Annual Technical Report on Patent Information Activities in 2017 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 2017 within the project, the IPO SR Electronic Services (IPO ES) the new integrated information system was launched. The basic goal of the national project IPO ES or the Office priority for 2017 was identifying with project results and introducing project functionalities into all areas of the Office´s activities. The result of the project is the digitisation of procedures linked to other changes in legislation (in terms of ensuring a legislative procedure in relation to the draft law amending and supplementing the Act No. 435/2001 Coll. on patents, supplementary protection certificates and amending and supplementing certain acts (Patent Act), as amended and amending certain laws), changes in the functioning of electronic filing within the Central Public Administration Portal and consequential changes in the functioning of the IPO ES. Given the above-mentioned IPO ES project, it was necessary to provide service and technical support for the project.

In terms of cooperation with foreign institutions, tools for data conversion according to the WIPO standards were implemented for the purposes of the "Data Acquisition Based on Quality at Source" project, and the availability of information on the legal status of European patents in the EP Register was ensured through the implementation of Phase 2 of the "Federated European Patent Register”.

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 cooperated with the European Patent Office (EPO) particularly on projects realised within the Cooperation 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 is focused on legal information (e.g. legal status of a patent). The Office successfully acceded to the FePR service in September 2017 and provides data on the legal status of the EP with the designation of the Slovak Republic.

The Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic, in cooperation with an external contractor, terminated the IPO Electronic Services project in the 1^st quarter of 2017 and deployed the solution in full operation. The result of the project is making electronic forms available for electronic filing, modernisation of backend systems of the Office and access to modernised Webregisters on the Office's website in March 2017.

Main areas of 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.). In March 2017, the IPO SR Webregisters were made available to the public. Selected data in record details are linked to international systems.

The projects and activities mentioned in the item above were realised in cooperation with the EPO.

Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and grants with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes

Patents

In 2017, 206 patent applications were filed with the IPO SR; it is 12.3 % less than in the previous year. PCT applications make 3.4 % (7 applications) of all filed applications.

The number of applications filed by domestic applicants (183) decreased by 16.1 % and the number of applications filed by foreign applicants (23) increased by 53.3 %. Applications from the Czech Republic (12) and the USA (5) form the largest share of total number of foreign patent applications.

The number of patents granted in 2017 is 82; it is 32.8 % less than in the previous year.

24 international applications were filed with the IPO SR as the receiving office under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) last year.

Within the Visegrad Patent Institute (VPI) acting as the International Searching Authority, international searches and written opinions were drawn up to seven international applications.

By December 31, 2017, there were 17,816 valid patents registered in the Slovak Republic; 1,389 of them were granted by a national route.

The largest number of applications were applications in the following areas: Analytical, Measurement, Control Technologies (9.22 %), Transportation (8.74 %), Mechanical Elements (8.74 %), Consumer Goods and Equipment (8.25 %), Civil Engineering, Construction, Mining (7.28 %).

Supplementary Protection Certificates

From January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2017, 50 applications for supplementary protection certificates were filed. All of them were filed by foreign applicants; most of applications were from the USA – 28, from Germany – 4 and from Switzerland – 4.

21 supplementary protection certificates were granted.

European Patents

In 2017, 8 European patent applications were filed with the IPO SR and 3,326 translations of European patent documents were made available.

By December 31, 2017, there were 16,427 validated European patents in the territory of the Slovak Republic.

Utility Models 

In 2017, the Office received 412 new utility model applications; it has increased by 14.8 % compared to the previous year. The number of applications filed by domestic applicants increased by 14.3 % (343). Domestic applicants make a 83.3 % share of the total number 412 filed applications. 

A decrease of 15.4 % was recorded in the number of registered utility models (307).

By December 31, 2017, there were 1,804 utility models valid in the territory of the Slovak Republic.

The most registered utility models were in the following areas: Civil Engineering, Construction, Mining (13.36 %), Analytical, Measurement, Control Technologies (11.40 %), Transportation (11.07 %), Handling, Printing (10.10 %).

For comparison, here are statistics on filed patent applications and granted patents, on filed utility model applications and registered utility models and on translations of European patent specifications in the years 2013 – 2017:

Patent and utility model statistics_2017.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-Zinehttp://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 at www.upv.sk. These are mainly application forms of particular types of industrial property right, legislation, instructions of the IPO SR and information for applicant, administrative fees, contact to expert assistance, etc. Below are 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 cooperation with the European Patent Office implemented the EPTOS system 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 last year, the number of national patent applications, utility models and supplementary protection certificates filed electronically via EPTOS has decreased by 2.1 %.

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. From the 1^st quarter of 2017, the Office also made specific application forms available to users during the deployment of the IPO Electronic Services Project. These services are most commonly used for trade mark proceedings.

In the year 2017, more than 34% of the total number of nationally registered trademarks had been filed this way. Regarding patents, utility models and supplementary protection certificates, these services are used minimally.

Availability of the application dossier in electronic form

The Office conducts the application file only in 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 2017.01 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 2017.01 had been used in the Office for classification of the Slovak patent documents until the end of 2017.

Software tools to operate the Slovak version of the IPC in standardized electronic form on the Internet were implemented in cooperation with the WIPO. The tools simplify the preparation of Slovak translations of the IPC issued annually after changes effective since 2011. Slovak editions of the IPC in electronic form are made accessible to the public and Office employees on the site at http://ipc.indprop.gov.sk.

Digitalisation and indexing

In 2017, the Office continued the regular monthly digitalisation of new entries of national patent documentation (patent applications, patent specifications, utility model applications, utility models), corrected documents to relevant patent documents issued by the Office, translations of patent claims of European patent applications and translations of European patent specifications with designation for SK.

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 on the Internet.

Abstracting, reviewing, and translation of the information contained in patent documents

An abstract is an obligatory part of a patent application and a utility model application (Article 37(4) (b) of the Act No 435/2001 Coll. and Article 32(4)(b) of the Act No 517/2007 Coll.); i.e. an applicant is obliged to file an abstract together with an application. The Office may amend an abstract ex officio (Article 7(2) of the Decree No 223/2002 Coll. and Article 5(2) of the Decree No 1/2008 Coll.), but in the case of abstracts to utility model applications, their content can not be amended (Article 5(2) of the Decree No 1/2008 Coll.).

When publishing applications, the Office shall translate the names of patent and utility model applications into English. When granting a patent and entering a utility model into the Register, the Office shall also translate 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, information on IP protection in the Slovak Republic and also abroad was provided (European patent, international application filed under PCT).

The information was provided personally, by phone (+421 48 4300 131), by post and e-mail address infocentrum@indprop.gov.sk.

In 2017 the Information Centre dealt with 6 460 requests for information; 4 759 thereof were provided by phone, 1 509 by e-mail, 186 personally and 6 by post.

 Pre-diagnostics of industrial property rights
http://www.upv.sk/?prediagnostika-priemyselnych-prav

To increase IP awareness, to support innovations, creativity and competitiveness of small and middle-sized enterprises is a primary goal of the IP pre-diagnostics, which have been provided by the IPO SR experts since 2008.

During 2017, 32 pre-diagnostics focused on innovative companies were performed; e. g. SCP Ružomberok (Mondi), HERN Ltd. (former ZTS Strojárne Námestovo), Žilinská teplárenská Inc. Besides that, employees visited also two research facilities – VULM Ltd. and NPPC, Research Institute of Animal Production. For the first time this consultation form was provided also to universities – Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin, Comenius University, Faculty of Security Engineering, University of Žilina and Department of Furniture and Interior Design, Technical University in Zvolen.

Promotion of craft products protected by geographical indications, e. g. on the grounds of the Budatín castle (propagation of tinkery), in Pozdišovce and Sekule (ceramics), in Detva (embroidery with a curved needle), in Hrušov and Hažlín (food products), also continued.

III. SOURCES OF 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 paper form in the study room of the IPO SR. Moreover, all kinds of patent specifications published in the Official Gazette regularly in 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 form part of the Official Gazette - “Vestník ÚPV SR”, covering all industrial property rights in one publication.

The following amount of documents was published in the Official Gazette in 2017:

201 published patent applications

87 granted patents

299 published utility model applications  

313 registered utility models

52 applications for granting SPC's  

24 granted SPC's

1 translation of patent claims of European patent applications with designation for SK

3 326 translations of European patent specifications with designation for SK

16 corrected translations of European patent specifications with designation for SK

49 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 Global Value Pricing (patent and non-patent literature), 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 online 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 2017.01 in standardized electronic form https://ipc.indprop.gov.sk/classifications/ipc/ipcpub

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

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

- data extracted from register https://wbr.indprop.gov.sk/webregistre/

- 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 online form

- online searches in Office’s databases for patents, European patents with designation for SK, utility models and supplementary protection certificates and self-service during a personal visit

- 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 (plesase see the part Products and Services above)

- 7-th edition of the IPC (fully searchable)

- core level of the IPC 2006 and IPC 2009 (in PDF format only)

- IPC 2009 - IPC 2017.01 in standardized electronic form

- patent classifications and related information

- Annual technical reports on patent information (2002-2017)

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

In the 1st quarter of 2017, the Office terminated the IPO Electronic Services project and deployed the solution in full operation. The result of the project is the Unified Information System of the IPO SR, which integrates the following systems operated by the Office: Inventio, Fabasoft, Webregisters and Electronic Forms Module.

The Inventio system is used to manage the data related to the process of proceeding on individual industrial property subject matters, i.e. central management of registers of individual industrial rights subject matters in electronic form. It is a specific system developed by the Office with an external contractor exclusively for the needs of the Office. The system includes export and import mechanisms for exchanging and updating certain data, in particular with international institutions such as the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the European Patent Office (EPO). Exports and imports are based on international WIPO standards.

Fabasoft is a certified system (certificate of Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic on compliance with the standards for electronic information systems for the administration of the registry defined in the Act No. 525/2011 Coll.) for electronic processing and keeping of files, records, documents and work procedures. Document Management System (DMS) has been moved from Inventio to Fabasoft. At the same time, Fabasoft is a central system that is integrated into some common modules of the Central Public Administration Portal (module of electronic mailboxes, authentication module, payment module, central electronic filing module, electronic delivery module and official communication module), the declared reference registers within the Slovak Republic (register of legal entities, register of natural persons and register of addresses) and also with other systems of the Office such as electronic forms module and Webregisters. The Office plans to continue to consider Inventio as a reference data source within the Office.

Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office

LAN is a net built on the technology Cisco, Fast ETHERNET 1000/100/10 Mbit/s,

2012 R2 Server; MS SQL Server 2012; client HP t5740, Zotac Zbox BI323.

Linux Red Hat Enterprise 7.0, CENTOS 7

Citrix XenApp 7.18

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 the public on the internet at: https://wbr.indprop.gov.sk/webregistre/.

Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file.

The Office regularly builds, keeps and completes the examination file containing national patent applications, utility model applications, requests for granting supplementary protection certificates, granted patents, registered utility models, granted supplementary protection certificates and translations of European patents and patent claims of European patent applications with designation for the Slovak Republic via the internet system INVENTIO II. Selected data are available to the public in webregisters and are updated daily.

It is possible to carry out searches according to bibliographic data in all 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 and the non-patent literature (16 titles of technical periodicals and 9,666 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 2017 the regular annual accession of optical discs reached 259 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 2017 the patent documents collection was supplemented by documents stored on optical discs from these states: Austria, Canada, China, Denmark, Japan, Republic of Korea and United Kingdom.

Patent and utility model gazettes also form part of the available search files of the Office. In 2017, within the frame of mutual exchange, the IPO SR continued receiving gazettes from the following states and organizations: Bulgaria and Kyrgyzstan.

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) (1976-2017)
KPA (Korean Patent Abstracts) (2007-2017)
Chinese Patent Bibliography Abstract (1985-2017)
Patent Applications of Canada – CA – A (1999-2017)
Granted Patents of Canada – CA – B (2000-2017)
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.

In January 2017, the Fabasoft specialised registry system was put into operation.

Other matters

V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF PATENT INFORMATION

Patent library: equipment, collection management, network of patent libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign patent libraries

In 2017, the Office’s reading room has been visited by 144 users. In total were provided 290 borrowings of patent and other literature made available to the public and 509 copies of patent documents and other industrial property documents for the manual and computer search purposes, as well as copies from technical periodicals and other associated and non-patent literature were made. In 2017, 20 state-of-the-art patent searches, 20 patent searches with commentary and 8 searches on bibliographic data were performed.

The Office’s reading room serves as a WIPO deposit library as well. The deposit library fund includes 289 volumes of publications issued by WIPO, which are available for study in reading room.

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 892 patent documents in paper form and 259 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 1 038 892 documents, out of which 1 038 000 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 website. 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 and within the University of Žilina as the Centre for Technology Transfer. Nowadays, 11 Contact and Information Points are located in Slovakia and 5 of them are Patent Information Centres. A list of centres and points is available on the Office’s website at http://www.upv.sk/?partners.
 
The main goal of patent information centres is to provide complex information services in the field of patent, trademark and industrial design information, search services, consultation and methodical assistance concerning the searching of information, making copies of required patent documents, printing records from electronic form etc. Every patent information centre serves as a contact and information point.

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

The Office supported the activity of centres and contact and information points by regularly sending Slovak patent specifications in paper form, as well as all information materials and resources made available to the public, publications published by Office, information pamphlets, documents and forms relating to applying for protection of industrial property rights, access to office's databases via Internet etc.

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 at business incubators (Incubator Malacky and BIC Bratislava, spol. s r. o.), regional information and advisory centres – RPIC Komárno, Poprad, Prešov, Regional Development Agency Kysuce in Čadca and regional chambers of the Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry and at technical universities – Technical University of Košice, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava and University Science Park, University in Žilina. Currently five regional Chambers of Commerce and Industry – Bratislava, Trenčín, Banská Bystrica, Košice and Prešov are partners of the Office as the ”innoinfo”.

In 2017 the IPO SR Open Day was held at the Regional Chamber SCCI Banská Bystrica. The seminar with the possibility to provide short individual consultations took place at the BIC Bratislava, s.r.o., SCCI Bratislava, RPIC Poprad and at the University in Košice. The lecture on the IP Protection System was presented at the Regional Chamber of SCCI Trenčín.

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 2017 include:
• Annual Report of the Industrial Property Office of SR 2016;
• The magazine Duševné Vlastníctvo - currently is the only Slovak periodical focused on the issue of industrial rights and copyright. In 2017, the Office issued three issues of the magazine in electronic form, issue 2/2016 and Duševné vlastníctvo – selection 2017 was published in printed form.

• Publication: Procedure on international application filed according to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) – basic information (in Slovak language)

On the occasion of the 20 ^th anniversary of the first issue of Duševné Vlastníctvo Magazine, the festive printed edition of the Magazine: Duševné Vlastníctvo 1997 – 2017 was issued.

For more information please see the list of publications issued by the Office http://www.upv.sk/?publikacie

WEBSITE OF THE OFFICE – www.upv.sk

The website of the Office www.upv.sk is a complex source of information for the public. In addition, it has been becoming the effective means of communication. It allows the public to quickly access information and databases related to IP. Both Slovak and English versions provide information about upcoming conferences, seminars and other events.

From March 1, 2017 new IPO SR webregisters are made available to public. Databases contain selected data from IP subject matters registers kept by the Office and are updated daily. Details of the records provide bibliographic data, data on the state of applications and legal status, full texts of published patent documents in PDF format, trade mark and designs representations and sequence items.

PORTALS www.patentovat.sk and FACEBOOK

The Office also uses the portal www.patentovat.sk, linked to the social network Facebook to raise public awareness of the IP importance and protection. The Facebook page named The Industrial Property Office of SR – patentovat.sk is updated daily. The number of visitors, fans of the Facebook page increased by 40, at the end of 2017 this number reached nearly 410.

PORTAL http://www.dusevnevlastnictvo.gov.sk/
 
The IPO SR cooperates with the Ministry of Culture of SR in keeping the portal http://www.dusevnevlastnictvo.gov.sk. This information portal is a digital platform to give a basic overview, orientation and information resources across all IP subject matters. It contains information on copyright and rights related to copyright, IP rights, the law against unfair competition, it also includes information on the legal regulation of trade names, trade secrets and know-how.

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.

This year the Office participated for the second time in the competition National Prize for Design 2017 – Product Design organised by the Slovak Design Centre in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture of SR. The 14 th year of the National Prize for Design (NPD) was aimed at product design in 2017.

14 interviews with representatives of the public sector, academia and IP professionals were held in the premises of the Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information in Bratislava. Another 2 interviews with representatives of academia and private sector were held on February 16, 2017 at the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice. Interviews were conducted by the international strategy consultant, Alfred Radauer from Technopolis, Tamara Nanayakkara from the Department for Transition and Developed Countries (TDC), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and the national consultant, Darina Kyliánová, in coordination with the representatives of the Industrial Property Office of SR (IPO SR).

Technical University in Zvolen, The Faculty of Wood Sciences and Technology, Department of Furniture and Interior Design, organised the International Conference Creativity in Design III.

Education and training: training courses, e-learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.

Recently the IPO SR recorded increased interest in the lectures on the IP protection by both secondary schools and universities, as well as by the business community and professionals. In total 32 lectures were held for pupils and students of primary and secondary schools, academics and entrepreneurs.

The IPO SR in cooperation with the Slovak Chamber of Patent Attorneys organised professional examination for performing patent attorney activities. The certificate of the successful completion of professional examination in 2017 acquired one applicant.

Seminars and workshops

The Conference for representatives of academia, PhD students, students and all those who were interested in IP issues with presence of Slovak and foreign lecturers under the auspices of the WIPO IPO SR and SCSTI took place in the premises of SCSTI in Bratislava.

The Slovak Chamber of Patent Attorneys in cooperation with the IPO SR organised the Seminar IP Protection XIII in the Hotel Sorea Trigan, Štrbské Pleso. Ing. Peter Hojčuš and JUDr. Ing. Vladimír Neuschl were the professional guarantors of the Seminar.

In the premises of the Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information (SCSTI) the workshop on electronic filing of international applications under PCT via ePCT System was organised at the initiative of the Slovak Chamber of Patent Attorneys, by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), in cooperation with the IPO SR and SCSTI, took place.

Education Programme Intellectual Property 

IPO SR provides the education programme Intellectual Property accredited by the decision of the Ministry of Education of the SR of April 30, 2014 and the accreditation certificate No. 1308/2014/44/1.

In 2017 the Programme Intellectual Property continued by the Module C – Information in the Field of IP. The total attendance was 25 participants; 24 of them completed the Module C successfully by obtaining the certificate. Since September the Programme continues by the Module D – Industrial Property Law. In the school year 2017/2018 there are 27 participants of the Programme.
 
PROMOTIONAL EVENTS

The IPO SR tries to get closer to public via several popularisation activities. The most important events are those organised on the occasion of the World IP Day, Researchers´ Night, various exhibitions in the IPO SR premises or educational programme Intellectual Property.

The employees of the IPO SR with invited guests commemorated the World IP Day with the Conference Intellectual Property in Slovakia XVII – Innovations in Everyday Life – on April 26, 2017. This day was also the Open Day of the Office when the areas not usually accessible to public were opened.

The IPO SR representatives provided information and consultations on IP protection at the international fairs Furniture and Living in Nitra, CONECO 2017 in Bratislava, the International Engineering Fair in Nitra and the International Agricultural and Food Exhibition Agrokomplex in Nitra. For the 7 th time the IPO SR participated in the European Science Festival – Researchers´ Night 2017 – in Žilina and Košice.

From October 2016 to July 2017 in the IPO SR premises the Exhibition Ján Bobek – Selected Works – was accessible. The exhibition presented decorations made of uncultivated wood and artistic works made by combined techniques.

Other activities

VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF 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 the public in Slovak language on the address http://sk.espacenet.com/ and European patent translations into the Slovak language were used for corpus of language necessary for realisation of another project of bilateral cooperation – Patent Translate.

In 2017 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 workshop on the Federative Patent Register project in September 2017 in San Marino.

Participation in the workshop on Espacenet project in May 2017 in Lisbon.
Participation in PATLIB 2017 Conference.
Participation in the EPO Patent Information Conference in Sofia.

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.