sr-activities-for-smes

April 26, 2010 was the World Intellectual Property Day (WIPD) at the Industrial Property Office of the SR. Organisation of the 10th year of the Conference Intellectual Property in Slovakia was also a part of the WIPD at the IPO SR. The Conference focused on issues of trademark protection for designations of goods and services. April 26, 2010 was also the Open Day at the Office for everybody who wanted to obtain the information on intellectual property issues and on Office’s activities.

International Seminars

In October 12 – 13, 2010 in the premises of the State Scientific Library in Banská Bystrica the Office organised the Seminar “Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights” in co-operation with the WIPO, the event of high importance. The goal of the Seminar was to provide an opportunity to exchange and share expert practical experiences in the area of combating infringement of intellectual property rights with foreign partners.

Co-operation with Universities

The Office in co-operation with the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava and WIPO organised the 2nd year of the Seminar “Protection and Exploitation of Intellectual Property at Universities II” on the occasion of the Week of Science and Technique in Slovakia on November 29, 2010 with participation of domestic and foreign experts. Also co-operation with the Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica in the project Module 6 – Intellectual Property Protection - on the base of the Co-operation Agreement from July 7, 2009 continued.

Exhibitions

The Office was represented at the 17th International Engineering Fair in Nitra in 2010. On the occasion of the WIPO two exhibitions were installed in the premises of the Office, namely „The Trademarks and the History of SHP Harmanec (Harmanec Paper-mill), and the Exhibition of WIPO Posters, issued by the World Intellectual Property Organisation during the history of WIPO.

The Office was also presented at the 62nd International Exhibition of Ideas, Inventions and New Products iENA 2010 in German Nuremberg in common stall of European patent offices “Internationales Patent- Informationzentrum” (International Patent Information Centre).

Ján Bahýľ Award

The ceremony of awarding Ján Bahýľ Award took place on October 21 in Banská Bystrica. The goal of the Award is to motivate and support the creativity in Slovakia. For the first time there were three categories of the Ján Bahýľ Award:
- medium-sized and large enterprises with 50 employees and more;
- individual applicants, small enterprises and micro-enterprises with 49 employees and less;
- universities and research centres.

Three teams – authors of the particular solution – and also owners of the related patent or protected design – were awarded the Award on recommendation of the evaluation committee of the Ján Bahýľ Award and the IPO SR President. The Award is represented by the bronze medal with the portrait of the constructor and inventor of a helicopter Ján Bahýľ. The IPO SR President also awarded one honourable mention.

IX. Other general information related to the Office that is available on the Internet -- URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that:

provide information on legislation related to patents

- legislation in force http://www.upv.sk/?legislation-in-force
- related legislation http://www.upv.sk/?related-legislation
- invalid legislation http://www.indprop.gov.sk/?neplatne-pravne-predpisy
- multilateral treaties http://www.upv.sk/?multilateral-treaties
- EU legislation http://www.upv.sk/?eu-legislation

contain the Annual Report of the Office

http://www.upv.sk/?annual-reports

if necessary, provide further information related to the topics referred to in the current ATR

Information relating to subjects of industrial property rights

Office's Web page contains basic information which are useful for the applicant by filing the application of particular type of industrial property right, such as application forms, legislation, instructions of the IPO SR, information for applicant, administrative fees, contact to expert assistance, etc.:

Patents http://www.upv.sk/?Patents

SPC http://www.upv.sk/?supplementary-protection-certificates

Utility models http://www.upv.sk/?utility-models

Designs http://www.upv.sk/?designs

Topographies http://www.upv.sk/?topographies-of-semiconductor-products

Trademarks http://www.upv.sk/?trademarks

Geographical indications http://www.upv.sk/?designation-of-origin-and-geographical-indications

contain patent-related news regarding the Office

http://www.upv.sk

X. Other relevant matters