Patents
Proceedings of the patent application at the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic are held according to Patent law No. 435/2001 Coll. and Decree No. 223/2002.
The patent application with the national application priority has to be filed within 12 months from the date of the priority application filing.
Effective April 1, 2002, the PCT applications with the claim for the patent protection have to be filed within 30 months from the date of the effective date of relevant priority rights.
The patent application filings normally require the following documentation:
the text of the application, the priority document, the applicant’s name, the inventor’s name,
for PCT applications - the international publication of the application, the international search report, the international preliminary examination report and a reply to it if available (this is applicable when such examination was requested), the power of attorney.
The European Patent Applications
Effective July 1, 2002 the Slovak Republic became a member of the European Patent Agreement.
Filing of the European patent application typically requires the following documentation:
the text of the application in English or German, the applicant’s name, the inventor’s name, the relevant priority document if a national application was filed.
After publishing of the European patent application, the application is without undue delay published in the Journal of the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic.
Within three months from the announcement of the European patent grant or within a prolonged three-month period, the Slovak translation of the patent file has to be submitted to the Slovak Office and a publication fee has to be paid. The patent owner has to be represented before the Slovak Office by a qualified representative (registered in the Slovak Chamber of Patent Attorneys).
Proceedings before the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic:
After the preliminary examination the patent application gets published in the Official Journal 18 months from the effective date of the priority right. The request to carry out the full examination has to be filed within 36 months from the application filing date (please note that for PCT applications the filing date is identical with the filing date at the International Office).
The full examination then results in publication of the decision on the application. The patent grant is published in the Official Journal. At this stage, Patent Office fees for these acts become due.
The patents are valid for 20 years from the date of the filing of the application.
Further services in the area of patents provided by our office include the following:
preparation and filing proposals for patent determinations and patent annulments
replies to the proposals for patent determinations or patent annulments
preparation and filing of appeals against the decisions of the Patent Office
continuing monitoring of the legal status of patents, including maintenance of validity of patents.
Additional protection certificates for medicaments and drugs
The Office grants the additional protection certificate to a medicament or to a medicament composition, to the technique of the medicament acquisition or to the mode of the medicament use, providing that:
the medicament is protected by a basic patent in the Slovak Republic territory
the medicament is a component of a medicine registered according to the other specific Slovak laws and the medicament is being registered in Slovakia for the first time
no additional protection certificate was previously issued for the medicament
Additional protection certificates for plant protection products
The Office grants additional protection certificates for plant protection products that are components of a plant protection product which must be registered under special regulations after its introduction to the market, providing that:
the product is protected by the basic patent valid in Slovakia
the plant protection product is registered in Slovakia according to other special regulations
no additional protection certificate was previously issued for the product.
The request for the grant of the certificate has to be filed within 6 months from the effective date of the registration of the medicament or the plant protection product in accordance with special regulations.
Additional certificates are valid for up to 5 years from their effective date.