Utility models

In general, a technical solution eligible for utility model protection must meet three basic conditions, which are:

1. Novelty - The technical solution should not be in any way publicly known anywhere in the world. Applicants for technical solutions should be careful to keep it secret until the successful filing of a utility model application. If the solution has already been publicly discussed, commercially exploited, advertised or demonstrated in any way, the novelty requirement will not be satisfied.

2. Inventive activity - The technical solution must be a solution to a technical problem, and the solution does not follow in an obvious way to a person skilled in the art from what is already known in the art.

3. Industrial application - The technical solution must be useful and have some form of practical application. It must be capable of being produced or used in some area of industry or agriculture.

Discoveries, scientific theories, computer programs, plant varieties, animal breeds, surgical and therapeutic methods of treating humans and animals, and the like cannot be protected by utility models because these items are not considered technical solutions under the Utility Model Act or are excluded from utility model protection.

Unlike a patent, a utility model cannot protect either:

- technical solutions relating to products consisting of or containing biological material or to the means by which biological material is produced, processed or used,

- methods for the production of chemical and pharmaceutical substances,

- medical uses of substances and mixtures of substances,

- data processing solutions for administrative, commercial, financial or other similar purposes.

A technical solution which is generally expected to encourage offensive, immoral or anti-social behaviour shall not be disclosed or registered in the Register of utility models.

The Office shall not, of its own motion, examine the novelty or inventiveness of the technical solution described in the application.

Premature disclosure of information about your technical solution may adversely affect the procedure for filing a utility model application because, although the Office does not ex officio examine the fulfilment of the novelty and inventive step condition, third parties may file objections to the registration of the utility model or a petition for cancellation of the utility model from the register.

If your technical solution has to be disclosed to a third party before filing a utility model application, we recommend concluding a non-disclosure agreement. Disclosure of the technical solution can generally only take place after the filing date has been granted, but in the case of a utility model, disclosure to the public 6 months before the filing of the application is not a bar to the novelty requirement for proceedings in Slovakia.

Before filing a utility model application, it is advisable to spend some time searching databases of published patent documents and databases of non-patent literature to ensure that your technical solution is genuinely novel.

You can search freely accessible online databases, such as the Webregisters of the Office (Webregistre ÚPV SR) or international databases (medzinárodné databázy), where you can search for technical solutions in the field yourself, or you can use the Office's search services (rešeršné služby úradu).

You have the right to file a utility model application if you are:

1. the originator of the technical solution;

2. you are an employer and the technical solution was created by your employee in the course of his or her normal duties;

3. a person who entered into a contract with the originator prior to the creation of the technical solution so that you have a right in the technical solution; or

4. the person to whom the right has been transferred or to whom the right has passed.

The preparation of a utility model application and the conduct of proceedings for the registration of a utility model in the Register of Utility Designs is a matter requiring knowledge of the legislative regulations, practice and procedures of the Office, as well as knowledge of the scientific or technical knowledge involved in a particular technical solution.

 
Using the services of a patent attorney is not essential, but it saves your time and it is expected that the application will be drafted in the required quality, which will facilitate and speed up the proceedings. A utility model may also be registered by applicants who are not sufficiently qualified in the field of industrial law protection, but in such a case it may also happen that the obtained utility model does not adequately protect a particular technical solution.

Applicants who do not have the necessary knowledge and experience are advised to take advantage of the possibility to be represented by a patent attorney (list of attorneys,zoznam zástupcov) or a lawyer in the proceedings before the Office. The Office conducts the application proceedings with the applicant or his representative. The originator of the technical solution, unless he is also the applicant, is not a party to the proceedings.

List of patent attorneys/foreign patent attorneys (Zoznam patentových zástupcov/zahraničných patentových zástupcov ).