SCIT.ATR.PI.2006.SK

Annual Technical Report 2006 on Patent Information Activities submitted by Slovakia (SCIT/ATR/PI/2006/SK)

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

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

I. Evolution of patent activities

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

Patents

There were 283 patent applications filed in 2006 that is increase by 13.2 % in comparison with the year 2005. The PCT applications form 21 % (58) of all applications.

The number of applications filed by domestic applicants (193) has increased by 24 %, on the other hand the applications filed by the foreign applicants declined by 5 %. The largest share in the number of patent application filed by foreign applicants (90) have the Czech Republic (29), the USA (15), and Hungary (15).

In the year 2006, 4 European applications were filed.

543 patents were granted that is decrease by 3 % in comparison with the year 2005.

There were 16 application of SPC’s filed in 2006. All of them are from foreign applicants, the most number is from the USA - 7 and from Germany - 5 applications. There were 12 SPC's granted.

On December 31, 2006 there were 4.118 valid patents in the Slovak Republic.


Utility models

There were 342 utility model applications filed in the Office in 2006. This number has decreased by 9.3 % in comparison with the previous year. The number of applications filed by the Slovak applicants decreased by 1.4 % (274 applications). The share of the Slovak applicants in total number of 342 applications is 80.1 %. Decrease of 10.6 % occurred in number of registered utility models (277).

On December 31, 2006 there were 1.756 valid utility models in the Slovak Republic.


In comparison with the statistics of the years 1999 - 2006, there are following results in patent and utility model areas:

utilitymodelstatistics patentstatistics

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

Patents

Application in the field of organic chemistry (12.7 %) and medical, dental and hygienic preparations (8.8 %) have the largest share.

Utility models

Almost 29 % registered utility models are from the branch of civil engineering and transport.

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

URL to annual technical reports on patents:
http://www.wipo.int/scit/en/atrs/
http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=sk&idd=9&idd2=909

URL to the Annual Reports of the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic:
http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=11&idd2=92

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

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

Main types of official publications:

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 application with designation for SK (T1)
- Corrected translations of patent claims of European patent application with designation for SK (T2)
- Translations of European patent specification with designation for SK (T3)
- Corrected translations of European patent specification with designation for SK (T4)
- Translations of modified wording of European patent specification with designation for SK (T5)
- Corrections of patent documents (A8, A9, B8, B9, U8, U9, T8, T9)

Official Gazette "Vestnik UPV SR"

Patents and utility model information forms part of the Official Gazette - " Vestnik UPV SR", covering all industrial property rights in one publication. Paper form issued monthly is published in standard size A4, paperback and usually in cca 300 pages. In 2006 the Gazette had a circulation of 250 copies, of which 99 were distributed monthly by
subscription. Other copies were sent free of charge to patent information centres and contact and information points of the IPO, to information and consulting sites INNOINFO, within the frame of industrial property information exchange to foreign offices and as the statutory copies according to the act as well. Electronic form of Official Gazette, available to the public in the Internet free of charge, contains searchable data, which are regularly updated.

The following numbers of patent documents were published in the Official Gazette in 2006:

231 published patent applications
547 patent specifications
294 utility models
11 application for granting SPC's
16 granted SPC's
10 translations of patent claims f European patent application with designation for SK
718 translations of European patent specification with designation for SK
2 corrected translations of European patent specification with designation for SK

Distribution

The Office distributed Slovak patent specifications to patent information centres and contact and information points of the IPO to build the territorial fund of the national patent documentation and to the IPO of the Czech Republic within the frame of exchange as well. Slovak patents published on ESPACE?-PRECES CD-ROM are being distributed by the Hungarian Patent Office to foreign patent offices within the frame of mutual patent information exchange. The Official Gazette "Vestn?ڐV SR" has been distributed within the frame of mutual exchange to 30 countries including organizations EPO and WIPO last year.

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

The Gazette contains patent announcements including the translations of European patents with designation for SK, supplementary protection certificates announcements and utility model announcements arranged in following main chapters:

PATENTS
- list of published patent applications (numerical series with classification symbols)
- bibliographic data and abstracts of published patent applications with an image,where available (arranged according to the International Patent Classification)
- list of granted patents (numerical series with classification symbols)
- bibliographic data of granted patents (arranged according to the International Patent Classification)
- suspended patent application procedures
- patents lapsed by reason of abandonment
- lapsed (expired) patents
- patents lapsed by reason of failure to pay renewal fee
- refused patent application
- revocations of patents
- partial revocations of patents
- assignment and transfer of the rights to patents and patent applications
- the changes of the rights of disposal to patents and patent applications (lien)
- the changes of the rights of disposal to patents and patent applications (termination of lien)
- the license offers
- license contracts registered in the register
- the termination of force of the license contracts
- compulsory licenses
- patents registered in the register after declassification
- corrections of names, addresses, dates and mistakes

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

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

SUPPLEMENTARY PROTECTION CERTIFICATES
- bibliographic data of published applications for granting the supplementary protection certificates (arranged according to the document numbers)
- bibliographic data of granted supplementary protection certificates (arranged according to the document numbers)
- suspended procedures of applications for granting the supplementary protection certificate
- refused applications for granting the supplementary protection certificate
- assignments of rights for applications for granting the supplementary protection certificate
- lapsed supplementary protection certificates
- revocations of supplementary protection certificates
- assignments of rights for the supplementary protection certificate
- changes in data of applicants for granting the supplementary protection certificate
- changes in data of owners of the supplementary protection certificates
- corrections of names, addresses, dates and mistakes

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

Patent documents are available in paper form in the Office’s library and, in addition,patent specifications are available also in electronic form in the Office’s web site as well as on ESPACE®-PRECES CD-ROM (Patents from the Region of Eastern and Central European States). As an index to this fulltext CD-ROM is ESPACE® ACCESS PRECES (complete bibliographic information) is used.

Word processing and office automation

Word processing and office automation is ensured by application over the patent and utility models database.

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

MS Office 97, Photoshop 6.0, FineReader 7.0, Adobe Acrobat 6.0 CE, Agfa FotoLook 3.5, SLEX99 – Lexicon of Slovak Language are used for the data processing; the photocomposing and printing is carried out by the Office.

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

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

@SKIPO - Electronic Slovak Industrial Property Office Portal
http://www.upv.sk/eskipo.php?lang=en&idd=99

@SKIPO is an integrated system of e-services that offers access to on-line databases, on-line services and @filling room. The purpose of the portal of the Office is to provide the public with all our e-services from one place and in transparent manner and gives the possibility to communicate electronically with the Office. The effort of the Office is to make available as much information in electronic form, which are placed on internal network now, as possible. All data from databases are provided free of charge.

ON-LINE DATABASES
http://www.upv.sk/eskipo.php?lang=en&idd=2

IPO SR makes accessible various databases on its homepage. Most frequently used databases are
- "Data extracted from Registers" also called as "Webregisters", give public access to information from national registers of industrial property rights and are daily updated http://registre.indprop.gov.sk/registre/?lang=en
- "Patent documents IPO SR" - patent documents SK and CS include in addition bibliographic data also complete patent files and are regularly updated http://www.upv.sk/eskipo.php?lang=en&idd=12
- "Patent classifications" contains Slovak version of the IPC 7 (fully searchable) and of the IPC 2006 core level (in PDF only), links to other classifications systems for classifying patents and utility models used in the world and other useful information http://www.upv.sk/eskipo.php?lang=sk?idd=13&idd2=1302
- "Official Gazette" enables looking on an single issue, searching in the selected issue and searching in all issues http://www.upv.sk/eskipo.php?lang=en&idd=14.

In the part "Foreign on-line databases" are available links to most frequently used on-line databases http://www.upv.sk/eskipo.php?lang=sk&idd=19.

ON-LINE ORDERS
http://www.upv.sk/eskipo.php?lang=en&idd=1&idd2=

IPO SR makes available electronic order forms on Official Gazette, magazine Intellectual Property and E-zine, publications of the IPO SR and IPO CZ, Annual Reports, patent documents and searches (see the part "Products and services", chapter VI).

@FILLING ROOM
http://www.upv.sk/eskipo.php?lang=en&idd=15

Nowadays, the on-line filing room enables only filing the European patent applications and international patent applications PCT in electronic form (see the part „Medium allowed for filing applications”, chapter VII).

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

Abstracting, reviewing, translating

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

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

The applications were classified and reclassified by Office’s experts according to the core level of the eight version of the International Patent Classification – IPC 2006. The WIPO Standards ST.8 and ST.10/C were also used for these purposes. Reclassifying was carried out before granting of patent.

An administrative system for patent applications was fully upgraded with new features of the reformed IPC-2006.

The IPC 2006 core level has been in use in the Office since November 2005 for classification the Slovak patent documents to be published as of 1 January 2006.

Hybrid system indexing

By reason of application of the core level of IPC 2006 for indexing of technical information contained in patent documents the hybrid systems of the IPC are not used.

Bibliographic data and full-text processing

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

Digitalisation

In 2006, the Office continued in regular monthly digitalisation of new entries of national patent documentation.

IV. Search file establishment and upkeep

File building

The patent documentation search file used by the patent examiners and the technical public contains patent documents from 26 countries, the EPO, the WIPO and the OAPI, patent gazettes from 33 countries, including the EPO and the WIPO and the non-patent literature (42 titles of technical periodicals and 8.709 titles of special literature).

Updating

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

Storage, including mass storage media

The basis of the patent fund forms the collection stored on the paper medium (cca 10 millions documents). However the majority of the patent documentation is currently received on electronic carriers. In 2006 the regular annual accession of optical discs reached 797 pieces of optical discs with full texts and bibliographic information concerning the patent documents.

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

IPO SR is maintaining the patent documentation collection stored in paper form, which forms, as a part of PCT minimum documentation, the basis of search files within the range:
- from 1950 to 1992: the documentation DD (from 1958), DE (from 1951), CH (from 1944), FR (from 1945), GB (from 1967), PL (from 1963), SU (from 1941), US (from 1960) and the documentation EPO (from 1978) a WIPO (from 1978)
- from 1919 to the present: national documentation SK and formal CS
- from 1993 to the present: national documentation CZ.

Since 1993 the Office has been receiving patent documents stored on optical discs from following countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, France, Georgia, Italy, Japan, Canada, 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 2006, within the frame of mutual exchange, the IPO SR received patent and utility model gazettes, as a part of the available search files, from the following states and organizations: AT, AU, BA, BG, BR, CH, CZ, DE, EE, EG, ES, FI, FR, GB, HR, HU, IT, KG, LT, LV, MD, MK, NO, PL, PT, RO, RU, SI, SM, UA, US, EPO and WIPO.

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

In-house systems (online/offline)

The Office is keeping and creating national search database on granted patents, published patent applications and registered utility models, which serves for searches and purposes of proceedings on granting patents and registering utility models. Nowadays, selected data are also available through Internet.

It is possible to carry out searches according to bibliographic data in all the databases used for granted patents, published patent applications and registered utility models.

Following search CD-ROM are used through the local CD-ROM network by the
Ultranet 2000 system: ESPACE - ACCESS EP - A
ESPACE - ACCESS EP - B
ESPACE – ACCESS – EPC (EUROPE)
ESPACE – ACCESS - PRECES
ESPACE – ACCESS - RUSSIA
ESPACE – BULLETIN
PCT Gazette
PCT Impact
GLOBALPAT
PAJ
ESPACE - LEGAL
IPC CLASS 2000
WIPO Handbook
List of Blue sheets Espace CD ROM
ECLA Classification in PDF format
legal and economic information, encyclopedia and statistics
translating dictionaries.

External databases

Searches carried out in the STN on-line service, access to EPOQUE, DERWENT, INPADOC, CAS and the like databases.

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

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

The Office automation management system contains patents, European patents with designation for SK, utility models, supplementary protection certificates and PCT registry (data since 1993 – patents, data since 2003 - European patents with designation for SK, data since 1992 – utility models, data since 2002 - supplementary protection certificates and data since 1995 – PCT applications filed with IPO SR as a receiving office) using "INVENTIO" software.

Administrative management system based on Lotus Domino.

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

Equipment used:
LAN is built on base of the Cisco technology, Fast ETHERNET 1000/100/10 Mbit/s, WINDOWS 2000 Server; MS SQL Server 2000; workstations PC Pentium, Windows 2000, Windows XP.

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

SAN HP MSA 1500 CS,
HP Storage Works MSL 5000 series library,
HP open view Storage Data Protector version A.05.50

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

Planning, administration, automation, security, buildings

In 2006, the Office’s reading room has been visited by 1.701 users and 1.416 of it were from the public. In total there were provided 7.750 borrowings of patent and other literature made available to the public and 22.634 copies of patent 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 2006 there were performed 173 patent searches, 2.738 trademark searches and 46 design searches based on 1.093 written and 53 personally requests.

The Office’s reading room including the search workstation opens daily from 8:00 to 15:00 except the Wednesday (9:00-16:00).

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

Collecting, acquisitions, preparation

In the last year were processed 5.246 patent documents in paper form and 737 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 1 479.409 documents, out of which 1 474.163 entries represented documents in electrical form. In addition, there were stored 6.638 first pages of Slovak and Czech patent documents according to additional IPC symbols into the systematically arranged fund. Other new entries, for instance Official Gazettes of the foreign offices (37) and miscellaneous associated literature, were processed on the monthly basis.

The patent literature (patent documentation and official gazettes) were acquired within the frame of mutual exchange and the non-patent literature mostly by purchase and by subscription or as a gift.

Collection management, preservation

A list of the complete patent documentation was regularly updated on the Office’s web site.

Non-patent literature was processed, stored and made available according to librarian rules via in-house database system "Knižnica" to the staff.

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

Patent Information Centres and Contact and Information Points

Since 2003 the Office has established 10 contact and information points, while four of them are the Patent Information Centres. They are located in state, regional and district libraries as well as in the Slovak National Library in Martin and Centre of Scientific and Technical Information in Bratislava. A list of centres and points is available on the Office’s web site http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=10&idd2=

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 also on optical discs (fulltext ESPACE®-PRECES CD-ROM, bibliographic data thereof on ESPACE® ACCESS PRECES ) as well as announcements concerning industrial property rights in the Official Gazette form, 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.

In co-operation with the European Patent Office, the Office secured participation of four employees of the patent information centres in the PATLIB Conference in Prague, where they were familiarised themselves with activities of similar PATLIB centres and they acquired knowledge about development of the patent information market. At the same time they have an opportunity to establish new personal contacts with the experts from the field of patent information.

Employees of the centres and contact points of the Office participated also in the seminar organised by the Office during the European Week of Science in the IPO SR and one employee participated in the Intellectual Property Course.

Information and consulting sites for innovations

During 2006 the Office completed extending the number of information and consultancy points of the IPO SR for innovations – "innoinfo". The Regional Chamber of the Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Lučenec, Technical University in Košice and the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava all became the new partners of the Office.

The mission of the thirteen "innoinfo" centres operating in the regions of Slovakia is to orientate especially the small and medium sized entrepreneurs in the field of innovations and industrial property. " Innoinfo" centres are established in business incubators, regional consultancy and information centres, regional chambers of the Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry and at the Universities of technical orientation.

The first phase of the "innoinfo" project was aimed at contractual supply of promotional material and specialised publications to partners and it has already been completed by the Office; now the Office focuses at consultations with small and medium-sized enterprises about how to distinguish the intellectual capital and how to treat it.

On the occasion of the European Week of Science the Office organised a seminar about the importance and protection of the intellectual property for its partners and for the professional public.

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

The Office library provides following services to the public:

- methodical and consultation assistance for the public
- general information provided by Office's experts
- lending service (patent documents, Official Gazettes, special monographs, patent associated literature and reference literature) in the reading room
- interlibrary lending service
- international interlibrary lending service
- sale of special monographs and periodical publications ("Intellectual Property", Official Gazette "Vestník ÚPV SR" in paper) upon request or on the place
- reprographic services upon request or on the place
- sending of copies of patent documents upon request
- searches on state of the art, patent families, bibliographic data upon request in written or on-line form
- on-line searches in Office’s search system, self-service during a personal visit
- monitoring of the state of selected technical fields upon request (permanent sending of documents)
- registry information provided in the reading room
- CD-ROM workstations available in the reading room


Patent information on the World Wide Web:

- general information
- information about Office activities (seminars, training courses, etc.)
- application guide and forms
- administrative fees
- relevant laws
- Annual Reports
- selected registry data
- patent specifications (meanwhile since 1993)
- Official Gazette
- order forms (searches, patent documents, Official Gazette, special literature)
- products and services
- 7-th edition of the IPC (fully searchable)
- core level of the IPC 2006 (in PDF only)
- patent classifications and related information
- annual technical reports on patent information (2002-2006)

Information Centre

In the end of 2006, the Information Centre started its work at the Office. The main goal of the Centre is to receive and to deal with the problems of the Office´s clients and the public centrally. Within their professional consultancy activities, the employees inform the public about the possibilities and most suitable ways of protection of individual subjects of industrial rights personally, by telephone (+421 48 4300 131) or in writing – its e-mail is infocentrum@indprop.gov.sk.

Workplace of the IPO SR in Bratislava

Workplace of the Office, which was opened in 2004 in the building of the Ministry of Finance in Bratislava offered especially services concerning the searches in the fields of trademarks, designs and patents in the last year. In the workplace, there is a filing room and room for discussions and negotiations.

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

Webregisters
http://registre.indprop.gov.sk/registre/?lang=en

IPO SR makes accessible various databases on its homepage. Most frequently used databases are "Data extracted from Registers" also called as "Webregisters". Webregisters give public access to data extracted from patent, utility models, European patents, supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) registers, which are kept by the Office. Data concerning in particular pending patent, utility model and SPC applications, all filed applications or granted patents, SPCs and registered utility models in the register are daily updated.

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

Products and services

Comprehensive information concerning the products offered by the Office and other relevant information relating to accession and utilization of the products are on http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=sk&idd=27

- Official Gazette
- patent documents
- magazine Intellectual Property
- IPO SR and IPO CZ publications
- E-zine IPO SR
- on-line order forms
- price list

Basic information about following information services offered by the Office including the contact and the way of their utilization are on http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=sk&idd=28

- patent documentation fund
- IPO SR patent reading room
- patent databases, information and searches
- permanent sending of patent documents
- orders of patent documents and technical publications
- on-line order forms
- price list

Information services offered by the Office, see the part "Information services available to the public", chapter VI.

VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of patent documentation and information

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

Regional co-operation

In 2006 IPO SR continued in participation in the joint ESPACE®-PRECES CD-ROM project (patent specifications of BG, CZ, HU, LT, LV, PL, RO and SK).

International co-operation

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

In 2006 followed the mutual exchange of patent documentation and official gazettes between the IPO SR and other offices also international organizations, including the EPO and the WIPO.

Medium used for exchange of priority documents

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

Medium allowed for filing applications

Patent and utility model applications are filled in paper, fax or electronic form. The last two are to be added by original filing during the determined period.

Since 1 January 2006 the IPO SR became a receiving office of the European patent applications, European PCT applications and international PCT applications filed in electronic form. The applications can be filed through the eOLF software (product of the EPO) and through the PCT-SAFE software (product of the WIPO).

During 2006 the Office organised User’s Days of Electronic Filing the Applications for patent representatives, advocates and commercial lawyers by which the number of active users of the electronic application filing system significantly increased. 30% of all European and international PCT applications received by the Office in 2006 were in electronic form.

Implementation of the Statement of Principles Concerning the Changeover to Electronic Data Carriers for the Exchange of Patent Documents (please provide a status report on the extent to which your Office has changed over to electronic data carriers for the exchange of patent documents)

The IPO SR fully accepted change-over to electronic data carriers. The exchange of the patent documents in paper form was terminated by the end of 2000. Beginning from 2001 the IPO has been realising the exchange of patent documents only on electronic data carriers.

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

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

THE COURSE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY (http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=sk&idd=31)

The Office’s Institute for Education was established in year 2000, when the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic granted the accreditation to the IPO SR for a period of five years. In January 2005 the Office has obtained a new five-year period accreditation. The lecturers are university teachers, experts from practice and the IPO SR experts. An overall number of training lessons extends to 342 hours, out of which 227 hours are lectures and the remaining training hours are devoted to hands-on practical exercising and training.

The Intellectual Property course consists of four separate parts: module A: Intellectual Property and Copyright Law Essentials; module B: Creativity - Management of Creativity, Marketing and Economics; module C: Information in the field of Industrial Property Protection; module D: Industrial Property Law. In 2006 the course was attended by 52 participants, out of which 20 employees of the IPO SR.

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

CONFERENCE (http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=sk&idd=31)

Almost 60 participants took part in the sixth year of the Conference Intellectual Property in Slovakia, held on the occasion of the World Intellectual Property Day, the main topic of which were the national IP protection in the context of international IP developments. On this occasion, an open door day of the IPO was held, during which the Office opened its non-public premises to people. Excursion was connected with presentation of the Office and provision of information and consultancy services.

LECTURES AND SEMINARS (http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=sk&idd=31)

In July 2006 the IPO SR in co-operation with the World Intellectual Property Organisation organized an international seminar on the strategic use of IP for economic and social development in Bratislava. The objectives of the seminar were to deliberate on strategic approaches to making use of IP as an effective tool for development and to ensure their integration into national development strategies and plans, depending on specific requirements.

In November the IPO SR joined the EU initiative to devote one week to celebrate science, innovation and creativity – so-called "European Science Week". On the occasion, the IPO SR presented translation of the WIPO publication "Learn from the Past, Create the Future: Inventions and Patents", held a meeting with the press representatives who had made extraordinary contribution to popularize the IP domain in Slovakia, and held II. Users’ Day on electronic filing of international and European applications (the I. Users’ Day was held in May).

In pursuance of specific requirements the Office provided for a variety of specialisation oriented groups the lectures, presentations and educational courses related to industrial property rights protection.

EXHIBITIONS (http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=sk&idd=30&idd2=3006)

The IPO SR is continuously enhancing the public awareness on industrial property protection also by means of presentations of fairs and exhibitions. The IPO SR took part at 26th International Building Fair CONECO in Bratislava, at the 36th International Chemistry Fair INCHEBA in Bratislava, at the 13th International Mechanical Engineering Fair in Nitra, and the Exhibition of Innovations IENA 2006 in Nuremberg within a joint stand of the European Patent Offices: "Internationales Patent-Informationszentrum"

The public awareness on industrial protection is also enhanced by holding exhibitions in the internal premises of the IPO SR. Almost entire entrance premises of the IPO SR had been reconstructed to serve as an exhibition hall. In December the first exhibitor, the Slovak Technical Museum in Košice, installed an exposition called "The Personalities of Science and Technology in Slovakia". The exposition was prolonged due to success.

PUBLICATIONS (http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=sk&idd=27&idd2=2703)

List of publications for sale in Slovak and Czek http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=sk&idd=27&idd2=2703

Last year the Office released several publications. Besides the Intellectual Property in Slovakia Conference workshop VI included an adapted translation of the WIPO publication "Learn from the Past, Create the Future: Inventions and Patents" and information materials focused on a general mission of the Office, as well as new products and services provided by the IPO SR.

The trademark department processed the changes and prepared the translation of 2-volume 9th edition of the International Classification of Products and Services. Classification system is available in the Office, in the patent information centres, contact and information points of the IPO SR and "innoinfo" since January 2007.

Main patent and industrial property information magazines/journals published in the country or region of the Office

JOURNAL (http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=sk&idd=27)

Awareness of the public in the field of intellectual property is increased also by the professional magazine INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY magazine ("Duševné vlastníctvo") issued quarterly by the Office.

12 editions of the E-zine IPO SR e-mail magazine were released last year. The magazine in electronic form released regularly each month consists of permanent sections with information from the IPO SR, the world, monitoring of periodicals, selected information from the separate editions of the Intellectual Property Magazine and not missing was also the knowledge contest in the area of science and technology, receiving much acclaimed by E-zine readers.

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

provide information on legislation related to patents

- legislation in force http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=21
- related legislation http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=22
- multilateral treaties http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=24
- EU legislation http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=25

contain the Annual Report of the Office

http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=9&idd2=92

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

Industrial property
http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=2

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

Patents http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=14
SPC http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=20
Utility models http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=15
Designs http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=16
Topographies http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=17
Trademarks http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=18
Geographical indications http://www.upv.sk/index2.php?lang=en&idd=19

contain patent-related news regarding the Office

http://www.upv.sk/index.php?lang=en

X. Other relevant matters

Relations with mass media

The IPO SR continued in excellent cooperation with mass media for which the IP domain is no longer an issue of marginal interest. The total number of articles, TV spots and radio reports in the most significant mass media companies reached 80 in 2006.