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Applying abroad
How to protect designs abroad?
A Slovak entity may obtain protection of a design abroad by filing a design application directly with the relevant registration office in the country in which protection is sought.
International protection of designs is governed by the 1925 Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs and Models. Although the Slovak Republic is not directly party to it, the accession of the European Community to the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement also allows Slovak applicants to take full advantage of the international system. It is also possible to use the filing of a single international application to register a design outside Slovakia and thus obtain protection in the EU and Geneva Act territory, i.e. in addition to the EU territory, also in other countries outside the EU. Through the Hague system of international registration of industrial designs, a single application can obtain protection in up to 55 contracting parties. Up to 100 designs can be filed electronically in a multiple application. Priority rights can be exercised for further filings from the filed applications. The application is filed directly at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) headquarters in Geneva.
Any natural or legal person in Slovakia may file an international application through the Hague system. For more information on filing international applications, territorial validity and related fees, please visit www.wipo.int/hague/en.
Within the European Union (EU), an application for a registered Community design (hereinafter referred to as an RCD application) can be filed in a simple way in the Slovak language via the following link: https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/sk/rcd-apply-now.
The same application form will be used for a single or multiple application, and it is possible to combine several designs into one multiple RCD application. This option is subject to the condition that the products in which the designs are to be embodied or on which they are to be used belong to the same class.
If the RCD application is filed in a language which is not one of the official languages of the EUIPO, the EUIPO will arrange for a translation of the RCD application into the language indicated by the applicant as the second language.
Under the Community Design Regulation, there is also protection for unregistered Community designs. The right to protection arises from the date on which it is first made available to the public within the Community and lasts for 3 years.
The applicant is obliged to pay the relevant fees at the same time as filing the application (príslušné poplatky).