Annual Technical Report on Patent Information Activities in 2018 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 2018, the Strategy of Activities at the Office until 2022, which includes activities in the area of patent information, was adopted. The Office intends in 2018 - 2022 to pursue the following main priorities to improve the quality of services provided and to optimize the Office's activities:

• Computerization of the Office - to continue with computerization of the Office and to incorporate the current requirements of the national e-Government, to create technical means for the main principle of e-Government “once-only principle”;
• Open data - in the framework of the Government Initiative for Open Governance, to make available data of an intangible nature, which, due to the development of the informatisation of society, currently exists mainly in the form of electronic data;
• Streamlining of activities - continuation of the modernization of the Unified Information System of the Office with regard to the legislation development, international relations and information technologies, digitization of paper files for speeding up proceedings, etc.;
• Awareness-raising - aiming at transfer of knowledge and importance of using intellectual property protection to research and practice, raising awareness of industrial property protection from elementary schools to universities;
• Improving the quality of the Office services and outputs – continuing the participation in cooperation projects with the European Patent Organisation (EPO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) as well as implementation of results of these projects and using tools.

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 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 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). Within the cooperation with the EPO, the Office continued implementing tools for ensuring data conversion according to WIPO standards for purpose the project “Quality at source”. By accession to the FePR service in 2018, the Office continued to provide data on the legal status of the EP with the designation of the Slovak Republic.

Main areas of patent information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year

Activities in patent information area were focused on the maintenance of the system of making data available from the Office registers on the Internet (Webregisters II), its regular updating and modifications related to changes in legislation. Selected data in record details are linked to European and international systems (EPO Register, Espacenet, WIPO Patentscope, etc.).

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

Totally 231 patent applications were filed with the IPO SR during 2018; It was almost 12 % more than in previous year. The share of PCT applications is 1.3 % (3 applications) of the total applications filed.

The number of applications filed by domestic applicants (216) increased by 18 % and the number of foreign applicants (14) decreased by 39.1 %. Most foreign applicants of the total number 14 were from the Czech Republic (10).

The number of granted patents in 2018 is 109; it has increased by 32.9 % compared to previous year.

28 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, 5 international searches and written opinions to international applications were drawn up.

By December 31, 2018, there were 19,247 valid patents registered in the Slovak Republic; 1,163 of them were granted by a national route.

The largest share of the total number of applications is represented by applications from: Handling, Printing (10.82 %), Transport (10.39 %), Civil Engineering, Construction, Mining (9.52 %), Analytical, Measuring, Control Technologies (9.52 %).

Supplementary Protection Certificates

In the period from January 1, 2018, until December 31, 2018, 41 applications for supplementary protection certificate were filed. All of them were filed by foreign applicants; most applications were from the USA – 14, Switzerland – 9 and Japan – 5.

24 supplementary protection certificates were granted.

European Patents

In 2018, 3,391 translations of European patent documents were made available.

By December 31, 2018, there were 18,084 European patents valid in the territory of the Slovak Republic.

Utility Models

In 2018, 388 utility model applications were filed with the IPO SR. This is a decrease by 5.8 % compared to previous year. The number of applications filed by Slovak applicants decreased by 6.7 % (320). The share of domestic applicants is 82.5 % of the total number 388 filed applications.

The number of registered utility models (337) increased by 9.8 %.

By December 31, 2018, there were 1,872 utility models valid in the territory of the Slovak Republic.

Most registered utility models are from: Transport (12.46 %), Consumer Goods and Equipment (10.68 %), Civil Engineering, Construction, Mining (10.09 %).

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 2014 – 2018:

Patent and utility model statistics_2018.docx

Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.

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

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

Patent, utility models and supplementary protection certificates-related news
http://www.upv.sk/

Useful links
http://www.upv.sk/?linky
http://www.upv.sk/?dalsie-uzitocne-linky

Intellectual Property Magazine
http://www.upv.sk/?dusevne-vlastnictvo

IPO SR and IPO CZ Publications
http://www.upv.sk/?publikacie

IPO SR E-Zine

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

II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Information and support provided by the Office to applicants regarding filing on paper and/or e-filing (instructions, seminars, etc.) - URLs

Basic information for applicants related to IP subject matters applications are available on the website of the Office at www.upv.sk. These are mainly application forms of particular type of industrial property right, legislation, instructions of the IPO SR and information for applicant, administrative fees, contact to expert assistance, etc. Below are the individual areas of IP subject matters and relevant information sources with links to website of the Office, where they are available:

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

What Can Be Protected and How?
http://www.upv.sk/?what-and-how-can-be-protected
Information for Patent Applicants
http://www.upv.sk/?information-for-patent-applicants
Legislation
http://www.upv.sk/?patents-legislation
Instruction of the IPO SR
http://www.upv.sk/?instruction-of-the-industrial-property-office-of-the-slovak-republic-defining-uniform-layout-of-the-patent-application
Administrative Fees - Patents
http://www.upv.sk/?patents-administrative-fees
Maintenance Fees - Patents
http://www.upv.sk/?patents-maintenance-fees
Filing Abroad
http://www.upv.sk/?patenty-prihlasovanie-do-zahranicia
PCT Fees
http://www.upv.sk/?patents-pct-fees
License Offers
http://www.upv.sk/?patenty-ponuky-licencii
Patent Classification
http://ipc.indprop.gov.sk/ipcpub/#refresh=page
Data Extracted from Registers
https://wbr.indprop.gov.sk/webregistre/

Downloads
http://www.upv.sk/?downloads
http://www.upv.sk/?patenty-dokumenty-na-prevzatie
Contacts
http://www.upv.sk/?contacts

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

Why Utility Models ?
http://www.upv.sk/?why-utility-models
Information for Utility Model Applicants
http://www.upv.sk/?information-for-utility-model-applicants
Legislation - Utility Models
http://www.upv.sk/?utility-models-legislation
Instruction of the IPO SR
http://www.upv.sk/?instruction-of-the-industrial-property-office-of-the-slovak-republic-defining-uniform-layout-of-a-utility-model-application
Administrative Fees - Utility Models
http://www.upv.sk/?administrative-fees-utility-models
Filing Abroad
http://www.upv.sk/?uzitkove-vzory-prihlasovanie-do-zahranicia
PCT Fees
http://www.upv.sk/?uzitkove-vzory-poplatky-pct
Downloads
http://www.upv.sk/?downloads
http://www.upv.sk/?uzitkove-vzory-dokumenty-na-prevzatie
Data Extracted from Registers
https://wbr.indprop.gov.sk/webregistre/

Patent Classification
http://ipc.indprop.gov.sk/ipcpub/#refresh=page
Contacts
http://www.upv.sk/?contacts

Supplementary Protection Certificates http://www.upv.sk/?supplementary-protection-certificates

What is a Supplementary Protection Certificate
http://www.upv.sk/?what-is-a-supplementary-protection-certificate
Information for Applicants
http://www.upv.sk/?supplementary-protection-certificate-information-for-applicants
Legislation - Supplementary Protection Certificate
http://www.upv.sk/?legislation-supplementary-protection-certificate
Administrative Fees - Supplementary Protection Certificates
http://www.upv.sk/?administrative-fees-supplementary-protection-certificate
Maintenance fees - Supplementary Protection Certificates
http://www.upv.sk/?supplementary-protection-certificate-maintenance-fees
Filing Abroad
http://www.upv.sk/?dodatkove-ochranne-osvedcenia-prihlasovanie-do-zahranicia
Downloads
http://www.upv.sk/?downloads
http://www.upv.sk/?dodatkove-ochranne-osvedcenia-dokumenty-na-prevzatie
Data Extracted from Registers - Webregisters
https://wbr.indprop.gov.sk/webregistre/

Contacts
http://www.upv.sk/?contacts

In the past, the Office in cooperation with the EPO implemented the system EPTOS enabling to file with the Office:
- European patent applications
- National patent applications
- National utility model applications
- Applications for granting supplementary protection certificates
- Translations of patent claims of published European patent applications with designation for the Slovak Republic into the Slovak language
- Translations of European patent files with designation for the Slovak Republic into the Slovak language
- Subsequently filed documents to:
national patent applications
national utility model applications
translations of patent claims of published European patent applications into the Slovak language
translations of European patent files into the Slovak language

The mentioned electronic filings shall be signed with electronic signature.

The Office offers a customer service for electronic filing issues. The users may find the help desk contact information at the following link: http://www.upv.sk/?uzivatelsky-servis-a-helpdesk. At the help desk they may get general information on electronic filing via the EPTOS system and troubleshoot potential problems. In this part of the website can also be found user manuals and FAQs, which are available at the following link: http://www.upv.sk/?elektronicke-podavanie-prihlasok-faq.

Since 1 February 2014, the Central Public Administration Portal offers a form to serve the general agenda. By means of this form it is possible to make electronic filings to every public institution in the Slovak Republic, thus also to the IPO SR. From the 1^st quarter of 2017, the Office also made specific electronic forms for patents, utility models and supplementary protection certificates available to users within the deployment of the IPO Electronic Services Project. The Office continues in operating the system EPTOS, which was implemented in the cooperation with the EPO.

In 2018, 232 national patent applications were filed, 119 of them were filed electronically (51 % of the total); 388 national utility model applications, 203 of them were filed electronically (52 % of the total); 41 applications for supplementary protection certificates, 20 of them were filed electronically (49 % of the total).

Availability of the application dossier in electronic form

The Office conducts the application file only in paper form. An overview of items of proceedings for each application is available in Webregisters in the record detail in the Protocol tab without possibility to read individual items contents.

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 2018.01 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 2018.01 had been used in the Office for classification the Slovak patent documents until the end of 2018.

In cooperation with the WIPO, the IPCPUB software tool has been used since 2009 for operating the Slovak and English versions of the IPC in a standardized electronic form on the Internet. Slovak editions of the IPC in the electronic form are made accessible to public and the Office employees on the site http://ipc.indprop.gov.sk.

Digitalisation and indexing

As part of the creation of patent documents, monthly additions of patent documents ((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) are regularly created and indexed in electronic form (pdf and xml formats).

Processing of bibliographic data

The WIPO Standard ST.9 is used for patent and utility model bibliographic data coding in all relevant outcomes or records. All bibliographic data are being processed in electronic database form. The fully searchable data are updated and made available to the public daily in the Internet.

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

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

When publishing applications, the Office shall translate the names of patent and utility model applications into English. When granting a patent and entering a utility model into the Register, the Office shall translate also an abstract into English. Translations of these abstracts and names into English are being sent to the EPO regularly to publish them in the Espacenet database, in which their machine translations are available in 31 other languages.

Abstracts are being published on title pages of patent specifications and as parts of notifications in the Official Gazette in the part related to published patent applications and published utility model applications.

Other activities

Information Centre
http://www.upv.sk/?information-centre

The Information Centre provided the clients of the Office with general information on IP protection for individual subject matters, on filing applications and related administration fees. Within the consultations also information on IP protection in the Slovak Republic and also abroad 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 2018 the Information Centre dealt with 5 551 requests for information; 4 059 thereof were provided by phone, 1 312 by e-mail, 171 personally and 9 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.

The IP rights pre-diagnostics was performed by three Department employees. In 2018, 32 pre-diagnostics were performed.

As in previous years, the IPO SR promoted the protection of traditional craft and food products by a geographical indication for a product, e.g. in Pukanec (Pukanec ceramics), in Čičmany (embroidery, traditional meal – chopped Čičmany gnocchi), Gápel pie in Valaská Belá and Muráň buns in Muráň village.

In cooperation with the Slovak Design Center, the Office promoted the importance of interesting design works protection. Consultations were provided to the winners of the individual categories of the National Design Award, namely SILBERMAN, spol. r. o., ski manufacturer, and authors who focused within the Crafting plastics! Studio on bioplastics research and their integration into everyday life products, in this case spectacles.

Naturally, the focus continued to be on innovative companies – Konštrukta Tire Tech, corp., Trenčín, Aweron, ltd., Dubnica nad Váhom, Alumined Industries, ltd., Sabinov, which appeared on the market with a new one-piece aluminum roof box, Hern, ltd., Námestovo, Grizzly, ltd., Šaľa, New Green Company, association.

In cooperation with partner organisations, in particular the Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Office provided consultations to companies and entrepreneurs who took part in the Open Day with joint consultations. Among such small and medium-sized enterprises, there were e.g. slovVellness, ltd., Košice, and TU Zvolen.

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 the PDF format are available in the Office´s web databases at https://wbr.indprop.gov.sk/webregistre/, in the system at http://sk.espacenet.com/ and also at http://worldwide.espacenet.com/?locale=en_EP.

Slovak patent documents from 1993 to 2008 are available on ESPACE ®-PRECES CD-ROM (CD-ROM contains patents from the Region of Eastern and Central European States). ESPACE ® ACCESS PRECES (complete bibliographic information) is used as an index to these fulltext CD-ROMs.

Official Gazette “Vestník ÚPV SR“ http://www.upv.sk/?vestnik-uradu-priemyselneho-vlastnictva-slovenskej-republiky

Patents and utility model information forms part of the Official Gazette - “Vestník ÚPV SR”, covering all industrial property rights in one publication.

The following numbers of documents were published in the Official Gazette in 2018:

165 published patent applications

101 granted patents

345 published utility model applications  

343 registered utility models

53 applications for granting SPC's  

19 granted SPC's

3 translations of patent claims of European patent applications with designation for SK

3 391 translations of European patent specifications with designation for SK

20 corrected translations of European patent specifications with designation for SK

58 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 for medicinal product or plant protection product

- 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 https://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.)

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

IPO SR makes accessible various databases on its website.

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 at 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 2018.01 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 printed and electronic form) upon request or on the place

- reprographic services upon request or on the place

- sending of copies of patent documents upon request

- searches on state of the art, international patent search, searches on patent families, bibliographic data upon request in written or on-line form

- 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 (please see the part Products and Services above)

- 7th edition of the IPC (fully searchable)

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

- IPC 2009 - IPC 2018.01 in standardized electronic form

- patent classifications and related information

- Annual technical reports on patent information (2002-2018)

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 EPO 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. The Document Management System (DMS) and some of the data required for Webregisters publishing have been moved to Fabasoft from Inventio. The Fabasoft system is also a central system integrated into some common modules of the Central Public Administration Portal (electronic mailbox module, authentication module, payment module, central electronic mailbox module, electronic delivery module and process integration and data integration module) to declared reference registers within the Slovak Republic (Register of Legal Entities, Entrepreneurs and Public Authorities; Natural Persons Register; Register of Addresses) and also with other systems of the Office such as the Electronic Forms Module and Webregisters.

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; Zotac Zbox.

CENTOS 7

Citrix XenApp 7.1906

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

It is possible to carry out searches according to bibliographic data in all the databases used for granted patents, published patent applications, registered utility models, utility model applications, European patents with designation for SK and supplementary protection certificates.

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 (20 titles of technical periodicals and 9,710 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 2018 the regular annual accession of optical discs reached 311 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 2018 the patent documents collection was supplemented by documents stored on optical discs from these states: Canada, China, Japan and Republic of Korea.

Patent and utility model gazettes form also part of the available search files of the Office. In 2018, within the frame of mutual exchange, the IPO SR continued in 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) (1976-2018)
KPA (Korean Patent Abstracts) (2007-2018)
Chinese Patent Bibliography Abstract (1985-2018)
Patent Applications of Canada – CA – A (1999-2018)
Granted Patents of Canada – CA – B (2000-2018)
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 and data since 2002 - supplementary protection certificates).

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 2018, the Office’s reading room has been visited by 102 users. In total were provided 104 borrowings of patent and other literature made available to the public and 1,380 copies of patent documents and other industrial property documents for manual and computer search purposes, as well as copies from technical periodicals and other associated and non-patent literature were made. In 2018 were performed 10 state-of-the-art patent searches, 19 patent searches with commentary and 3 searches on bibliographic data.

The Office’s reading room serves as a WIPO deposit library as well. The deposit library fund includes 300 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 965 patent documents in paper form and 311 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 1,245,530 documents, out of which 1,244,565 entries represented documents in electrical form. The patent literature (patent documentation and official gazettes) were acquired within the frame of mutual exchange and the non-patent literature mostly by purchase or as a gift.

A list of the complete patent documentation was regularly updated on the Office’s web site. Non-patent literature was processed, stored according to librarian rules and made available via in-house database system “Knižnica” to the staff.

Patent Information Centres and Contact and Information Points

Since 2003 the Office has cooperated with Contact and Information Points, while some of them are also the Patent Information Centres (PATLIB). They are located in state, regional and district libraries as well as in the Slovak National Library (SNK) in Martin and Centre of Scientific and Technical Information (CVTI) in Bratislava 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 can apply for protection of the results of creative activity, and particularly to inform the general public about the existence of the national institution, which protects immaterial goods, industrial property.

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

Information and Advisory Points for Innovations (InnoInfo)

The role of fourteen INNOINFOs located in the Slovak regions is to raise awareness on IP protection among SMEs. INNOINFO are placed 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”.

Within the first half of 2018 the cooperation with the Patent Information Centres (PATLIB) and Information and Advisory Points for Innovations (innoinfo) continued based on the cooperation agreements.

The Office approached almost all partner organisations and preliminarily agreed on another form of cooperation. On April 5, 2018, the training focused on performing search services was prepared for contact persons and attended by nine participants.

In the second half of the year, an open day was organised in the Banská Bystrica and Košice Regional Chambers of the SCCI, where the Office provided to the members of regional chambers consultations on the appropriate IP protection for their latest solutions. Within the seminar, the Office provided a survey of the system of IP protection, especially the possibilities of protection of technical solutions to the PhD students of the Technical University Košice. On September 29, 2018 the seminar focused on the company IP protection was held in the premises of the Bratislava Regional Chamber of SCCI, while representatives of the IPO SR informed mainly on trade marks, their characteristics, the amendment of Trade Mark Act and on new types of trade marks.

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 the public.

Publication activities of the Office during 2018 include:
• Annual Report of the Industrial Property Office of SR 2017;
• The magazine Duševné Vlastníctvo - currently is the only Slovak periodical focused on the issue of industrial rights and copyright. In 2018, the Office issued four issues of the magazine in electronic and printed form.

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

WEBSITE OF THE OFFICE – www.upv.sk

The website of the Office 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 access quickly to information and databases related to IP. Both Slovak and English versions provide information about upcoming conferences, seminars and other events.

The Office regularly publishes selected data from Registers in its Webregisters. 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 70, at the end of 2018 this number reached nearly 480.

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.

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. The Office also in 2018 continued in educational activities on IP protection importance for elementary and secondary schools pupils and also for academics and business community. 9 lectures were held for elementary schools, 15 for secondary schools and 6 for universities. Most of the lectures, particularly for elementary and secondary schools, included the Office excursion and Scientific Toy. 12 lectures were held for entrepreneurs.

SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS

The Slovak Chamber of Patent Attorneys in cooperation with the Industrial Property Office of SR organised a seminar IP Protection XIV, which took place at the hotel SOREA TRIGAN in Štrbské Pleso. On the first day, the lectures were presented by the IPO SR representatives focusing on trade marks: The Amendment to the Trade Marks Act and the Decree, Opposition Proceedings after the Amendment to the Trade Marks Act, Proceedings on EU Trade Mark Application vs. Proceedings on Trade Mark Application at the IPO SR. At the end of the day, Mark Gardonyi (VPI) presented the Visegrad Patent Institute.

The Seminar WIPO Services and Initiatives organised by the Industrial Property Office of SR in cooperation with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) took place in Bratislava on October 15, 2018. The Seminar was intended for the general public interested in the development of global services provided by this international Organization.

The Seminar organised by the European Patent Academy working at the European Patent Office (EPO) in cooperation with the Industrial Property Office of SR, aimed at the effective dialogue between patent experts and patent attorneys or applicants, took place in Bratislava on October 16-18, 2018.

PROMOTIONAL EVENTS

The IPO SR tries to get closer to the 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.

World IP Day V

On the occasion of the World Intellectual Property Day, the Office prepared several activities. On Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in cooperation with the Financial Directorate of SR and the civic association Scientific Toy, the Office prepared a lecture series with creative workshops for pupils and students. The main themes were creativity and counterfeiting. The accompanying program consisted of an exhibition of counterfeit goods secured by customs authorities and a creative workshop - making scientific toys (C.A. Scientific Toy). On Wednesday, April 25, 2018, the traditional Conference Intellectual Property in Slovakia XVIII, which focused on trade marks this year, followed. On Thursday, April 26, the Office's activities culminated in a seminar prepared by the Office in cooperation with EUIPO – EUIPO Boards of Appeal.

On September 28, 2018, the Office joined the twelfth year of the Science Festival in Slovakia – European Researchers' Night 2018. The IPO SR employees participated in the project in Banská Bystrica and Košice, where they provided information on the IP protection to both laic and professional public. Quizzes about inventions and inventors were prepared for children.

For the first time the Office in cooperation with the Banská Bystrica Information Centre prepared for the public the Town Wandering, regularly organised by the Banská Bystrica Information Centre and this year it focused on the Industrial Property Office of SR and its activities. The actions had more than 60 participants.

The IPO SR representatives participated at five the international fairs in Nitra and Bratislava (Furniture and Living, Danubius Gastro Exposhop Gastropack, CONECO, the International Engineering Fair and Agrokomplex in Nitra), where they promoted the Office's activities.

An Exhibition of works by Július Ciglan Colours and Curves of Poľana was made available in the premises of the Industrial Property Office of SR. The author emphasised the depiction of the colour of the extinct Poľana volcano in its various times and seasons. In April this Exposition was replaced by the Exhibition of paintings ATELIÉR 3G – Art Inspirations. In the end of the year, the premises of the Office were relieved by the presentation of the hand-painted screens by the author, Ing. arch. Ingrid Krajčovičová from graphic studio INAK Banská Bystrica.

Last year the Office repeatedly participated in the competition National Design Prize 2018 - Communication Design, organised by the Slovak Design Centre with the Ministry of Culture of SR.

Education Programme Intellectual Property 

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

In the first half of 2018 the Program Intellectual Property continued with the Module D – Industrial Property Law. In May 2018, the final exams were held in Module D, which was successfully completed by 22 participants. Since September the Program continues by the Module A - Intellectual Property and Copyright Basics. 21 participants successfully passed the exam. From December 2018 the program Intellectual Property continued with the Module B – Creativity – its Management, Marketing and Economics. Eight participants successfully defended their final work.

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 EPO related to patent information. The data were subsequently provided for the database Espacenet – administered by the EPO – freely accessible to public in Slovak language on the address http://sk.espacenet.com/ and European patent translations into the Slovak language were used for corpus of language necessary for realisation of another project of bilateral cooperation – Patent Translate.

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 Espacenet New project in November 2018 in Haag.

Participation in PATLIB 2018 Conference.

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.