Registration of the Trademark in Slovak Republic

The application for the registration of the trademark should be sent to Industrial Property Office of Slovak Republic, also an application of trademark fulfilled on appropriate form is needed.

Submission of the application is possible to be made by natural or legal person and in case of collective trademark the group of entrepreneurs may apply. An application of trademark must contain: 

• an application for the registration of signification as trademark,
• identification information of the applicant,
• identification information of the representative of the applicant, if he is represented,
• text or apparent image of the registered signification on basis of which the reproduction of the signification is possible; in case of three-dimensional signification, two-dimensional image is required,
• the list of goods and services for usage of which signification must be used as trademark,
• signature of the applicant or his representative.

The list of goods and services was set by Nice Agreement. Statutory text is available for perusal here. Useful tip for the classification of the single good or service is a document issued by the Office, which you can see over here. There are 45 single groups of goods and services based on characteristics.

Procedure of registration

After apply the procedure of registration starts within which you need to deal with lots of essentials. First of all, the Office checks out, if there are already registered such significations and if there are essential reasons to deny the registration. Reasons for denial are established by § 5 of the law No. 506/2009 of Collection of Laws about trademarks. In accordance with this regulation, the Office can deny the registration of signification which:

1. do not have distinctive character (the signification must be unique and it`s usage must differ goods and services of the applicant from others),
2. is created only with descriptions and data, which are used in market as definition of type, quality, amount, reason, price, geographical origin, production time or time provision of services, or other qualities of goods and services,
3. is created only with descriptions and data, which are customary everyday language or on market,
4. is created only with the shape of a product resulting from the nature of the product itself or it is necessary to achieve a technical result or gives substantial value,
5. is contrary to public policy or morality,
6. may deceive public about the nature, quality, geographical origin of goods or services,
7. contains, without the consent of the competent authorities, indications protected by an international convention,
8. it includes indications, the use of which is not in accordance with the provisions of other legislation or is contrary to the commitments of the Slovak Republic resulting from international agreements,
9. contains a sign of high symbolic value, in particular a religious symbol,
10. contains, without the consent of the competent authorities, badges, emblems or escutcheons other than those which are protected by the International Conventions and which are the objects of public interest,
11. it is the subject of the application which was applied in bad faith,
12. it contains geographic significance and the sign applied for wines or spirits, but do not have this origin.

If in this case an application is not wrongful, then publication of it in the gazette is following, and it is possible to lodge an objection within a period of 3 months (ie. the opposition procedure) from the date of publication. The purpose of this procedure is to allow other trademark owners to defend themselves before the registration of a similar mark. For this reason, therefore, you must be reckoning with long-term process. If there are no objections, the Office will register trademark and issue a certificate of registration of the trademark. The trademark can be used only after a whole process will be finished.

The period of validity

The period of validity of the trademark is ten years from the day of apply. Validity may be prolonged for ten years more, but the opportunity of prolongation become possible only during the last year of validity of the registered trademark.

Fees

The amount of fees depends on variation of groups. A trademark can be registered for at least 3 groups of products - the fee for registration in this case is 166 EUR. For each upcoming group the fee increases by 17 EUR. If the applicant interested in the full protection and wants to register the trademark for all groups, the price is 880 EUR. The application fee for the registration of the trademark shall be payable within 15 days from notification of the assignment of the trademark application.

Our services

• preparation of an application for trademark registration
• legal consultations in sphere of the trademark registration