Trade marks and designs

First and foremost, a trade mark should ensure that consumers can easily distinguish your goods or services from those of competitors. This function of the trade mark thus helps consumers to avoid being misled into repeatedly buying the product. Trade marks are a communication tool towards consumers about your business and through them you establish customer trust and loyalty, which also represents a commitment for you as the owner to invest in maintaining and improving the quality of your products. An important reason for registering a trade mark is its appreciable value, which increases the assets of the company, and trade marks are also an effective weapon against unfair competition.

It is important to create a strong trademark, i.e. one that contains inherent elements of fancifulness to ensure it is memorable. As far as possible when creating a trade mark, avoid descriptive and generic elements, or elements that are undesirable from the point of view of moral principles.

A trade mark should also not deceive as to the nature, quality or geographical origin of the goods and should not imitate existing trade marks or signs in use.

Currently, technologies allow for the registration of audio, motion, multimedia, or holographic markings in addition to graphic markings.

Electronic representations of each type of trade mark are submitted in the following file formats:

(a) JPGs with a file size of 2 MB or less and a resolution of 300 dpi, if

• Image trade mark,
• Spatial trade mark,
• Positional trade mark,
• Design trade mark,
• A trade mark consisting exclusively of a single colour or combination of colours or
• Trademark pursuant to Section 1a(12) of Decree No 567/2009 Coll,

b) a JPG with a file size of no more than 2 MB and a resolution of 300 dpi or an MP3 with a file size of no more than 2 MB, if the trade mark is a sound trade mark,

c) a JPG with a file size of not more than 2 MB and a resolution of 300 dpi or an MP4 with a file size of not more than 20 MB, if it is a

• a motion mark; or
• a Holographic trade mark; and

d) MP4 with a file size of 20 MB or less if it is a multimedia trade mark.

If you use or intend to use your sign - name, logo, jingle, hologram, etc. - in your business, either directly on your goods or in connection with your services, and you do not yet have it protected as a trade mark, you can find out how to secure its protection by registering it in the trade mark register in Slovakia.

To avoid future conflicts with owners of older trademarks who have registered identical or similar trade marks, and thus the possibility that consumers may confuse your goods or services with those of the owner of the older trade mark, do your research. It can be done very easily

• in the webregister of the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic (the Office)
• in the database of EU trade marks which are also valid in Slovakia eSearch
• in the Madrid Monitor database of internationally registered trade marks, in which you can mark the designated territory of the Slovak Republic and the European Union.
• in the TM View database, which contains trademarks from both inside and outside the EU

If you are unsure of the result you have found, we recommend that you seek help from experts in the field (e.g. a patent attorney https://www.skpz.sk/ or the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic https://www.indprop.gov.sk/produkty-a-sluzby/sluzby-uradu/reserse).

If you have found an identical or similar sign in the search result which is already registered as a trade mark or is the subject of a trade mark application, read carefully the list of goods and services for which the sign is registered or applied for and avoid filing an application with the sign you intended to include in the trade mark application. If your search has not identified a conflict between your sign and registered or applied-for trademarks, check other available sources, e.g. corresponding domain names, trade names, social sites, registers of designations of origin and geographical indications of products.

Before you proceed to fill in the trade mark application form, we recommend that you watch the short video tutorial on how to file a trade mark application at the link https://youtu.be/BX8PEzNS_Xc

If you are determined to apply for a particular sign, proceed to Step 2.

To ensure that your mark enjoys strong protection, avoid words that express the type of goods (e.g. TABLET for laptops), or describe the characteristics of your goods or services, or describe their geographical origin (e.g. for radio services, the registered mark NITRIANSKE RÁDIO). Even an advertising slogan, if you wish to register it as a trade mark, must not be exclusively laudatory or descriptive of the purpose or characteristics of the goods and services.

Also consider registering such signs that could deceive about the nature, geographical origin or quality of the products. They are also excluded from registration.

Similarly, avoid signs that could be considered contrary to public policy or morality (e.g. vulgar words, obscene language or signs promoting violence).

One of the other grounds for excluding a sign from registration in the trade mark register is where the sign contains protected symbols of state sovereignty or the names of intergovernmental organisations.

If the result of the registrability test is in favour of registering your sign, proceed to step 3.

An indispensable condition for the recognition of the date of filing of a trade mark application is, in addition to the particulars of the applicant and the expression of the sign itself, the inclusion of a list of the goods and services for which the sign is to be registered as a trade mark. It is therefore necessary to draw up a list of goods and services on the basis of the uniform international system of classification of goods and services according to the Nice Agreement concerning the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Registration of Marks. In order to facilitate the creation of this list, it is recommended to use the free tool available on the Office's website at the link https://www.ezts.sk, which is free of charge and without the need to log in or register.  The use of this tool will help to significantly shorten the examination of a trade mark application. We therefore recommend that you prefer this tool in order to avoid various inaccurate, unclear or vague terms in the list of goods and services, which of course leads to a prolonged examination procedure of the application. Using this tool, you can easily create groups of goods or services in the correct classification, including class numbers, which must be entered in the application in ascending order together with the list of goods or services.

Once you have created a list of goods and services to be protected by your mark, follow the instructions in the section "Podajte si prihlášku ochrannej známky" (Apply for a trade mark).