Annual Technical Report on Trademark Information Activities in 2014 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.
I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN TRADEMARK INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of trademark 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.
Evaluation of the period 2013 - 2016 in the area of information services and the report on their status and perspectives is planned for the end of 2016.
New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies and plans mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks
Since 2011 the Office have realised the Projects of the Cooperation Fund of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (trade marks and designs – OHIM) 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 2014 the tools realised through the mentioned projects were used actively and were available not only to national Office experts but also to public. These are tools eFiling, eServices and tools in applications CESTO (a common support tool for examiners), Quality (Centralising information on IP Office quality standards), Seniority and Similarity (IP Office assessments of similarity between goods and services), portals like TMview (trade mark search tool) and TMClass (trade mark classification tool). More information is on the web site https://www.tmdn.org/.
In 2014 also the Project Common Central Database, implemented in OHIM and used by experts of the Office´s Call Centre to build so-called Knowledge Database, was launched. It means that questions about CTM or RCD or related questions are transferred by the Office´s experts to OHIM experts to harmonise answers about CTM or RCD.
Since 2012 the Office has been cooperating with industrial property offices of the European Union member states through the European Trade Mark and Design Network within the OHIM Convergence Programme aimed at harmonisation of practice and eliminating differences of national industrial property offices procedures on trade mark and designs and at gradual implementation of the Projects:
CP1 Harmonization of Classification
CP2 Convergence of Class Headings
CP3 Absolute grounds - Figurative Marks
CP4 Scope of protection of B&W Marks
CP5 Relative grounds - Likelihood of confusion
This cooperation resulted in agreements of the offices on common practice in publishing announcements of the Office on its main page such as joint announcements related to:
- Procedure for assessing the likelihood of confusion (relative grounds), where the common elements of the signs in question have no or weak distinctive character
- Procedure for determining the acceptability of terms for classification (set of criteria contained in this procedure helps to determine whether a term included in the list of goods and services of a trade mark application is in terms of classification sufficiently clear and precise)
- Judgments of the Court of Justice - calls for harmonized interpretations of the general indications of class headings of the Nice classification
- Procedure for assessing the scope of protection of black and white trade marks and trade marks in the gray-scale and so on.
In cooperation with external company the Office started to work on the Project Electronic Services of the IPO SR, inter alia, to prepare new modern web registers of the Office. In 2014 the works continued under the agreed timetable.
Main areas of trademark information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year
Maintenance and updating the search system for trade marks – Acsepto® containing bibliographic data and images of national, international trade marks and Community trade marks.
The projects and activities mentioned in the item above were realised in the co-operation with the OHIM.
Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and registrations with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes
During 2014 the Office received 3,104 trade mark applications, what represents decrease by 2.1 per cent in comparing with the previous year. When compared with 2013, the number of domestic trade mark applications increased by 0.3 per cent to 2,455.
In 2014, 1,583 international trade mark applications were filed under the Madrid Agreement and Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement. It represents decrease by 14.9 per cent when compared with 2013.
Total number of registered national trade marks decreased by 2 per cent to 2,474. The number of domestic registered trade marks increased by 0.5 per cent (1,895), the number of trade marks registered for foreign applicants decreased by 9.5 per cent to 579.
For comparison, there is the statistics on trade mark applications and registrations of the years 2010 – 2014:
Trade mark statistics_2014.docx
Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
Annual Technical Reports on Trade marks: http://www.upv.sk/?vyrocne-technicke-spravy
http://www.wipo.int/cws/en/atrs/
Annual Reports of the IPO SR: http://www.upv.sk/?annual-reports
Trade mark-related news http://www.upv.sk/
Useful links http://www.upv.sk/?linky
http://www.upv.sk/?dalsie-uzitocne-linky
Intellectual Property Magazine http://www.upv.sk/?dusevne-vlastnictvo
IPO SR and IPO CZ Publications http://www.upv.sk/?publikacie
IPO SR E-Zine http://www.upv.sk/?e-zine-upv-sr
II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO TRADEMARK 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:
Trade marks http://www.upv.sk/?trademarks
What Is a Trade mark? http://www.upv.sk/?what-is-a-trademark
Information for Applicants http://www.upv.sk/?information-for-applicants
Legislation http://www.upv.sk/?legislation-in-force
Administrative Fees - Trade marks http://www.upv.sk/?administrative-fees-trademarks
Madrid Protocol Concerning the International Registration of Trade Marks http://www.upv.sk/?madrid-protocol-concerning-the-international-registration-of-marks
Filing Abroad http://www.upv.sk/?ochranne-znamky-prihlasovanie-do-zahranicia
Application Forms To Be Filled Out Electronically http://www.upv.sk/?application-forms-to-be-filled-out-electronically
Renewal of international registrations(WIPO Marks E-Renewal System) http://www.upv.sk/?madridska-dohoda-a-protokol-o-medzinarodnom-zapise-ochrannych-znamok
Madrid System Fees http://www.upv.sk/?ochranne-znamky-sadzobnik-poplatkov-madridsky-system
Trade mark Classifications http://www.upv.sk/?ochranne-znamky-systemy-triedenia
Data Extracted from Registers http://registre.indprop.gov.sk/registre/searchForm.do?lang=en®ister=oz
Downloads http://www.upv.sk/?downloads
Contacts http://www.upv.sk/?contacts
The Office does not provide services for electronic filings with electronic signature in relation to trade marks.
In the past the Office created and made available intelligent electronic forms in cooperation with the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market that are now accessible on the website of the Office with the address: http://www.upv.sk/?elektronicky-vyplnitelne-formulare. Filings realised via these forms are not possible to sign with electronic signature/guaranteed electronic signature. This is the reason why they need to be filed in the paper form within the period of one month.
Request for entry of a sign as a trade mark into the Register
Request for entry of transfer of a trade mark
Request for renewal of a trade mark
Request for the amendment of the name/surname or the name/corporate name and address of the proprietor (applicant) of a trade mark
Oppositions against the registration of a sign
Request for revocation of a trade mark
Request for declaration of invalidity of a trade mark
For electronic filing there is the Office´s helpdesk available on the website of the Office http://www.upv.sk/?uzivatelsky-servis-a-helpdesk. Within the helpdesk it is possible to obtain the information on electronic forms and electronic filing using them and also to solve possible problems.
Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
The Office conducts the application file only in the paper form.
Matters concerning classifying
(i) Classification and reclassification activities; classification systems used, e.g., International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (Nice Classification), International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks (Vienna Classification), other classification
Goods and services are classified in accordance with the actual version of the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (Nice Classification). In the IPO SR exist an obligatory classifying system of goods and services by applicant according the said Classification. The last version of the International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks (Vienna Classification) is used as the code system of figurative elements of trade marks, which are classified by Office's expert.
The WIPO Standard ST.60 is used for trade mark bibliographic data coding in all relevant outcomes or records. All bibliographic data are being processed in electronic database form. The fully searchable data are updated and made available to the public daily in the Internet.
(ii) Use of electronic classification systems and pre-defined terms of the classification applied
Classification symbols were checked by internal electronic classification system built in Office registry software.
In accordance with the Act No.506/2009 the applicant is obliged to indicate in the application the goods and services for which the trade mark is filed, according to the International Classification (Nice Classification) accompanied with the appropriate number of this Classification. But there is no obligation for applicants to use pre-defined terms of the classification.
Matters concerning processing of different types of non-traditional marks (e.g., three-dimensional, motion, hologram, color mark, etc.)
In case of processing non-traditional marks, three-dimensional marks within the application shall be processed in printed presentation.
Other activities
Information Centre
http://www.upv.sk/?information-centre
Within their professional consultancy activities, the Centre staff provides the public with necessary IPR-related information valid not only in the Slovak republic but also in international context personally, by telephone (+421 48 4300 131), mail or e-mail infocentrum@indprop.gov.sk or by fax.
Information centre dealt with 8,011 requests for information; 6 055 were provided by phone, 1,729 by e-mail and 227 personally.
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 2014 the Office´s employees visited 15 companies in whole Slovakia. The most of them were from self-governing regions of Prešov (3), Trenčín (3) and Bratislava (3).
Workplace of the IPO SR in Bratislava
Workplace of the Office, which was opened in 2004 offered information relating to filing applications for industrial property rights subjects last year. In the workplace, there is a filing room.
III. SOURCES OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE
Main types of publications in the field of trademark information, outline of the content and medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URLs)
Publication of trade marks
The Office publishes announcements relating to published trade mark applications and registered/ renewed trade marks in the Official Gazette.
The following numbers of registered trade mark and trade mark application publications were announced in the Official Gazette in 2014:
2 693 published trade marks applications
2 499 registered trade marks
2 290 renewed trade marks
Official Gazette “Vestník ÚPV SR“
http://www.upv.sk/?vestnik-uradu-priemyselneho-vlastnictva-slovenskej-republiky
Trade mark information forms part of the Official Gazette - “Vestník ÚPV SR”, covering all industrial property rights in one publication. In 2014 the Gazette had a circulation of 100 copies, of which 22 were distributed monthly by subscription. Other copies were sent free of charge to patent information centres and contact and information points of the IPO SR, to information and consulting sites INNOINFO, within the frame of industrial property information exchange to foreign offices and as statutory copies according to the act as well.
Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online, URL), etc.
IPO SR publishes official version of the Official Gazette in electronic form on CD ROM in PDF format. The electronic version of the Gazette in PDF format is available via Internet address http://www.upv.sk/?vestnik-uradu-priemyselneho-vlastnictva-slovenskej-republiky.
The Gazette contains trade mark announcements arranged in following main chapters:
- published trade mark applications (list of published trade mark applications and their bibliographic data including the list of goods and services arranged according to the application numbers)
- registered trade marks without change after publishing an application (list of registered trade marks without change after publishing an application in comparison to applied sign and their bibliographic data arranged according to the registration numbers)
- registered trade marks with change after publishing an application (list of registered trade marks with change after publishing an application in comparison to applied sign and their bibliographic data arranged according to the registration numbers)
- registered trade marks based on trade mark applications resulting from the conversion of the international registration to national application in accordance with the Article 9quinquis of the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement (list and bibliographic data of these registered trade marks arranged according to the registration number)
- renewed registrations of trade mark (list of renewed registrations of trade mark and their bibliographic data arranged according to the registration numbers)
- termination of the proceedings on trade mark applications
- refused trade mark applications
- terminated trade mark
- international registrations of trade marks
- bibliographic data of registered trade marks replaced by an international registration according to the article 4 bis of the Madrid Agreement and article 4 bis of the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks (arranged according to the international registration numbers)
- changes of the trade mark proprietor (on the basis of the court decision)
- trade marks declared invalid
- trade marks revoked and declared invalid for certain goods and services
- assignments of rights and other changes of owners
- partial assignments
- changes of rights of disposal to trade marks (lien)
- changes of rights of disposal to trade marks (termination of lien)
- registration of licensing contracts in respect of trade marks
- termination of licensing contracts
- registration of sublicensing contracts in respect of trade marks
- termination of sublicensing contracts
- changes of data concerning trade mark owners/ applicants
- changes in the list of goods and services
- changes of wording or reproductions of trade mark
- changes in the representation of the trade mark
- 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 http://registre.indprop.gov.sk/registre/?lang=en
- Internal database system "INVENTIO" for managing the industrial property subjects
- Freely accessible foreign databases http://www.upv.sk/?zahranicne-online-databazy#znamky
External databases
Internet databases in particular:
- Registered trade marks database of the IPO CZ, coverage: CZ
- WIPO Gazette of International Marks, coverage: worldwide
- WIPO International Trade mark Information Database ROMARIN, coverage: worldwide
- OHIM Community Trade marks Database accessible via e-search at the OHIM portal, coverage: OHIM applications
- National database USPTO, coverage US
- National database IPO UK, coverage GB
- research system TMview, coverage: OHIM, WIPO and national databases of certain EU countries and also outside EU (coverage changes by the access of other countries)
- System on searching and classification of goods and services TMclass
- WIPO Global Brand Database - link: http://www.wipo.int/reference/en/branddb/, coverage: worldwide
See also foreign collections of gazettes, optical discs and databases as parts of the examination file mentioned in the Chapter 4.
Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) and services available to external users; conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)
ON-LINE DATABASES
http://www.upv.sk/?databases-and-registers
IPO SR makes accessible various databases on its web site. Freely accessible national databases are:
- "Data extracted from Registers" http://registre.indprop.gov.sk/registre/?lang=en also called "Webregisters" give public access to data extracted from trade mark register, which are kept by the Office with the possibility of simple and advanced search or browsing results. Data concerning in particular pending trade mark applications, all filed applications or registered trade marks in the register are daily updated.
- “Classification Systems” http://www.upv.sk/?systemy-triedenia contains trade mark classifications used in Slovakia, links to other classifications systems for classifying trade marks used in the world and other useful information http://www.upv.sk/?systemy-triedenia-ochranne-znamky
- Official 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, trade marks 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#znamky.
Products and services
URL addresses providing basic information concerning the information services offered and information products issued by the Office and other relevant information relating to their accession and utilization
- IPO SR Official Gazette http://www.upv.sk/?official-gazette
- magazine “Intellectual Property” http://www.upv.sk/?dusevne-vlastnictvo
http://www.upv.sk/?other-products
- IPO SR and IPO CZ publications http://www.upv.sk/?publikacie
http://www.upv.sk/?other-products
- IPO SR E-zine http://www.upv.sk/?e-zine-upv-sr
- on-line order forms http://www.upv.sk/?online-orders
- price list http://www.upv.sk/swift_data/source/pdf/Cennik.pdf
- data extracted from register http://www.upv.sk/?databases-and-registers
- IPO SR reading room http://www.upv.sk/?other-services
- searches http://www.upv.sk/?searches
- search system TMview http://tmview.europa.eu/tmview/welcome.html?language=sk
- service CETMOS (Central European Trade Mark Observation Service) http://www.upv.sk/?cetmos
- 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 in International Trade marks Database ROMARIN, in European trade mark databases CTM-online and TMview
- searches upon request - orders in written and on-line form
- registry information provided in the reading room
- CD-ROM workstations available in the reading room
Trade mark and related information on the World Wide Web:
- general information
- information about Office activities (seminars, training courses, etc.)
- application guide and forms
- administrative fees
- relevant laws
- Annual Reports
- extracted data from register
- Official Gazette
- order forms (searches, Official Gazette, special literature)
- Nice Classification (10-2014)
- Vienna Classification (7-th edition)
- trade mark classifications and related information
- annual technical reports on trade mark information (2002-2014)
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 http://www.upv.sk/?databases-and-registers but have only informative character and do not substitute the extract from the Register; similar to the system TMview where the data are mentioned by the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market based on the information from the IPO SR within the common project.
Other sources
In addition the Office makes single captures of the Journal available monthly on the portal www.zbierka.sk.
IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO TRADEMARK INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements
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; working stations PC Pentium, Windows XP / 7, thin client WYSE V10, WYSE S10, HP t5740.
Linux Red Hat Enterprise 5.0
Citrix XenApp 6.5, 7.6
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.08.10
Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
The online trade mark database kept by the Industrial Property Office serves for national trade marks searches and purposes of proceedings on trade mark applications. Selected register data are available to the public in the Internet http://www.upv.sk/?databases-and-registers.
International trade marks searches were performed in the ROMARIN Internet database and in the Office management system “INVENTIO” for administration of international trade marks with designation for SK.
In the beginning of 2006, the Office implemented a new search system Acseptoâ. It enables performing the professional trade mark searches for designations of products and services in databases of national, international and European trade marks as well as in other selected trade mark databases.
Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file
The Office builds, keeps and completes regularly the examination file containing national trade mark applications and national registered trade marks, international trade marks with designation of the Slovak Republic under the Madrid Agreement and Protocol and trade marks conversed from Community trade marks applications or Community trade marks via the internal system Inventio. Selected data are available to public in webregisters and are being updated daily.
It is possible to carry out searches according to bibliographic data in all the databases used for the trade marks.
Documentation from other offices maintained and/or considered part of the available search file:
Trade mark gazettes form also part of the available search files of the Office. In 2014, within the frame of mutual exchange, the IPO SR continued in receiving trade mark gazettes from the following states: Bulgaria, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine.
Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)
Official automated system for managing the industrial property subjects “INVENTIO”contains registers of national and international trade marks (data since 1990 - national trade marks and data since 1947 - international trade marks).
Administrative management system is based on Lotus Domino and Fabasoft eGov Suite.
Other matters
V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION
Office's library (if deals with trademark information): equipment, collection management, network of libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign libraries
In 2014, the Office’s reading room has been visited by 1 006 users. In total there were provided 5 428 borrowings of patent and other literature made available to the public and 2 169 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 2014 there were performed 494 trade mark searches and 92 searches on bibliographic data.
The Office’s reading room serves as a WIPO deposit library as well. The deposit library fund includes 211 volumes of publications issued by WIPO, which are available for study in reading room.
The Office’s reading room including the search workstation opens daily from 9:00 to 15:00.
In 2014, within the frame of mutual exchange of industrial-property information, the IPO SR continued in receiving of trade mark information in the form of official gazettes. Non-patent literature was acquired mostly by purchase or as a gift and processed, stored according to librarian rules and made available via in-house database system “Knižnica” to the staff.
Patent Information Centres and Contact and Information Points
Since 2003 the Office has 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 (SNK) in Martin and Centre of Scientific and Technical Information (CVTI) in Bratislava. A list of centres and points is available on the Office’s web site http://www.upv.sk/?partners.
The main goal of patent information centres is to provide complex information services in the field of patent, trade mark and industrial design information, search services, consultation and methodical assistance concerning the searching of information, making copies of required patent documents, printing records from electronic form etc. Every patent information centre serve as a contact and information point.
The main goal of contact and information points of the Office is to inform the public about where can apply for protection of the results of creative activity, and particularly to inform the general public about the existence of the national institution, which protects immaterial goods, industrial property.
The Office supported the activity of centres and contact and information points by regular sending Slovak patent specifications in paper form and the Official Gazette in electronic form, as well as all information materials and resources made available to the public, publications published by Office, information pamphlets, documents and forms relating to applying for protection of industrial property rights, access to office¢s databases via Internet etc.
Information and Advisory Points for Innovations (InnoInfo)
The mission of InnoInfo centres http://www.upv.sk/?information-and-advisory-points-for-innovation-innoinfo 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 advisory and information centres, regional chambers of the Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry and at the Universities of technical orientation.
The Office cooperated most actively with the University Technological Incubator of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, the Technical University in Košice and also with Banská Bystrica Regional Chamber of the Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The cooperation with the Slovak Library of Forestry and Wood Sciences, TU Zvolen, with the Technical University in Zvolen and with the Faculty of Mass Media Communication, UCM Trnava has been developing in a promising way.
Publications related to different business procedures and trademark information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.
The Office publishes classifications, miscellanies, expert monographs, acts and related commentaries, promotional and information brochures, leaflets or translations of the WIPO and the EPO original publications providing valuable information on industrial property field to public.
Publication activities of the Office during 2014 include:
- Annual Report of the Industrial Property Office of SR 2013 – for the 4th time in the electronic version (on the CD); on the website www.upv.sk also web version of the annual report 2013 is available;
- Magazine Duševné Vlastníctvo 1 – 4/ 2014 – for the 1st time four issues of the Magazine in the electronic version; 5th issue is printed. Printed issue Duševné vlastníctvo – Selection 2014 consisted of the selected last-year´s core author articles supplemented by a Section From Decisions of the IPO SR and From the Gallery of Creators.
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 Office also in 2014 continued in updating the website daily to provide visitors new information on IP, the Office´s activities, to inform about upcoming conferences or other events and updated information on all relevant web sites within the whole website.
There were 147,080 visitors of the website recorded in 2014; the average number of users was 430 during working days and 161 during weekends. Trade Marks (110,262), Patents (45,165), Registers and Databases (40,633), Utility Models (18,232) and Contacts (17,412) were the most visited sites. 65.8 per cent of visits were from Slovakia, 5.94 per cent from the Czech Republic and the rest 28.26 per cent from abroad.
WWW.PATENTOVAT.SK
Since 2011 the Office has been using the internet portal – www.patentovat.sk – to increase the awareness on IP and its protection. The internet portal is intended for the general public and in a popularisation way provides information on industrial property protection and related services and products of the Office. It also responds to new trends in the promotion of intellectual property protection, particularly through information technologies, and in addition to the official website of the Office www.upv.sk it is also linked to the social network Facebook.
Cooperation with universities, technology and innovation support centers, etc.
Two specialised seminars took place in Nitra in 2014. The Industrial Property Office of SR in cooperation with the Regional Chamber of SCCI in Nitra organised the seminar Intellectual Property Rights to Results of Technical Creative Activities on May 14, 2014, and the seminar Industrial Property Rights to a Sign on May 27, 2014. In November 2014 the IPO SR in cooperation with WIPO, Trnava University in Trnava and Slovak Centre of the Scientific and Technical Information organised the 6th International Conference IP Protection at Universities. The Conference was aimed particularly at increasing the IP awareness, copyright protection and strategic using of IP.
Education and training: training courses, e-learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.
The Office also in 2014 continued in education on IP protection importance for pupils of elementary and secondary schools and also for academic community and entrepreneurs. 22 lectures were organised for elementary and secondary schools in 2014; 11 of them were associated with the excursion of the Office. The great interest was also in lectures for universities students and business community, for which 18 lectures took place.
IPO SR continued the education programme Intellectual Property accredited by the Ministry of Education of the SR also last year. From September 2013 to May 2014 the education programme in the Module D – Industrial Property Law - was running. 46 participants entered the education programme. 43 participants terminated the study by final examinations of the Module Industrial Property Law in May 2014. Last year the IPO SR submitted the project of two-year four-module education programme Intellectual Property to the Accreditation Commission of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of SR, which approved it on April 30, 2014 and the Office got the accreditation for another 5 years.
Active participation in fairs and exhibitions is another form to provide information and consultations on IP protection by the Office experts. In 2014 the Office participated in three international fairs: CONECO in Bratislava, Furniture and Living in Nitra and International Engineering Fair in Nitra.
During the 4th year of the job fair JobExpo 2014 and also the 22nd year of the sales and presentation exhibition of products made by students of training colleges Young Creator 2014 the Office representatives provided information on IP protection to wide and professional public. The Office also participated in the 8th European science festival – Researchers´ Night; it had its expositions in Banská Bystrica and Košice.
In the course of 2014 there were four exhibitions installed progressively in the access premises of the IPO SR:
• From Talent to Patent – the Exhibition of the works of students of the Design Department, Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, and children from villages Píla and Žarnovica;
• The exhibition of the most successful works of the 4th year of the International Biennial Competition LOGO 2014;
• An exhibition dedicated to the 95th Anniversary of the Patent Office in Prague;
• The exhibition of collection items of the Trade Museum.
Other activities
The World Intellectual Property Day
http://www.indprop.gov.sk/?aktivity-upv-sr-pre-msp
On April 24, 2014 the Industrial Property Office of SR celebrated the World Intellectual Property Day (WIPD). The vernissage of the exhibition - From Talent to Patent - of the works of students of the Design Department, Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, and of children from not large villages Píla and Žarnovica - was the part of the opening of the WIPD in the IPO SR.
It has become a good habit that the IPO SR organises also the Conference Intellectual Property in Slovakia within the WIPD. The 14th Conference with the motto The Mastery to Be Different was aimed at increasing the public awareness, particularly of businesses and customers, on the importance of branding and design in a competitive environment. In the first part of the Conference Branding the lectures like the Story of Kofola Brand, Levi Strauss: Protection of the Trade Mark in Central and Eastern Europe and Logo as a Company´s Totem were presented. The second part Design That Sells contained topics like Two Ways to Legal Protection of Designs and Design in Practice (School and Reality).
VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION
International exchange of trademark information in machine-readable form (e.g., Official Gazettes)
In 2014 followed the mutual exchange of trade mark 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 trademark information
CTM searches
In accordance with the EU Council Regulation No.40/1994 on the Community Trade mark, the Office continued performing the searches about subjects of the Community trade mark (CTM) applications also during the previous year. Based on OHIM requests the Office made searches in databases of national and international trade marks with designation for the Slovak Republic, the results of which were regularly sent back to OHIM.
Similarly as in case of the services provided to the public the search system Acsepto® has been used also for CTM searches. It enables making searches of word, picture and combined trade marks within all designations applied for or protected in the territory of the Slovak Republic.
Overall 811 searches on designations of products and services were made in 2014.
Project TMview
In 2014 the Office made Slovak trade marks available periodically in the search system TMview http://tmview.europa.eu/tmview/welcome.html. It is a database of trade marks of the EU member states aimed at searching and informative searches on interchangeability with references and links to national databases in languages of all participated countries and with the system TMclass for the assistance in classification of goods and services.
Assistance to developing countries
Other activities
Based on agreements on data provision the Office sends monthly the data on trade marks published in the Gazette to companies Patentservis Praha and Thomson CompuMark.