Legislation

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Material: National Intellectual Property Strategy

The elaboration of a strategic document in the field of intellectual property results from the Work Plan of the Government of the Slovak Republic for 2021 approved by the Resolution of the Government of the Slovak Republic No. 71 of 2 February 2021 and the reason and aim of its elaboration is to contribute to the improvement of the country's ability to create, use and protect intellectual property.

In shaping the focus, scope and content of this strategic document, the Recovery and Resilience Plan of the Slovak Republic, approved by the Slovak Government in April 2021, will also be taken into account, including the measures proposed in Component 9 of the Recovery and Resilience Plan of the Slovak Republic aimed at eliminating fragmentation of science, research and innovation policy and preparing an overarching strategic document (National Strategy for Research, Development and Innovation 2030), which is expected to be developed by Q3/2022.

The ambition of the forthcoming National Intellectual Property Strategy is not to replace overarching SRI documents (whether existing or planned); the National Intellectual Property Strategy will have a targeted focus on the area of intellectual property protection. It will identify opportunities to contribute to improving the country's innovation ecosystem through a series of feasible and achievable IP protection measures, in particular in the areas of modernising the IP protection system, raising public awareness of IP, and supporting SMEs to increase their competitiveness through the protection of their IP.

The aim is to strengthen the protection of intellectual property in the Slovak Republic through strategic objectives focusing on four strategic areas:

• Better protection of intellectual property,
• promoting the exploitation of intellectual property,
• stepping up international cooperation; and
• enforcement of intellectual property rights, and strengthening the commercialisation of intellectual property

The tool for the implementation of the strategy paper will be an action plan with actions that can be implemented in the medium term (2022-2026).

The Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic is the submitter and main coordinator of the preparation of the National Intellectual Property Strategy. As this is a cross-cutting document concerning the substantive competences of several state administration bodies, the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Slovak Republic, the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic, the Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic and the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic (Financial Administration of the Slovak Republic) have been identified as cooperating ministries.

An external working group composed of representatives of the public administration, representatives of the academic environment as well as representatives of the business environment (Association of Entrepreneurs of Slovakia; SOPK) was set up for the preparation of the strategy document.

The Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic notifies business entities that foresee that the prepared strategy document will affect their business activities that they may consult the issues of the strategy document with the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic by electronic exchange of information or online consultation until 30 September 2021.

The online consultations will take place on 16 September 2021 (10.00 a.m.) and 23 September 2021 (2.00 p.m.).
(businesses are requested to confirm their participation in the online consultation)

Contact details:

Tel: +421 48 4300 199; e-mail: marian.michalovsky@indprop.gov.sk
Tel: +421 48 4300 262; e-mail: emil.zatkuliak@indprop.gov.sk

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Material: Draft Act supplementing Act No. 344/2004 Coll. on Patent Attorneys, amending Act No. 444/2002 Coll. on Designs and Act No. 55/1997 Coll. on Trade Marks, as amended by Act No. 577/2001 Coll. and Act No. 14/2004 Coll., as amended, and supplementing Act No. 517/2007 Coll. on Utility Models and amending and supplementing certain acts, as amended

The elaboration of the legislative material results from the Plan of Legislative Tasks of the Government of the Slovak Republic for the year 2022 (task number 6 for the month of November 2022).

The aim of the draft law is to modernise the legislation in the field of industrial property and to adapt it to the current social conditions and modern trends in administrative proceedings.

The proposed amendment to Act No. 344/2004 Coll. on patent attorneys, amending Act No. 444/2002 Coll. on designs and Act No. 55/1997 Coll. on trademarks, as amended by Act No. 577/2001 Coll. and Act No. 14/2004 Coll. is mainly a response to the recent pandemic experience by introducing the possibility of deciding to conduct the professional examination of a patent attorney by remote on-line form. At the same time, the proposed change also reflects technological progress and common standards for conducting similar examinations.

The proposed amendment to Act No 517/2007 Coll. on utility models and on amendment and supplementation of certain acts, as amended, aims at speeding up the procedure for registration of a utility model in the register on the basis of an active approach of the applicant, who has the possibility to waive the right to request a postponement of the publication of his application.

The Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic notifies business entities that foresee that the forthcoming draft law will affect their business activities that they may consult the draft law with the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic in the form of electronic exchange of information or online consultations from 15 June 2022 to 15 July 2022.

Contact details:

Tel: +421 48 4300 269; e-mail: jitka.mikulicova@indprop.gov.sk

Tel: +421 48 4300 104; e-mail: lucia.harachova@indprop.gov.sk