Annual Technical Report on Industrial Design Information Activities in 2016 submitted by Slovakia
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Where URLs are requested below, it is preferred that either URLs which are likely to remain stable over time (three years or more) are provided, or home (main) page URLs are provided with a short explanation of how to access the corresponding information.
The expression "industrial designs" covers industrial designs and models.
Offices which issue design patents should report their design patent information activities in this series of Annual Technical Reports.
I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of industrial design information activities and expected time frames for their realization
In 2013 strategy of the Office´s activities by 2016 was adopted. It contains inter alia activities in the patent information area:
- To prepare the draft of the conception of the Office´s information services development by 2016 in accordance with the Strategic Plan of the Office;
- To identify the WIPO standards related to public services and data providing which are not or are partially implemented at the Office and to prepare the proposal for their implementation with the publication of their content in Slovak language for public;
- To prepare the proposal for implementation of new standardised processes and outputs of the Office related to provided services;
- To prepare the proposal for implementation of new and modification of existing public services of the Office;
To implement a new complex package of public services with relevant information materials and documents.
New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies(plans) mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks
Since 2011 the Office has realised the Projects of the Cooperation Fund of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) aimed at more effective providing services to national offices experts and clients and harmonization of the practice of national offices in proceedings on applications of trade marks and designs.
In 2016 the tools realised through the mentioned projects continued to be used actively and were available not only to national Office experts but also to public. These are tools in applications DesignView (Registered designs search tool) and Quality (Centralising information on IP Office quality standards).
More information is on the web site https://www.tmdn.org/
In 2014 also the Project Common Central Database, implemented in EUIPO and used by experts of the Office´s Call Centre to build so-called Knowledge Database, was launched. 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.
In the year 2016 had the Office completed its participation in two convergent programmes within the planned harmonization of procedures of the particular EU member states by means of a cooperation fund. The first programme was Convergence of graphic representations of designs. The second was Harmonization of product designation for the purpose of product specification in a design application. The results of these programmes are a joint announcement of the graphic representation of designs - CP6 Graphic Representation of a Design, in force in the Slovak Republic since April 15, 2016 - and the creation of a harmonized product database - CP7 Harmonisation of Product Indications in 23 EU languages. The cooperation also resulted in the creation of an electronic tool (Designclass) for updating the mentioned database with the direct participation of the concerned states via new proposals and voting on their acceptance or rejection.
Also in the year 2016 the Office continued to cooperate with an external supplier on the project the Electronic services of the IPO SR. The goal of this project is to make available the electronic forms for electronic filing, to modernize the Office´s backend systems and the disclosure of the modernized web registers on the website of the Office. In 2016 the works continued under the agreed Schedule.
Main areas of industrial design information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year
Plans about design information relate to implementation of a new system for making data from the Office registers available on the internet (Webregisters II) interconnected with European and international systems (eSearch, Designview, Hague Express,etc.).
Projects and activities in before-mentioned item were realised in cooperation with the EUIPO.
Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and grants (registrations) with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes
168 design applications were filed with the IPO SR in 2016; it is 76.8 per cent more than in the previous year. The most active foreign applicants were from the Sweden (71), Czech Republic (5) and France (5).
Slovak applicants filed 82 applications (decrease by 2.4 per cent). The share of domestic applications was 48.8 per cent of the total number of filed applications.
103 designs were registered in 2016; it is an increase by 9.6 per cent than in 2015.
On December 31, 2016 there were 834 valid national designs in the Slovak Republic.
For comparison there is the statistics on design applications and registrations of the years 2012 – 2016.
Industrial design statistics_2016.docx
Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
Annual Technical Reports on Designs:
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
Design-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 INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Information and support provided by the Office to applicants regarding filing on paper and/or e-filing (instructions, seminars, etc.) - URLs
Basic information for applicants related to IP subject matters applications are available on the website of the Office www.upv.sk. These are mainly application forms of particular type of industrial property right, legislation, instructions of the IPO SR and information for applicant, administrative fees, contact to expert assistance, etc. Below there are the individual areas of IP subject matters and relevant information sources with links to website of the Office, where they are available:
Designs http://www.upv.sk/?dizajny
What Is a Design ?
http://www.upv.sk/?what-is-a-design
Information for Applicants
http://www.upv.sk/?designs-information-for-applicant
Legislation - Designs
http://www.upv.sk/?legislation-designs
Administrative Fees - Designs
http://www.upv.sk/?administrative-fees-designs
Filing Abroad
http://www.upv.sk/?dizjany-prihlasovanie-do-zahranicia
Design Classifications
http://www.upv.sk/?dizajny-systemy-triedenia
Downloads
http://www.upv.sk/?dizajny-dokumenty-na-prevzatie
Data Extracted from Register
http://registre.indprop.gov.sk/registre/searchForm.do?lang=en®ister=vz
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. This service is mostly used exactly for trademark procedures. In the year 2016 had been filed this way over 22% of the total number of the nationally registered trademarks. As far as designs are concerned, in the year 2016 had in this manner been filed over 7% of the total number of the nationally filed applications in Slovakia.
Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
The Office conducts the application file only in the paper form.
Classification and reclassification activities; classification system used, e.g., International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification), other classification
The current version of the International Classification for Industrial Design (Locarno Classification) is used for classifying of designs, which are classified by Office´s experts.
The WIPO Standard ST.80 is used for design 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.
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 (Community design, international application filed under the Haag System for International Registration of Industrial Designs ).
The information were provided personally, by phone (+421 48 4300 131), by post and e-mail address infocentrum@indprop.gov.sk.
In 2016 the Information Centre dealt with 7,594 requests for information; 5,760 thereof were provided by phone, 1,567 by e-mail, 265 personally and 2 by post.
Pre-diagnostics of industrial property rights
http://www.upv.sk/?prediagnostika-priemyselnych-prav
To increase the IP awareness, to support innovations, creativity and competitiveness of small and middle-sized enterprises is a primary goal of the IP pre-diagnostics, which have been provided by the IPO SR experts since 2008. During 2016 the Office employees visited 26 companies in Slovakia.
III. SOURCES OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE
Main types of publications in the field of industrial design information, outline of the content (industrial design applications, design patents, registrations, etc.) and medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URLs)
Publication of designs
The Office publishes announcements relating to registered design publications in the Official Gazette.
The following numbers of registered designs were published in the Official Gazette 2016:
102 registered designs
38 registered designs with the extended term of validity
Official Gazette “Vestník ÚPV SR“ http://www.upv.sk/?vestnik-uradu-priemyselneho-vlastnictva-slovenskej-republiky
Design 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 Gazette contains design announcements arranged in following main chapters:
- registered designs (list of registered designs and their bibliographic data arranged according to the classes of the Locarno Classification)
- registered designs with extended term of validity (list of registered designs with extended term of validity and their bibliographic data arranged according to the classes of the Locarno Classification)
- registered designs with postponed publishing (list of registered designs with postponed publishing and their bibliographic data arranged according to the classes of the Locarno Classification)
- published registered designs after expiration of adjournment term of publishing (list of published registered designs after expiration of adjournment term of publishing and their bibliographic data arranged according to the classes of the Locarno Classification)
- assignments and transfers of rights and other changes of owners
- cancellation of design registrations
- partial cancellation of design registrations
- registered designs lapsed by abandonment
- registered designs partially lapsed by abandonment
- registered designs lapsed by expiry of the validity
- extension of the validity of registered designs
- forfeitures of protection and transfers of an owner (on the basis of the court decision)
- changes of the rights of disposal to registered designs (lien)
- changes of the rights of disposal to registered designs (termination of lien)
- registration of licensing contracts
- termination of licensing contracts
- corrections of names, addresses, dates and mistakes
Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external documentation 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/
- Internal database system „INVENTIO“ for managing the industrial property subjects
- Freely accessible foreign databases http://www.upv.sk/?zahranicne-online-databazy#dizajny
External databases
Internet databases in particular:
-Registered industrial designs database of the IPO CZ, coverage: CZ
-WIPO International Design Bulletin
-Hague Express Database (WIPO International Design Database), coverage: WIPO
-EUIPO Community Designs Database accessible via e-search at the EUIPO portal, coverage: RCD applications
-National database USPTO coverage US
-National database IPOUK coverage GB
-Research system Designview, coverage: EUIPO, WIPO and national databases of certain EU countries and also outside EU (coverage changes by the access of other countries)
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 design register, which are kept by the Office with the possibility of simple and advanced search or browsing results. Data concerning in particular pending design applications, all filed applications or registered designs in the register are daily updated.
- “Classification Systems” http://www.upv.sk/?systemy-triedenia contains design classifications used in Slovakia, links to other classifications systems for classifying designs used in the world and other useful information http://www.upv.sk/?systemy-triedenia-dizajny
- 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. At the same time it is divided into PDF files containing only selected parts of the gazette, e.g.: patents, designs, trademarks or official announcements. In the archive on this webpage are available the previous volumes also in PDF format. The older volumes are gradually being added.
In the part ”International and EU databases” there are links to the most frequently used on-line databases http://www.upv.sk/?zahranicne-online-databazy#dizajny.
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 Designview https://www.tmdn.org/tmdsview-web/welcome.html?lang=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” in paper, Official Gazette “Vestník ÚPV SR” on CD-ROM) 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 upon request - orders in written and online form
- registry information provided in the reading room
Industrial design 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)
- Locarno Classification (10-th edition)
- design classifications and related information
- annual technical reports on design information (2002-2016)
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 Designview where the data are mentioned by the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market based on the information from the IPO SR within the common project.
Other sources
IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements
As the main information system for registration and management of data related to the proceedings in the particular subjects of the industrial property rights the Office uses Inventio. The tool is used for central management of the registries of the individual subjects of the industrial property rights in an electronic form. It is a specific system developed in collaboration with an external supplier solely for the Office´s needs. A part of this system are export and import mechanisms arranging the exchange and updating of some data predominantly with international institutions as the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the European Patent Office (EPO). Exports and imports are created on the basis of the international WIPO standards.
The Office is planning on improving the Inventio system in the 1Q 2017, when its updated version will be launched. This version will be integrated with the Fabasoft system, to which the Document Management System (DMS) will be moved from Inventio. Fabasoft is a certified system (certificate of Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic on compliance with the standards for electronic information systems for the administration of the registry defined in the Act No. 525/2011 Coll.) for electronic processing and keeping of files, records, documents and work procedures. Fabasoft system will also ensure the cross connection of particular modules of the Central Public Administration Portal (i.e. electronic mailbox module, authentication module, payment module, central electronic filing module, electronic delivery module and office communications module) with the available reference registers within the Slovak Republic (Business Register of the Slovak Republic, Register of Individuals and Register of Addresses) and with other systems of the IPO SR, like the module of electronic forms and web registers. The Office is planning to continue using Inventio as an internal referential data source.
Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office
LAN is a net built on the technology Cisco, Fast ETHERNET 1000/100/10 Mbit/s, WINDOWS 2003 / 2008 Server, 2008 R2 Server, 2012 R2 Server; MS SQL Server 2005 / 2008 / 2012; working stations PC Pentium, Windows 7, thin client WYSE V10, WYSE S10, HP t5740, Zotac Zbox BI323.
Linux Red Hat Enterprise 7.0
Citrix XenApp 7.13
SAN HP MSA 1500 CS, SAN HP MSA P2000, G3, EMC VNX 5100
HP MSL LT04 4048, MSL LZ05 2024
HP open view Storage Data Protector version A.09.05
Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
The online design database kept by the Industrial Property Office serves for national design searches and purposes of proceedings on design applications. Selected register data are available to the public in the Internet http://www.upv.sk/?databases-and-registers.
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 registered designs 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 designs.
Documentation from other offices maintained and/or considered part of the available search file.
Design gazettes form also part of the available search files of the Office. In 2016, within the frame of mutual exchange, the IPO SR continued in receiving design gazettes from the following states: Bulgaria and Kyrgyzstan.
The IPO SR received from JPO registered designs stored on CD-ROM in the past year.
Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)
Official automated system for managing the industrial property subjects “INVENTIO II” contains designs register (data since 1991).
Administrative databases based on Lotus Domino and Fabasoft eGov Suite.
Other matters
V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION
Office's library (if deals with industrial design information): equipment, collection management, network of libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign libraries
In 2016, the Office’s reading room has been visited by 197 users. In total there were provided 524 borrowings of patent and other literature made available to the public and 1,100 copies of patent documents and other industrial property documents for the manual and computer search purposes, as well as copies from technical periodicals and other associated and non-patent literature were made. In 2016 there were performed 3 design searches and 16 searches on bibliographic data.
The Office’s reading room serves as a WIPO deposit library as well. The deposit library fund includes 267 volumes of publications issued by WIPO, which are available for study in reading room.
The Office’s reading room including the search workstation opens daily from 8:00 to 15:00.
In 2016, within the frame of mutual exchange of industrial-property information, the IPO SR continued in receiving of design 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. In 2016 the PATLIB centres network cooperating with the Office on the basis of the mutual cooperation agreements was extended by the centre located at the University of Žilina as the Centre for Technology Transfer. Nowadays 11 Contact and Information Points are located in Slovakia and 5 of them are Patent Information Centres. A list of centres and points is available on the Office’s web site http://www.upv.sk/?partners.
The main goal of patent information centres is to provide complex information services in the field of patent, trademark and industrial design information, search services, consultation and methodical assistance concerning the searching of information, making copies of required patent documents, printing records from electronic form etc. Every patent information centre serve as a contact and information point.
The main goal of contact and information points of the Office is to inform the public about where can apply for protection of the results of creative activity, and particularly to inform the general public about the existence of the national institution, which protects immaterial goods, industrial property.
The Office supported the activity of centres and contact and information points by regular sending Slovak patent specifications in paper form 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.
Information and Advisory Points for Innovations (InnoInfo)
The role of fourteen INNOINFOs located in the Slovak regions is to raise awareness on IP protection among SMEs. INNOINFO are placed in business incubators (Incubator Malacky and BIC Bratislava, spol. s r. o.), regional information and advisory centres – RPIC Komárno, Poprad, Prešov, Regional Development Agency Kysuce in Čadca and regional chambers of the Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry and at technical universities
– Technical University of Košice, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava and Institute for Competitiveness and Innovations, University in Žilina. Currently five regional Chambers of Commerce and Industry – Bratislava, Trenčín, Banská Bystrica, Košice and Prešov are partners of the Office as the ”innoinfo”.
The first phase of cooperation is focused on providing the partners with promotional and professional publications and training of contact persons. In the second phase the contact persons trained by the Office should be able to give advice to SMEs how to distinguish their intellectual potential and how to protect it.
They are involved in organizing seminars aimed on intellectual property issues with the IPO SR experts as the lecturers.
Publications related to different business procedures and industrial design information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.
The Office publishes classifications, miscellanies, expert monographs, acts and related commentaries, promotional and information brochures, leaflets or translations of the WIPO and the EPO original publications providing valuable information on industrial property field to public.
Publication activities of the Office during 2016 include:
• Annual Report of the Industrial Property Office of SR 2015;
• The magazine Duševné Vlastníctvo - currently is the only Slovak periodical focused on the issue of industrial rights and copyright. In 2016, the Office issued two issues of the magazine in electronic form, double issue 1 – 2/2016 and Duševné vlastníctvo – selection 2016 was published in printed form.
For more information please see the list of publications issued by the Office http://www.upv.sk/?publikacie
WEBSITE OF THE OFFICE – www.upv.sk
The website of the Office is the most comprehensive source of information for public. In addition, it is gradually becoming the effective means of communication. It gives the public a quick access to information and databases concerning industrial property field. Selected data from the registers of patents, utility models, industrial designs and trade marks are updated daily (except EP). Both Slovak and English versions of the website provides information about upcoming conferences, seminars and other events.
The number of visitors of the website yearly proves an increasing interest of public in such form of communication. During 2016 the Office recorded more than 137,000 accesses. Every seventh visitor of the Office´s website regularly returns and about 55 % accessed the website using the “favourites” bar or directly by writing the address without using a searching tool.
The most visited sub-pages were trade marks (118,416 accesses), patents (58,384), registers and databases (42,151), utility models (17,256) and designs with 11,133 accesses. 68 % of visits were from Slovakia, 7 % from the Czech Republic and 25 % from other countries.
PORTALS www.patentovat.sk a FACEBOOK
In addition to the official website, the Office also uses a portal www.patentovat.sk, linked to the Facebook social network of the Office to raise awareness about importance of intellectual property and its protection.
The Facebook site named “The Industrial Property Offi ce of SR – patentovat.sk” is updated daily. The number of visitors, fans of the Facebook page has increased by 70, at the end of 2016 this number reached nearly 370.
In June 2016 a new account on the social network Twitter called twitter.com/UPV_SR was established to bring the visitors the latest information in the field of industrial property.
PORTAL http://www.dusevnevlastnictvo.gov.sk/
The IPO SR cooperates with the Ministry of Culture in the operation of the portal http://www.dusevnevlastnictvo.gov.sk. This information portal is a digital platform to give a basic overview, orientation and information resources across all subjects of the intellectual property. It contains information on copyright and rights related to copyright, industrial property rights, the law against unfair competition, also includes information on the legal regulation of trade names, trade secrets and know-how. In 2016 the English version of the portal was completed.
Cooperation with universities, technology and innovation support centers, etc.
In this year the Office for the first time participated in the competition named the National Award for Communication Design 2016 organized by the Slovak Design Center in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture, with the participation of the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport.
The Office also participated in the 6th annual conference Technology Transfer in Slovakia and Abroad, organized by Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information in Bratislava. The goal of this event was to offer information about the operation of the Slovak technology transfer centres at universities and the Slovak Academy of Sciences and to present to the professionals our experience with technology transfer, the activity of technology transfer centres and the technology transfer support systems abroad. It was also an effort to initiate a discussion on the topic of implementation of the technology transfer process in Slovak environment.
Education and training: training courses, e learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.
The Office also in 2016 continued in education on IP protection importance for pupils of elementary and secondary schools and also for academic community and entrepreneurs. In total 39 lectures were held. In June 2016 representatives of the Office participated in the launch of a new book on intellectual property rights “Being Earnest” at he grammar school of Juraj Hronec in Bratislava. The book surveys important information on intellectual property and in a simple way introduces teenagers, as well as teachers with the basics of industrial property rights and copyrights.
Education Programme Intellectual Property
In the school year 2015/2016, in the context of lifelong learning in the Office in Banská Bystrica module D – Industrial Property Law – was opened. This module was attended by 20 participants, including four internal staff of the Office. It can be considered the most important for the protection of industrial property, because it gives the participant a comprehensive knowledge of Slovak, international and foreign industrial property protection, its different types and specifications. 17 participants completed this module successfully and the five of them defended thesis in October 2016. From September 2016 the education continued in module A – Intellectual Property and Copyright Basics. Out of 31 participants six were internal out of which 27 completed this module successfully. Since December 2016 20 participants continued in module B – Creativity, its Management, Marketing and Economics.
One opinion of providing information and consultation on the protection of industrial property by the Office’s staff is participation in fairs and exhibitions in Slovakia and abroad. In 2016 experts from the Office provided general information and consultation on four international fairs – CONECO in Bratislava, Furniture and Living in Nitra, International Engineering Fair and Agrokomplex in Nitra. The Office was also represented at the exhibition of technical innovations, patents and inventions INVENT ARENA in Třinec in stand of the Visegrad Patent Institute (VPI).
The tenth annual festival of science in Slovakia - European Researchers‘ Night 2016 took place on 30 September 2016. Science Festival – European Researchers‘ Night is a project supported by the new framework program of the European Commission to support research, development and innovation – Horizon 2020. The Office joined this event for the sixth time already with its participation in the event in Banská Bystrica and Košice.
At the entrance of the Office there were three exhibitions installed in 2016. A succesfull exhibition “Zábavný kalendář 1914“, that was prepared in continuing cooperation with the Postal Museum, has been opened for visitors of the Office since February to October 2016. For the primary school pupils an interactive exhibition “Discoveries and Inventions in Scientific Toys” has been opened in January 2016. In October 2016 at the entrance of the Office has been installed an expositon of Ján Bobek – “Selection of Works” – wooden sculptures and pictures made by combined techniques.
Other activities
The World IP Day
http://www.upv.sk/?aktuality&clanok=svetovy-den-dusevneho-vlastnictva-v-upv-sr-3
The employees of the IPO SR together with invited guests commemorated the World IP Day during the conference ”Intellectual property in Slovakia XVI” on Tuesday, April 26, 2016. The Conference entitled “From idea to patent“ was focused on the legal protection of technical solutions in national and international context with emphasis on current legislation, litigation, enforcement and also on the importance of protection in terms of patent owners. Lectures were sorted into two themes: patent protection in Slovakia and abroad, and patent protection in practice. April 26 was also the Open Day of the Office and for visitors otherwise inaccessible spaces of the Office were opened.
VI.INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION
International exchange of industrial design information in machine-readable form (e.g., Official Gazettes)
In 2016 followed the mutual exchange of design information in the form of official gazettes between the IPO SR and other offices also international organization the WIPO.
Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to industrial design information
Designview
In 2016 the IPO SR made Slovak designs available periodically in the search system Designview https://www.tmdn.org/tmdsview-web/welcome.html?lang=sk. This searching tool contains data of registers of involved national offices, WIPO and OHIM. Designview provides centralised access to information on registered designs, which is at disposal of the offices involved in the Project.
Assistance to developing countries
Other activities