Annual Technical Report 2004 on Trademark Information Activities submitted by Slovakia (SCIT/ATR/TM/2004/SK)
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I. Evolution of registration activities
Changes experienced in terms of application filings and registrations with respect to the previous year
In 2004 when compared with the year 2003, the number of trademarks applications from Slovak applicants decreased by 26.2 %, the total number of national applications was 4,059, 6.5 % higher than in 2003.
In 2004, in the international procedure under the Madrid Agreement and Protocol to the Madrid Agreement 6,005 applications for trademarks were filed, representing a decrease by 12 % as compared in 2003.
The total number of registered trademarks decreased by 1.4 %. The number of domestic registered trademarks was higher by 6.2 %, the number of trademarks registered for foreign applicants decreased by 10.5 %.
On December 31, 2004, there were 40,866 valid trademarks registered in the Office register and the 103,717 international trademarks in the Slovak Republic.
In comparison with the statistics of the years 1999 - 2004, there are following results in trademark area:
marks_tab.doc - Statistical data of trademarks
II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, and distribution of secondary sources of trademark information, i.e., trademark gazettes
Publishing, printing, copying techniques
Publication of trademarks
The Office publishes published trademarks applications and published registered/ renewed trademarks in the Official Gazette.
Trademarks information forms part of the Official Gazette - “ Vestník ÚPV 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 2004 the Gazette had a circulation of 250 copies, of which 107 were distributed by subscription. Other copies were sent free of charge to patent information centres and contact and information points of the IPO, 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.
The following numbers of trademarks were published in the Official Gazette in 2004:
3 319 published trademarks applications
3 294 registered trademarks
1 678 renewed trademarks
Main types of announcements of the Office in the field of trademark information
The Gazette contains trademark announcements arranged in following main chapters:
- list of published trademark applications (numerical series)
- bibliographic data of published trademark applications including the list of goods and services (arranged according to the application numbers)
- list of registered trademarks without change in comparison to applied sign (numerical series of applications with the number of registration )
- bibliographic data of registered trademarks without change in comparison to applied sign (arranged according to the registration numbers)
- list of registered trademarks with change in comparison to applied sign (numerical series of applications with the number of registration )
- bibliographic data of registered trademarks with change in comparison to applied sign (arranged according to the registration numbers)
- list of renewed registrations of trademark (numerical series of applications with the number of registration )
- bibliographic data of renewed registrations of trademark (arranged according to the registration numbers)
- international registrations of trademark
- official decisions (cancellation, etc.)
- lapse of trademark rights
- trademark assignments
- partial assignments
- right of lien
- registration of licensing contracts in respect of trademarks
- termination of licencing contracts
- registration of sublicensing contracts in respect of trademarks
- termination of sublicensing contracts
- change of data concerning trademark owners
- change in the list of goods and services
- change of wording or reproductions of trademark
- corrections of names, addresess, dates and mistakes
Word processing and office automation
Word processing and office automation is ensured by application over the trademark database.
Techniques used for the generation of trademark information (printing, recording, photocomposing, etc.)
MS Office 97, QuarkXpress 5.0 for Windows and Corel Draw 10, Photoshop 6.0, FineReader 6.0, Adobe Acrobat 5.05 CE, 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 image inputs processing for the Gazette and first pages of the trademark documents.
III. Matters concerning classifying, reclassifying and indexing of trademark information
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 (please indicate whether goods and services for the registration of marks and whether the figurative elements of marks are classified by your Office and, if so, which classification(s) is (are) used)
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 (Viena Classification) is used as the code system of figurative elements of trademarks, which are classified by Office's expert.
Use of electronic classification systems to check the classification symbols furnished by an applicant and which are contained in the lists of goods and/or services
Classification symbols were checked by internal electronic classification system built in office registry software.
Obligation for applicants to use pre-defined terms of the classification applied
In accordance with the Act No.55/1997 amended by the Act No.577/2001 the applicant is obliged to indicate in the application the goods and services for which the trademark 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.
Bibliographic data and processing for search purposes
The WIPO Standard ST.60 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.
IV. Trademark manual search file establishment and upkeep
File Building
Since the computerized search system for trademark information has been launched the trademark manual search files building and updating has been ceased.
Documentation from other offices maintained and/or considered part of the available search file
In 2004, within the frame of mutual exchange, the IPO SR received trademark gazettes from the following states and organizations: AT, BA, BG, BR, CH, CZ, DE, EE, FR, HR, HU, IT KG, LT, LV, MD, MK, PL, PT, RO, RU, Sl, SM, UA, US, OHIM and WIPO.
V. Activities in the field of computerized trademark search systems
In-house systems (online/offline)
The online trademark database kept by the Industrial Property Office serves for national trademarks searches and also for trademark procedure. Select registry data are available to the public in the Internet.
It is possible to carry out searches according to bibliographic data in all the databases used for the trademarks. International trademarks searches are performed in the ROMARIN database on CD-ROM received from the WIPO; also the joint CD-ROM ESPACE TRACES was used for searching (both accessible on local network through the UltraNet 2000system).
List of search CD-ROMs and databases used on local network through the UltraNet 2000system:
EUROM - Community Trade Mark
ROMARIN
TRACES
NIVILO classifications
WIPO Official Gazette on CD-ROM
CD-ROM CASSIS containing registered and pending trademarks in US
IPLEX CD-ROM – full legislative texts (national original laws, multilateral and bilateral treaties)
translating dictionaries
External databases
Czech registered trademarks database in the Internet
Madrid Express Database
OHIM – Community Trademarks Database
Administrative management systems (e.g., register, legal status, statistics, administrative support, etc.)
The Office automation management system contains national and international trademarks registry (data since 1990 - national trademarks and data since 1947 - international trademarks) using “INVENTIO” software.
Administrative databases based on Lotus Domino.
Equipment used (hardware, including the types of terminal and network used, and software), carriers used
Fast ETHERNET 1000/100/10 Mbit/s, WINDOWS 2000 for servers; workstations PC Pentium, Windows 2000, HP Unix for database, Informix Dynamic Server 9.21, Citrix Metaframe 1.8, SAN HP MSA 1500 CS.
VI. Administration of trademark services available to the public (relating to facilities, e.g., for lodging applications, registering trademarks, assisting clients with search procedures, obtaining official publications and registry extracts)
Planning, administration, automation, security
In 2004, the office’s reading room has been visited by 1.828 users and 1.307 of it were from the public. In total there were provided 7.657 borrowings of patent and other literature made available to the public and 27.999 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 2004 there were performed 332 patent searches, 2.923 trademark searches and 43 design searches based on 1.125 written and 118 personally requests.
The office’s reading room including the search workstation opens daily from 7:30 to 15:00 except the Wednesday (8:00-16:00).
All online services and other basic information are available via Internet address of IPO SR: www.upv.sk.
Information services available to the public (including computerized services and search files contained in libraries remote from your Office and trademark information posted by your Office on the World Wide Web)
The library provides following services to the public:
- sales of the Gazette in paper form.
- general information provided by Office's experts.
- on-line searches in Office’s search system, self-service during a personal visit.
- searches in International Trademarks Database ROMARIN.
- searches upon request - orders in written and on-line form.
At present, traditional methods of searching trademarks (card catalogue) are not used.
Trademark information on the World Wide Web:
- general information
- information about Office activities (seminars, training courses, etc.)
- application guide and forms
- relevant laws
- Annual Reports
- selected registry data
- Official Gazette
- order forms (searches, non-patent literature)
- Nice Classification (8-th edition)
- Viena Classification (5-th edition)
In 2004, the IPO SR has continued in its co-operation with four patent information centres and six contact and information points of the IPO SR, which were established in 2003 under assistance of the EPO for the purpose of raising awareness about IP rights. The centres and points in the State Scientific Library in Banská Bystrica and Košice and other regional and district libraries in Zvolen, Žilina, Prešov, Trenčín, Trnava a Nitra as well as in the Slovak National Library in Martin and Slovak Centre of Scientific a Technical Information in Bratislava were provided with equipment (personal computers, access to Internet etc.) according to bilateral programm of co-operation with EPO. Training courses relating to how to make available industrial property information to the public were also provided by the Office to the library’s staff.
Patent information centres
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 metodical 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.
Contact and information points
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 recources 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 consultancy points for innovations
In 2004, the IPO SR established four information and consultancy points of the IPO SR for innovations-Innoinfo in Banská Bystrica, Martin, Žilina and Čadca to support small and medium entrepreneurs, or technical universities. The new information and consultancy points will provide the basic information on industrial protection.
New workplace of the IPO SR
The Office has opened its new workplace in the building of the Ministry of Finance in Bratislava. It offers especially searches in the fields of trademarks, designs and patents. In the new workplace, there is a filing room and room for discussions and negotiations .
VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of trademark documentation and information
International or regional cooperation in the exchange of trademark information, e.g., in the form of official gazettes
In 2004 followed the mutual exchange of trademark information in the form of official gazettes between the IPO SR and other offices also international organizations, including the OHIM and the WIPO.
Exchange of machine-readable information
In 2002 the IPO SR stopped the participation in the joint ESPACE TRACES CD-ROM project (Trademarks of BG, CZ, HU, PL, RO and SK).
VIII. Matters concerning education and training including technical assistance to developing countries
Training courses for national participants
Four Module Accredited COURSE ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY conducted by the Intellectual Property Institute of the Industrial Property Office for office employees and professional public continued in 2004 with 17 participants, out of which 7 employees of IPO SR. An excursion to M.O.C Stará Turá – a factory manufacturing dental and medical machinery – was introduced for the first time in order to become acquainted with IP processes in SMEs conditions. Course continues in 2005/06 with module D. Final exams for students participating in modules form 2004, are planned in october 2005 and may 2006.
Supporting activities:
CONFERENCE
Almost 70 participants took part in the fourth year of the Conference “Intellectual Property in Slovakia IV” held on the occasion of the World Intellectual Property Day, the main topic of which was the entry of the SR into the EU in relation to the intellectual property right. On this occasion, an open door day of the IPO was held on April 27, 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
In April 2004, a series of three two-day seminars on enforcement of the intellectual property rights dedicated for the Slovak regional judges and especially for the employees of customs administration, culminated. It was organised with the help of the EPO in cooperation with WIPO. The Office collected contributions by 14 authors plus selection of decisions by the Supreme Court of the SR on customs issues and has published it as a manual “Intellectual Property and Customs Duties”.
The Office and the European Patent Office cooperated with the UMB Centre for lifelong education on three seminars on protection of intellectual property dedicated for the wide public and on the conference “Development of Technical Creativity and Industrial Protection of the Small and Medium-sized Companies”.
Lectures for students of economic, technical, pedagogical, environmental and law faculties of universities in Slovakia.
Special lectures in cooperation with the Slovak Association of Inventors and Innovators, Chamber of Patent Attorneys aimed at ministries and branches of economy and defense.
JOURNAL
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. In the year 2004, the magazine became more varied in terms of genres, new columns were added and the Office activities started to be presented more expressively. Style of writing of individual articles has been partly changed; the articles are written in a more popular style to appeal to wider public. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY magazine was issued 4 times in 2004 covering all relevant fields in IP rights, copyright, trade names, domain names, logos, licenses, creativity and management with 44 original extensive papers and a number of translations, news, decisions of Industrial Property Office and Supreme Court etc.
IPO SR issued its electronic magazine on IP “ E-zine” by 7 issues also in 2004.
EXHIBITIONS
The IPO SR endeavours to increase the awareness of the public in the field of industrial property by means of presentations in fairs and exhibitions. During the previous year, the Office exhibited and provided free information and consultations at the 25th International Building Fair CONECO in Bratislava, at the 35th International Chemical Fair INCHEBA in Bratislava and at the 11th International Engineering Fair in Nitra.
Possibilities of the IP rights protection in Slovakia were presented at three international events abroad—at the 5th International Exhibition of Inventions, Works of Fine and Applied Arts GENIUS–EUROPE, at the Exhibitions of Ideas and Innovations, IENA 2004, in Nuremberg where we shared the stand, called the “Internationales Patent-Informationszentrum”, together with the European patent offices and in our own stand at the 53rd Exhibition of Innovation, Research and New Technology, EUREKA, in Brussels. For the first time, the Office enabled three Slovak protected products of extraordinary technical and designer value to present at the exhibition EUREKA.
PUBLICATIONS
During the year 2004, the Office has published seven professional publications. Except for two miscellanies from conferences and the updated collection of industrial regulations of the Slovak Republic, the Office has published author publications by Ing. Ľ. Dibdiak “International Trademarks According to the Madrid System” and re-edition of the “Marketing of Thoughts” by prof. M. Tuma. At the end of the year, we managed to publish a work by a reputable publicist Dr. Ján Barica “Small Slovak Pantheon of Science and Technology”, in which the author presents 115 of the most significant Slovak scientists and technicians. Publication of this work corresponds with ambitions of the Office to get into awareness of the public, especially the youth, for which the encyclopaedia is dedicated.
Awareness of the public in the field of intellectual property is increased also by the professional magazine Intellectual Property, issued quarterly by the Office. In the year 2004, the magazine became more varied in terms of genres, new columns were added and the Office activities started to be presented more expressively. Style of writing of individual articles has been partly changed; the articles are written in a more popular style to appeal to wider public.
OTHER
The OPEN DOOR DAY celebrating the World Intellectual Property Day was held on April 25, 2003 in IPO SR premises.
IPO SR created a new platform for dissemination of information on IP importance among SMEs and technical universities students by establishment of Information and Advisory Points for Innovation – INNOINFO. In mentioned year IPO SR started operations with INNOINFO in Banská Bystrica, Čadca, Martin and Žilina, more are planned for 2005. INNOINFO were established in business incubators, universities and regional development agencies.
In the framework of newly launched cooperation with media, IPO SR provided series of radio broadcasted advisory sessions in Slovak Radio, TV reports and spots in TV Markiza and Slovak Television STV as well as popularization of IP field and IPO SR activities in print media.