Annual Technical Report on Trademark Information Activities in 2019 submitted by SK/The Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic
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I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN TRADEMARK INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
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Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of trademark 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 Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) 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 results of the cooperation of industrial property offices of the EU member states through the European Trade Mark and Design Network within the EUIPO Convergence Programme, aimed at harmonization of the practices and eliminating differences of national industrial property offices procedures, are agreements about a common practice. The Office applies the agreed rules within the joint announcements in its trade mark law practice.
In 2019, the IPO SR continued to cooperate with the EUIPO in the area of convergence and harmonisation of trade mark practice. These were projects:
CP8 – General principles for assessing when the use of a trade mark in a form differing from the one registered alters its distinctive character
CP9 – Determining the distinctiveness of shape marks containing other elements when the shape itself is non-distinctive
CP10 – Criteria for assessing disclosure of designs on the internet
CP11 – Examination of formal requirements and grounds for refusal affecting new types of trade marks
CP12 – Filing, structure and presentation of evidence, and the treatment of confidential evidence in trade mark appeal proceedings
Over the course of the year 2019 had the Office assisted in the maintenance and updating of the electronic tools that are a result of the projects in cooperation with the EUIPO. It is mainly concerning a harmonized database of the goods and services - TM Class, on which the Office is cooperating with the EUIPO within the convergent programs. The IPO SR regularly updates and votes on the submitted proposals regarding this database.
Main areas of trademark information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year
Activities in trade mark 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 the record details are connected to European and international systems (e.g. Madrid Monitor); from an external database (e.g. TMview) a link to national web registers is implemented.
Operation and availability of TMview and Designview services on a new platform were ensured. In terms of cooperation with foreign institutions, tools for ensuring data conversion according to the WIPO standards were implemented for the needs of the project Data Acquisition based on Quality at Source.
Maintenance and updating the search system for trade marks – Acsepto® containing bibliographic data and images of national, international trade marks and European Union trade marks.
The projects and activities mentioned in the item above were realised in the co-operation with the EUIPO.
Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and registrations with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes
During 2019, the Office received 2,878 trade mark applications; it is by 5.2 % increase compared to the previous year.
Compared to 2018, the number of domestic applications increased by 3.6 % up to 2,314.
In 2019, 1.357 trade mark applications were filed internationally under the Madrid Agreement and the Protocol to Madrid Agreement; it represents decrease by 13.6 % compared to the previous year.
The total number of nationally registered trade marks increased by 5 % to 2,614.
The number of domestic registered trade marks increased by 7.3 % (2,106); the number of registered trade marks of foreign applicants decreased by 3.6 % to 508.
For comparison, we present statistical data on trade marks registered and registered in the years 2015 to 2019.
As of December 31, 2019, there were 46,984 valid national trade marks in the territory of the Slovak Republic.
Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
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
Trade mark-related news
Useful links
http://www.upv.sk/?dalsie-uzitocne-linky
Intellectual Property Magazine
http://www.upv.sk/?dusevne-vlastnictvo
IPO SR and IPO CZ Publications
IPO SR E-Zine
http://www.upv.sk/?e-zine-upv-sr
II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO TRADEMARK INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
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Information and support provided by the Office to applicants regarding filing on paper and/or e-filing (instructions, seminars, etc.) - URLs
Basic information for applicants related to IP subject matters applications are available on the website of the Office www.upv.sk. These are mainly application forms of particular type of industrial property right, legislation, instructions of the IPO SR and information for applicant, administrative fees, contact to expert assistance, etc. Below there are the individual areas of IP subject matters and relevant information sources with links to website of the Office, where they are available:
Trade marks
What Is a Trade mark?
https://www.indprop.gov.sk/?what-is-a-trademark
Information for Applicants
https://www.indprop.gov.sk/?information-for-applicants
Legislation
https://www.indprop.gov.sk/?legislation-in-force
Administrative Fees - Trade marks
https://www.indprop.gov.sk/?administrative-fees-trademarks-1
Madrid Protocol Concerning the International Registration of Trade Marks
https://www.indprop.gov.sk/?madrid-protocol-concerning-the-international-registration-of-marks
Filing Abroad
https://www.indprop.gov.sk/?ochranne-znamky-prihlasovanie-do-zahranicia
Renewal of international registrations(WIPO Marks E-Renewal System)
https://www.indprop.gov.sk/?madridska-dohoda-a-protokol-o-medzinarodnom-zapise-ochrannych-znamok
Madrid System Fees
https://www.indprop.gov.sk/?ochranne-znamky-sadzobnik-poplatkov-madridsky-system
Trade mark Classifications
https://www.indprop.gov.sk/?ochranne-znamky-systemy-triedenia
Data Extracted from Registers
https://wbr.indprop.gov.sk/WebRegistre/
Downloads
https://www.indprop.gov.sk/?downloads
http://www.upv.sk/?ochranne-znamky-dokumenty-na-prevzatie
Contacts
https://www.indprop.gov.sk/?contacts
Since February 1, 2014 the Central Public Administration Portal offers a form serving the general agenda, by means of which electronic filings can be made to every public institution in the Slovak Republic, thus also the IPO SR. From the 1st quarter of 2017, the Office also made specific electronic forms for trade mark.
In 2019, there were filed 2 878 national trade mark applications, 2 024 applications were filed electronically representing 70 % of the total.
The Office offers for electronic filing a customer service. The helpdesk contact information is available on the website of the Office http://www.upv.sk/?uzivatelsky-servis-a-helpdesk.
Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
Since 2019, the Office has been keeping records of files and records of the specialised registry (files and records related to proceedings on industrial property rights subject matters applications) through the Fabasoft electronic information system for registry management, which is integrated with the Inventio system and web registers. From the point of view of the registry, the application files are kept in a combined form, i.e. items of the file are, depending on the form of delivery or dispatch, in electronic and 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.
Matters concerning classifying
(i) Classification and reclassification activities; classification systems used, e.g., International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (Nice Classification), International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks (Vienna Classification), other classification
(ii) Use of electronic classification systems and pre-defined terms of the classification applied
(i) Goods and services are classified in accordance with the actual version of the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (Nice Classification). In the IPO SR exist an obligatory classifying system of goods and services by applicant according the said Classification. The last version of the International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks (Vienna Classification) is used as the code system of figurative elements of trade marks, which are classified by Office's expert.
The WIPO Standard ST.60 is used for trade mark 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.
(ii)
In accordance with the Act No.506/2009 the applicant is obliged to indicate in the application the goods and services for which the trade mark is filed, according to the International Classification (Nice Classification) accompanied with the appropriate number of this Classification. But there is no obligation for applicants to use pre-defined terms of the classification.
Matters concerning processing of different types of non-traditional marks (e.g., three-dimensional, motion, hologram, color mark, etc.)
Pursuant to the amended Decree No. 567/2009 Coll., implementing Act No. 506/2009 Coll. on Trade marks as amended by Decree No. 332/2018 Coll., within the scope of a trade mark application, the Office also accepts new types of expressions of the applied designations, i.e. positional, pattern, sound, motion, multimedia, holographic and other. Depending on the type, the JPG, MP3, MP4 electronic file format can be used for individual types of expressions of the applied designations.
Other activities
Information Centre
http://www.upv.sk/?information-centre
The Information Centre provided the clients of the Office with general information on IP protection for individual subject matters, on filing applications and related administration fees. Within the consultations also information on IP protection in the Slovak Republic and also abroad were provided (European union trade mark, international trade mark).
The information were provided personally, by phone (+421 48 4300 131), by post and e-mail address infocentrum@indprop.gov.sk.
During 2019, 5 591 requests for information were processed at the information centre (of which 4 138 by telephone, 1 292 by e-mail, 147 in person, by post 14).
Pre-diagnostics of industrial property rights
http://www.upv.sk/?prediagnostika-priemyselnych-prav
To increase the IP awareness, to support innovations, creativity and competitiveness of small and middle-sized enterprises is a primary goal of the IP pre-diagnostics, which have been provided by the IPO SR experts since 2008.
Three department employees performed pre-diagnostics service. In 2019, 32 pre-diagnostics were realised.
Naturally, the attention continued to be focused on innovative companies and institutions - for example, the Institute of Animal Physiology, Košice, an independent institute of the SAS; TANAX TRUCS a. s., Bratislava; Nexis Fibers a. s., Humenné; Banská Bystrica company EIBEN s. r. o., manufacturer of cryochambers Cryoniq s.r.o., Nové Zámky.
As in previous years, the IPO SR also promoted the protection of traditional craft and food products by protected geographical indications. In Rimavské Zalužany, the local craftsman Ladislav Hedvigi produces club toys decorated with traditional tracery decoration; the Company of Voľanský Family from Bardejov offers honeydew of high quality (awarded at world exhibitions); the liqueur made from hand-picked Orava blueberries - Hafirovica - is produced by the company of married couple Beňuš, Hafirovica s. r. o. from Oravská Polhora.
In cooperation with the Slovak Design Center, the Office also this year promoted the importance of protecting interesting design works. Again, the Office was approached by designers, among them Vlasta Kubušová from Crafting Plastics! Studio, focusing on the use of degradable bioplastics in everyday consumer products. In the case of this Studio, we recommended industrial property protection not only by design, but also by utility model.
III. SOURCES OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE
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Main types of publications in the field of trademark information, outline of the content and medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URLs)
Publication of trade marks
The Office publishes announcements relating to published trade mark applications and registered/ renewed trade marks in the Official Journal.
In 2019, there were published in the Official Journal:
2,708 trade mark applications,
2,457 trade mark registrations without amendments after publication of the application,
124 trade mark registrations with amendments after publication of the application, and
1,963 trade mark renewals.
Official Journal “Vestník ÚPV SR“
http://www.upv.sk/?vestnik-uradu-priemyselneho-vlastnictva-slovenskej-republiky
Trade mark information forms part of the Official Gazette - “Vestník ÚPV SR”, covering all industrial property rights in one publication.
Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online, URL), etc.
A free official edition of the IPO SR Gazette is available through the Office website as of January 2016 http://www.upv.sk/?vestnik-uradu-priemyselneho-vlastnictva-slovenskej-republiky. It is issued monthly. Older official editions of the Gazette published in the years 1993 – 2007 are published in printed form. In the years 2008 – 2015 the Gazette was published on CD-ROM in PDF format.
The Journal contains trade marks announcements arranged in following main chapters:
- published trade mark applications (list of published trade mark applications and their bibliographic data including the list of goods and services arranged according to the application numbers)
- registered trade marks without change after publishing an application (list of registered trade marks without change after publishing an application in comparison to applied sign and their bibliographic data arranged according to the registration numbers)
- registered trade marks with change after publishing an application (list of registered trade marks with change after publishing an application in comparison to applied sign and their bibliographic data arranged according to the registration numbers)
- registered trade marks based on trade mark applications resulting from the conversion of the international registration to national application in accordance with the Article 9quinquis of the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement (list and bibliographic data of these registered trade marks arranged according to the registration number)
- renewed registrations of trade mark (list of renewed registrations of trade mark and their bibliographic data arranged according to the registration numbers)
- termination of the proceedings on trade mark applications
- refused trade mark applications
- terminated trade mark
- international registrations of trade marks
- bibliographic data of registered trade marks replaced by an international registration according to the article 4 bis of the Madrid Agreement and article 4 bis of the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks (arranged according to the international registration numbers)
- changes of the trade mark proprietor (on the basis of the court decision)
- trade marks declared invalid
- trade marks revoked and declared invalid for certain goods and services
- transfers and transfers of rights to trade mark applications and to trade marks
- partial transfers to trade mark applications and to trade marks
- changes of disposition rights to trade mark applications and to trade marks
- changes of disposition rights to trade mark applications and to trade marks
- license agreements registered for trade mark applications and for trade marks
- termination of validity of license agreements for trade mark applications and for trade marks
- sublicense agreements registered for trade mark applications and for trade marks
- termination of validity of sublicense agreements for trade mark applications and for trade marks
- amendments to agreements on the use of a collective trade mark
- trade mark applications executions and trade marks executions
- termination of trade mark applications executions and trade marks executions
- changes of data concerning trade mark owners/ applicants
- changes in the list of goods and services
- changes of wording or reproductions of trade mark
- changes in trade mark expression
- corrections of names, addresses, dates and mistakes
Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external documentation and databases
- IPO SR Official Journal http://www.upv.sk/?vestnik-uradu-priemyselneho-vlastnictva-slovenskej-republiky
- Extracted data from register https://wbr.indprop.gov.sk/webregistre/
- Internal database system „INVENTIO“ for managing the industrial property subjects
- Freely accessible foreign databases http://www.upv.sk/?zahranicne-online-databazy#znamky
External databases
Internet databases in particular:
- Registered trade marks database of the IPO CZ, coverage: CZ
- WIPO Gazette of International Marks, coverage: worldwide
- WIPO International Trade mark Information Database Madrid Monitor, coverage: worldwide
- European Union Trade marks Database EUIPO accessible via e-search at the EUIPO portal, coverage: EUTM applications
- National database USPTO, coverage US
- National database IPO UK, coverage GB
- Research system TMview, coverage: EUIPO, WIPO and national databases of certain EU countries and also outside EU (coverage changes by the access of other countries)
- System on searching and classification of goods and services TMclass
- WIPO Global Brand Database - link: http://www.wipo.int/reference/en/branddb/, coverage: worldwide
See also foreign collections of gazettes, optical discs and databases as parts of the examination file mentioned in the Chapter 4.
Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) and services 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 trade mark register, which are kept by the Office with the possibility of simple and advanced search or browsing results. Data concerning in particular pending trade mark applications, all filed applications or registered trade marks in the register are daily updated.
- “Classification Systems” http://www.upv.sk/?systemy-triedenia contains trade mark classifications used in Slovakia, links to other classifications systems for classifying trade marks used in the world and other useful information http://www.upv.sk/?systemy-triedenia-ochranne-znamky
- Official Journal "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.
In the part ”International and EU databases” there are links to the most frequently used on-line databases http://www.upv.sk/?zahranicne-online-databazy#znamky.
Products and services
URL addresses providing basic information concerning the information services offered and information products issued by the Office and other relevant information relating to their accession and utilization
- IPO SR Official Gazette http://www.upv.sk/?official-gazette
- magazine “Intellectual Property” http://www.upv.sk/?dusevne-vlastnictvo
http://www.upv.sk/?other-products
- IPO SR and IPO CZ publications http://www.upv.sk/?publikacie
http://www.upv.sk/?other-products
- IPO SR E-zine http://www.upv.sk/?e-zine-upv-sr
- on-line order forms http://www.upv.sk/?online-orders
- price list http://www.upv.sk/swift_data/source/pdf/Cennik.pdf
- data extracted from register https://wbr.indprop.gov.sk/webregistre/
- IPO SR reading room http://www.upv.sk/?other-services
- searches http://www.upv.sk/?searches
- search system TMview http://tmview.europa.eu/tmview/welcome.html?language=sk
- Information centre http://www.upv.sk/?information-centre
- Contacts http://www.upv.sk/?contacts
The Office library provides following services to the public
- providing general information and professional consulting assistance for the public
- lending service (Official Gazettes, special monographs and reference literature) in the reading room
- sale of special monographs and periodical publications (“Intellectual Property” printed and electronic form) upon request or on the place
- reprographic services upon request or on the place
- on-line searches in Office’s search system, self-service during a personal visit
- searches in International Trade marks Database Madrid Monitor, in European trade mark databases CTM-online and TMview
- searches upon request - orders in written and on-line form
- registry information provided in the reading room
Trade mark and related information on the World Wide Web
- general information
- information about Office activities (seminars, training courses, etc.)
- application guide and forms
- administrative fees
- relevant laws
- Annual Reports
- extracted data from register
- Official Gazette
- order forms (searches, Official Gazette, special literature)
- Nice Classification (11-2019)
- Vienna Classification (8-th edition)
- trade mark classifications and related information
- annual technical reports on trade mark information (2002-2019)
Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)
Information on the legal status is in the internal register of trade marks. 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 TMview where the data are mentioned by the EUIPO based on the information from the IPO SR within the common project.
Other sources
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IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO TRADEMARK INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
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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 online trade mark database kept by the Industrial Property Office serves for national trade marks searches and purposes of proceedings on trade mark applications. Selected register data are available to the public in the Internet http://www.upv.sk/?databases-and-registers.
International trade marks searches were performed in the Madrid Monitor Internet database and in the Office management system “INVENTIO” for administration of international trade marks with designation for SK.
In the beginning of 2006, the Office implemented a new search system Acseptoâ. It enables performing the professional trade mark searches for designations of products and services in databases of national, international and European trade marks as well as in other selected trade mark databases.
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 trade mark applications and national registered trade marks, international trade marks with designation of the Slovak Republic under the Madrid Agreement and Protocol and trade marks conversed from European Union Trade marks applications or European Union Trade marks via the internal system Inventio. Selected data are available to public in webregisters and are being updated daily.
It is possible to carry out searches according to bibliographic data in all the databases used for the trade marks.
Documentation from other offices maintained and/or considered part of the available search file:
Trade mark gazettes form also part of the available search files of the Office. In 2019, within the frame of mutual exchange, the IPO SR continued in receiving trade mark gazettes from the following states: Bulgaria and Kyrgyzstan.
Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)
Official automated system for managing the industrial property subjects “INVENTIO 3”contains registers of national and international trade marks (data since 1990 - national trade marks and data since 1947 - international trade marks).
Administrative management system is based on Lotus Domino and Fabasoft eGov Suite. In January 2017, Fabasoft eGov Suite also extended for the administration of a specialised registry related to industrial property rights subject matters.
Other matters
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V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION
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Office's library (if deals with trademark information): equipment, collection management, network of libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign libraries
In 2019, the Office’s reading room has been visited by 63 users. In total there were provided 52 borrowings of patent and other literature made available to the public and 883 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 2019 there were performed 271 trade mark searches, 22 searches on bibliographic data and 554 EUTM searches were performed for the EUIPO.
The Office’s reading room serves as a WIPO deposit library as well. The deposit library fund includes 322 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 14:30.
In 2019, within the frame of mutual exchange of industrial-property information, the IPO SR continued in receiving of trade mark information in the form of official gazettes. Non-patent literature was acquired mostly by purchase or as a gift and processed, stored according to librarian rules and made available via in-house database system “Knižnica” to the staff.
Patent Information Centres and Contact and Information Points
Since 2003 the Office has cooperated with Contact and Information Points, while some of them are also the Patent Information Centres (PATLIB). They are located in state, regional and district libraries as well as in the Slovak National Library (SNK) in Martin and Centre of Scientific and Technical Information (CVTI) in Bratislava and within the University of Žilina as the Centre for Technology Transfer. Nowadays 11 Contact and Information Points are located in Slovakia and 5 of them are Patent Information Centres. A list of centres and points is available on the Office’s web site http://www.upv.sk/?partners.
The main goal of patent information centres is to provide complex information services in the field of patent, trade mark and industrial design information, search services, consultation and methodical assistance concerning the searching of information, making copies of required patent documents, printing records from electronic form etc. Every patent information centre serve as a contact and information point.
The main goal of contact and information points of the Office is to inform the public about where can apply for protection of the results of creative activity, and particularly to inform the general public about the existence of the national institution, which protects immaterial goods, industrial property.
The Office supported the activity of centres and contact and information points by regular sending Slovak patent specifications in paper form and the Official Gazette in electronic form, as well as all information materials and recourses made available to the public, publications published by Office, information pamphlets, documents and forms relating to applying for protection of industrial property rights, access to office¢s databases via Internet etc.
Representatives of Centres and Contact Points participated in 2019 in the Conference organised by the Office on the occasion of the World Intellectual Property Day on April 27, and PATLIB Centres representatives at the Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information in Bratislava, the State Scientific Library in Banská Bystrica and the State Scientific Library in Košice representatives also participated in the Summit PATLIB. The Summit, which was organised by the European Patent Office in cooperation with the host Portuguese Institute of Industrial Property, was held in May 6 – 7, 2019, in Porto. It was a strategic meeting to reflect on the concept of developing PATLIB Centres and to prepare the ground for reorienting PATLIB Centres to highly qualified and various kinds of modern services providers. The PATLIB Centres employees had the possibility to participate in the educational programme Intellectual Property for free. In 2019, two employees from the State Scientific Library in Banská Bystrica completed the course.
Information and Advisory Points for Innovations (InnoInfo)
The role of fourteen INNOINFOs located in the Slovak regions is to raise awareness on IP protection among SMEs. INNOINFO are placed in business incubators (Incubator Malacky and BIC Bratislava, spol. s r. o.), regional information and advisory centres – RPIC Komárno, Poprad, Prešov, Regional Development Agency Kysuce in Čadca and regional chambers of the Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry and at technical universities– Technical University of Košice, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava and University Science Park, University in Žilina. Currently five regional Chambers of Commerce and Industry – Bratislava, Trenčín, Banská Bystrica, Košice and Prešov are partners of the Office as the ”innoinfo”.
In the Košice Regional Chamber premises, the Open Day of the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic was organised. During that day, the Office´s employees provided provided interested entrepreneurs with information concerning a general overview of intellectual property, as well as search options and the basics of document searching.
Director of Patent Department and Director of Trade Marks and Designs Department provided the Bratislava Regional Chamber with the latest information in the field of industrial property protection of patents, designs and trade marks, and the Director of Receiving and Changes Department presented the applications electronic filing and subsequent filings.
Publications related to different business procedures and trademark 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 2019 include:
- International application under the PCT (electronic form of publication);
- Annual report of the Industrial Property Office of SR 2018;
- Magazine Duševné vlastníctvo (Intellectual Property Magazine) - the only Slovak periodical focused on the issues of industrial rights and copyright. In 2019, the Office issued four issues of the magazine in electronic and printed forms.
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 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.
In 2019, the number of visits of the IPO SR web portal was approximately 181,000. The most users were from Slovakia (approximately 67 %), followed by users from France (11 %), the Czech Republic (approximately 5 %), the USA (4 %), and surprisingly from South Korea (up to 2 %). 18 % of users are regularly returning portal users. Databases and web registers (9.4 %) are the most visited subpages of the portal. They are followed by trade marks (9 %), patents (3.2 %) and utility models (1.5 %). More than 60 % of visitors visit the pages directly through the link to a particular subpage – not via the main page of the portal first.
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 expressions and designs representations and sequence items.
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 50, at the end of 2019 this number reached nearly 530.
PORTAL http://www.dusevnevlastnictvo.gov.sk/
The IPO SR cooperates with the Ministry of Culture of SR in keeping the portal http://www.dusevnevlastnictvo.gov.sk. This information portal is a digital platform to give a basic overview, orientation and information resources across all IP subject matters. It contains information on copyright and rights related to copyright, IP rights, the law against unfair competition, it also includes information on the legal regulation of trade names, trade secrets and know-how.
Cooperation with universities, technology and innovation support centers, etc.
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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.
4 lectures were held for elementary schools, 13 for secondary schools and 6 for universities. The lectures for elementary and secondary schools included the Office excursion and Scientific Toy. 12 lectures were held for entrepreneurs. For educational activities aimed at small and middle-sized entrepreneurs, the cooperation with their professional associations in particular regions was proved successful.
At the turn of April and May, the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic carried out an internship programme resulting from the Cooperation Agreement with Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica. The two-week programme was attended by students of the Faculty of Law of UMB (4) and students of the Faculty of Political Sciences and International Relations of UMB (4).
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 World Intellectual Property Day
Every year, on April 26, we celebrate the World Intellectual Property Day to remind ourselves of the importance of intellectual property rights (patents, trade marks, designs and copyrights) in promoting innovations and creativity. This year's World Intellectual Property Day campaign – Reach for Gold – looked closer into the world of sport. The campaign explored how innovation, creativity and intellectual property rights protect the development of sport and promote the enjoyment of sport around the world. On this occasion, the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic in Banská Bystrica organised the 19th Annual Conference Intellectual Property in Slovakia. The conference featured topics on copyright in sport, intellectual property rights infringement in organising events, winners of the National Design Award 2018 and innovative patent video technology were presented.
On September 12, 2019, the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic in cooperation with the European Union Office for Intellectual Property organised the Conference Intellectual Property and its Impact on the State Economy the aim of which was to highlight the alarming impact of intellectual property rights infringements on a global as well as on a regional levels. The Executive Director of the European Union Office for Intellectual Property Christian Archambeau and the Minister of Culture of the Slovak Republic Ľubica Laššáková accepted the invitation to the Conference.
Researchers' Night
On September 27, 2019, the Office joined the thirteenth year of the Science Festival in Slovakia - European Researchers' Night 2019. The IPO SR employees participated in the project in Banská Bystrica and Žilina, where they provided information on the intellectual property protection to both laic and professional public. Quizzes about inventions and inventors were prepared for children.
The IPO SR representatives participated at five international fairs in Nitra and Bratislava (Danubius gastro Exposhop Gastropack, Fishing, Hunting and Beekeeping, Furniture and Living, CONECO – RACIOENERGIA, the International Engineering Fair and Agrokomplex in Nitra), where they promoted the Office´s activities and provided information on the field of industrial property protection.
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.
In April, the exhibition Made in Paper, which is a joint project of the Technical University in Zvolen and the Tomas Bata University in Zlín, was opened in the entrance area of the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic. Students from the Department of Furniture and Interior Design of the Technical University in Zvolen and the Tomas Bata University in Zlín, inspired by paper, explored the unique properties of this material as a supporting construction material that could be applied, for example, in furniture production.
Last year the Office repeatedly participated in the competition National Design Prize 2019, organised by the Slovak Design Centre with the Ministry of Culture of SR. The IPO SR Head of the Office JUDr. Ing. Petra Presperínová attended the ceremonial announcement of the results.
Educational Programme the Intellectual Property
Based on the decision of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic from April 30, 2019, and the certificate of re-accreditation No. 1308/2019/54/1 the IPO SR provides Educational Programme the Intellectual Property.
Since January 2019, the Programme Intellectual property continued at the Office by the Module B – CREATIVITY – ITS MANAGEMENT, MARKETING AND ECONOMICS, which terminated in February 2019. From March 2019 to May 2019 the Module C – INFORMATION IN THE FIELS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY – was running. 22 participants of the Programme successfully completed module B in February and in May 2019 22 participants completed the Module C. In the school year 2019/2020 since September 26, the Institute Intellectual Property continues by the Module D – INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY LAW. It has been running all school year and consists of the following units: Industrial Rights and Related and Associated Rights, Patent and Trade Mark Rights. 20 participants attend the Module D. In October 2019 6 participants successfully defended their final works.
At the turn of April and May, the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic carried out an internship programme resulting from the Cooperation Agreement with Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica. The two-week programme was attended by students of the Faculty of Law of UMB (4) and students of the Faculty of Political Sciences and International Relations of UMB (4).
The Industrial Property Office of SR in cooperation with the Slovak Chamber of Patent Attorneys organised in November 2019 the professional examination to perform patent attorney activities. The examination was successfully passed by one applicant.
Other activities
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VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION
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International exchange of trademark information in machine-readable form (e.g., Official Gazettes)
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Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to trademark information
In 2019, the tools implemented through the European Cooperation Projects (ECP) of the EUIPO continued to be actively used and were available not only to national experts but also to the public. These include tools in application CESTO (Common Support Tool for Examiners), Quality (Centralising Information on IP Office Quality Standards), Seniority and Similarity (IP Office Assessments of Similarity between Goods and Services), also TMview and (Trade Mark Search Tool) and TMClass (Trade Mark Classification Tool) portals.
Since 2014, the Office's Information Centre experts have been using the results of the Common Central Database project, which was implemented in the EUIPO to build up the so-called Knowledge Database. It means that questions about EUTM or RCD or related questions are transferred by the Office´s experts to EUIPO experts to harmonise answers about EUTM or RCD.
EUTM searches
According to the Council Regulation No. 2424/2015 on the Community trade mark the Office carries out the searches on EU trade marks. The number of requests under the system applicable to applications for the EU trade marks has been stabilized at an average of 14 trade marks per week and 554 searches were processed in year 2019.
Similarly as in case of the services provided to the public the search system Acsepto® has been used also for EUTM searches. It enables making searches of word, picture and combined trade marks within all designations applied for or protected in the territory of the Slovak Republic.
Project TMview
In 2019 the Office made Slovak trade marks available periodically in the search system TMview http://tmview.europa.eu/tmview/welcome.html. It is a database of trade marks of the EU member states aimed at searching and informative searches on interchangeability with references and links to national databases in languages of all participated countries and with the system TMclass for the assistance in classification of goods and services.
Assistance to developing countries
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Other activities
Based on agreements on data provision the Office sends monthly the data on trade marks published in the Gazette to company Thomson CompuMark.
VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS
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