Utility models

After filing a utility model application, it is ascertained whether:

- the conditions for the grant of the filing date are fulfilled (Section 33 of the Utility Model Act,zákona o úžitkových vzoroch),

- the application contains your personal identifier.

If the formal requirements for the application to be granted a filing date are not fulfilled, the Office will ask you to complete the missing parts of the application.

If the formal requirements for granting a filing date are met, the Office will grant the utility model application a filing date and the applicant will be entitled to priority. You will then receive a confirmation of the filing of the utility model application together with a request to pay the application fee, which must be paid within 15 days of receipt of the request to pay.

Once the application fee has been paid, the Office will proceed with the examination of the registrability of your application.

The examination of the application (Section 38 of the Utility Model Act, zákona o úžitkových vzoroch) will determine whether:

- the conditions for priority are fulfilled;

- the application has been filed by a person who has the right to the technical solution;

- whether the subject matter of the application is a technical solution and whether it is excluded from protection by a utility model;

- is the solution described in the application so clearly and completely that it can be carried out by a person skilled in the art;

- the application complies with the requirement of uniformity;

- the application complies with the formal requirements laid down by the Ordinance (vyhláškou);

- the application contains a power of attorney if the applicant is represented.

If, in the course of the examination of the application, formal deficiencies in the application are found, the Office will invite you to remedy them. If you fail to do so, the application shall be discontinued.

If the documents filed in support of the utility model application do not have any formal and substantive defects, the Office shall carry out a prior art search on the subject matter of the application. At this stage, the patent examiners will search for identical or similar technical solutions in relation to your solution.

In the case of a utility model application, the Office does not, of its own motion, investigate the novelty or inventive step of the technical solution described in the application. The Office only verifies the formalities of the application and whether the technical solution described in the application is not excluded from utility model protection, whether it is industrially exploitable, and others.

The result of the search will be communicated to you and the application will then be forwarded for publication together with the result of the search. Based on the result of the search, you can adjust the scope of protection so that the technical solution does not clash with known solutions that have been identified by the search. Third parties may also refer to the documents referred to in the search result when opposing the registration.

After the publication of the application, anyone may, within a period of three months from the date of publication of the utility model application, file with the Office an opposition to the registration of the utility model in the Register.

Oppositions may be filed, for example, on the grounds that the technical solution which is the subject of the published application is not new or is not the result of inventive activity. They must contain legal and factual grounds as well as evidence and, where appropriate, the identification of evidence. The documents referred to in the search report published with the application may also be referred to in the opposition, but need not be submitted.

The filing of oppositions shall be subject to a fee in accordance with the scale of administrative charges* (sadzobníka správnych poplatkov*).

You will be informed of any objections and will be given the opportunity to comment on them. On the basis of the statement, the Office will examine whether the subject-matter of the application meets the conditions for protection by a utility model.

If the subject matter of the application does not meet the conditions for protection, the application will be refused in whole or in part. If the conditions for protection (podmienky ochrany) are fulfilled, the opposition shall be rejected and the utility model shall be entered in the Register.If you do not respond to the objections to the registration within the time limit, the application will be abandoned.

* electronic filings (elektronické podania) are eligible for a fee reduction pursuant to Section 6 of Act No. 145/1995 Coll. on administrative fees, as amended.

Your technical solution will be entered in the Register of utility models if no opposition to the registration of the utility model has been filed with the Office within three months from the date of publication of the application or if the opposition procedure proves that the opposition to the registration was not justified.

As the applicant, you thus become the owner of the utility model. Confirmation of the registration and validity of the utility model is the certificate of registration of the utility model in the Register of Utility Models and the extract from the Register of Utility Models. The owner of the utility model shall have the exclusive right to exploit the technical solution, to grant consent for the exploitation of the solution to other persons or to transfer or pledge the utility model to them.

The scope of protection resulting from the utility model shall be determined by the claims for protection and shall take effect from the date of the notification of the registration of the utility model in the Register in the Gazette of the Office.

The basic period of validity of a utility model shall be 4 years from the filing of the application. The term of validity may be extended twice for three years, each time at the request of the holder and on payment of the appropriate administrative fee (správneho poplatku).

The maximum period of validity of a utility model shall be 10 years from the filing of the application. The Office shall send notices to the holders of utility models or their legal representatives of the expiry of the term of validity and of the possibility of extending it by the three years referred to above.