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On the basis of the Agreement between the Visegrad Patent Institute and the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization, valid from January 1, 2024, the Visegrad Patent Institute provides a service of carrying out international-type searches on the subject-matter of national patent applications and utility model applications filed with the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic (further referred to as “the Office”).
The objective of the international-type search is to discover prior art which is relevant for the purpose of determining whether, and if so, to what extent, the claimed invention or the technical solution to which the national application relates is or is not novel and does or does not involve an inventive step.
Visegrad Patent Institute will carry out the international-type search on the subject-matter of an application upon the applicant's request filed with the Office. In case of a patent application, the request shall contain the requirements pursuant to section 23 of Decree No 223/2002 Coll., implementing Act No 435/2001 Coll. on patents, supplementary protection certificates and on amendment and supplementation of certain acts (Patent Act), as amended. In case of a utility model application, the request shall contain the requirements pursuant to section 20b of Decree No 1/2008 Coll., implementing Act No 517/2007 Coll. on utility models and on amendment and supplementation of certain acts, as amended. The Office promptly transmits the filed request to the Visegrad Patent Institute for further proceeding.
Carrying out the international-type search is subject to a fee of 600 €. The fee shall be paid directly to the Visegrad Patent Institute (https://vpi.int/en/11-contact-us/).
The Visegrad Patent Institute will establish an international-type search report and send it to the applicant within three months from the date on which both the request form and the fee arrived to the Visegrad Patent Institute.