Patents

Information for patent applicants

The grant of a patent for an invention is applied for by filing an application with the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic, Švermova 43, 974 04 Banská Bystrica 4 (hereinafter referred to as the Office). It is recommended to use the form of an Application (Žiadosť - rtf, 511 kB) for the grant of a patent for an invention.

The legal relations arising in connection with the creation, legal protection and application of an invention which is the subject of a patent application or a patent are regulated by Act No 435/2001 Coll. on patents, supplementary protection certificates and on amendment and supplementation of certain acts (zákon č. 435/2001 Z. z. o patentoch, dodatkových ochranných osvedčeniach a o zmene a doplnení niektorých zákonov) (Patent Act), as amended. The details of the particulars of the patent application are regulated by the Office Decree No 223/2002 Coll., implementing the Patent Act, as amended, and the Office Instruction (Inštrukcia), regulating the uniform form of the patent application.

The application to the Office shall be made in writing, either in paper form or in electronic form, and in the national language. A filing made in electronic form without authorisation pursuant to Act No 305/2013 Coll. on the electronic form of exercising the powers of public authorities and on amending and supplementing certain acts (the e-Government Act), as amended, shall be additionally delivered in paper form or in electronic form authorised pursuant to the e-Government Act; if it is not additionally delivered to the Office within one month, the filing shall not be taken into account. The Authority shall not call for additional delivery of the submission.

The patent application must contain the patent application in one copy, a description of the invention, at least one patent claim, drawings if necessary, an annotation with a possible picture or chemical formula of the compound in triplicate, which must allow for further reproduction.

A patent application may contain only one invention or a group of inventions which are so connected that they form a single inventive concept. If the Office finds that the application does not comply with that condition, it shall invite the applicant to remedy the deficiency within a specified period. The applicant may, in the course of remedying the deficiency, file an excluded application(s). The Office shall grant the excluded application a filing date and, where appropriate, a right of priority from the original application, provided that it is filed during the prosecution of the original application and does not go beyond the scope of the original application. The applicant may also file the excluded application(s) pending the grant of the patent on his own initiative.

If the applicant has applied for protection in the Slovak Republic by a utility model for identical subject matter prior to filing the patent application, he may, when filing the application, claim the filing date and, where applicable, the priority right from that utility model application. The Office shall grant the patent application a filing date and, where appropriate, a right of priority under that utility model application, provided that the patent application is filed within 36 months of the filing of the utility model application. If the proceedings for the utility model application have been discontinued or the utility model application has been refused, the patent application shall be filed within two months of the entry into force of that decision, but at the latest within 36 months of the filing of the utility model application.

The invention must be explained and described in the patent application so clearly and completely that a person skilled in the art can carry it out.

The Office shall subject the application to a preliminary examination to determine whether the application contains an obvious unpatentable solution and whether it has any defects which prevent its publication. The Office shall publish the patent application after the expiry of a period of 18 months from the date of priority and shall announce that publication in the Office Gazette.

Together with the patent application, the applicant may file a request for a priority search. If the applicant does not claim priority in the application from a previously filed application and the Office does not find, in the course of the preliminary examination, that the application or the subject-matter of the application contains defects which could be grounds for discontinuance of the application proceedings or for refusal of the application, it shall, within nine months of the filing of the application, carry out a search on the subject-matter of the application, deliver the search report to the applicant within the said period and publish it together with the application. There shall be a fee for filing a request for a search within the priority period. The filing of a request for a search within the priority period shall not be a substitute for the filing of a request for a full examination.

At the request of the applicant, a third party or of its own motion, the Office shall carry out a full examination of the patent application. The request for a complete examination shall be filed no later than 36 months after the filing of the patent application and may not be withdrawn. The applicant shall be required to pay an administrative fee (správny poplatok) together with the request.

If the application fulfils all the conditions laid down and the relevant administrative fees have been paid, the Office shall grant the patent to the applicant. The applicant shall become the proprietor of the patent. The proprietor of the patent shall have the exclusive right to exploit the invention, to grant consent to the exploitation of the invention to other persons or to assign the patent to them and to create a pledge over the patent.

The scope of protection resulting from the patent is determined by the patent claims. A patent is valid for 20 years from the filing of the patent application. The effects of the patent shall take effect from the date of the notification of the grant of the patent in the Office Gazette.

For the maintenance of the validity of the patent, the proprietor or a person authorised by him shall pay a fee pursuant to Act No 495/2008 Coll. on the fee for the maintenance of the validity of the patent, on the fee for the maintenance of the validity of the European patent with effects for the Slovak Republic and on the fee for the maintenance of the supplementary protection certificate for pharmaceuticals and plant protection products and on the amendment and supplementation of certain acts, as amended, to the account of the Office (účet úradu).

Applicants who do not have the necessary patent-law knowledge and experience are recommended to make use of the possibility to be represented by a lawyer or a patent attorney in the proceedings before the Office (list of attorneys). Proceedings on the application shall be conducted by the Office with the applicant or his representative (list of patent attorneys - zoznam zástupcov). The inventor of the invention, unless he is also the applicant, is not a party to the proceedings.

Fees shall be paid in euros by transfer from an account in a bank or branch of a foreign bank, by postal order, through a certifying person or through the payment gateway of the State Treasury.

Where acts and proceedings are carried out on the basis of an application submitted by electronic means or through an integrated service point, the rate of the fee shall be 50 % of the fee determined in accordance with the scale of fees; in such cases, however, the fee shall be reduced by a maximum of EUR 70. Where annexes are included in the application, the reduced rate of fees shall apply only if those annexes are in electronic form.

The fees shall be payable on written demand by the Office and shall be payable within 15 days of the date of receipt of the demand.

In order to identify the payment, the fee payer shall enter the variable symbol indicated in the Office's written notice.

Account for payment of administrative charges:

State Treasury
Radlinského 32
810 05 Bratislava

Account name: Depozitný účet ÚPV SR BB
IBAN: SK49 8180 0000 0070 0006 0750
BIC: SPSRSKBA
Constant symbol: 0558