- Act No. 517/2007 Coll. on Utility Modelsand on Amendment of Some Acts
- Title I
- Title IV
Act No. 517/2007 Coll. on Utility Models
and on Amendment of Some Acts
Amended by : Act No. 495/2008 Coll.
The National Council of the Slovak Republic has adopted the following Act:
Title I
P A R T I
BASIC PROVISIONS
Article 1
This Act shall govern legal relations arising in relation to creation, legal protection and utilisation of a technical solution which is a subject-matter of a utility model application or of a utility model.
Article 2
Definition of terms
For purposes of this Act biological material shall mean any material containing genetic information capable of reproducing itself or being reproduced in a biological system; essentially biological process for the production of plants or animals shall be a process consisting exclusively of natural phenomena, such as crossbreeding or selection; chemical substance shall mean any chemical element or any compound of chemical elements including any stabilisation additives and including all impurities arisen in a manufacturing process; pharmaceutical substance shall mean any substance or composition of substances which indicates curative or prophylactic effects in relation to human or animal affections, as well as any substance or composition of substances which can be administered to a human or animal to determine a diagnose or to regenerate, improve or modify physiological functions of a human or animal; medical utilisation of a substance or composition of substances shall mean methods of surgical or therapeutic treatment of the human or animal body and diagnostic methods and methods of diseases prevention used on a human or animal body; international application shall be an application filed pursuant to the Patent Co-operation Treaty; utility model owner shall be a legal or a natural person entered as an owner into the Utility Model Register (hereinafter referred to as “Register”).
Article 3
The Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic (hereinafter referred to as “Office”) shall enter utility models into the Register.
T e r m s o f P r o t e c t i o n
Article 4
Technical solution, which is new, is a result of an inventive activity, and is industrially applicable, shall be protected as a utility model.
Article 5
According to this Act the following shall not be deemed to be a technical solution: discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods; aesthetic creations; plans, rules and methods for performing mental acts, playing games or trade activities; computer programmes; presentation of information. Subject-matters or activities stated in paragraph 1 shall be excluded from utility model protection only to extent to which an application of a utility model (hereinafter referred to as “application”) relates to these subject-matters or activities as such.
Article 6
Exceptions to protection
The following cannot be protected by utility model: technical solutions commercial exploitation of which would be in contradiction with public order or good manners; prohibition of a technical solution exploitation as such shall not be considered to be in contradiction with public order or good manners within the meaning of this provision; plant and animal varieties; essentially biological processes for production of plants or animals; methods of surgical or therapeutic treatment of human or animal body and diagnostic methods and methods of diseases prevention used on a human or animal body; technical solutions concerning products consisting of biological material or containing biological material or a process by means of which the biological material is produced, processed or used; methods for production of chemical substances; methods for production of pharmaceutical substances; and medical use of substances and compositions of substances.
Article 7
Novelty
A technical solution shall be considered to be new if it does not form a part of state of the art in accordance with paragraphs 2 to 4. State of the art for purposes of this Act shall be everything made available to the public by any means of disclosure before the day from which an applicant for a utility model (hereinafter referred to as “applicant”) enjoys priority right pursuant to Article 34(1). The content of applications and patent applications filed in the Slovak Republic with an earlier priority right shall be also considered as state of the art, if they are published in the Official Journal of the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic (hereinafter referred to as “Journal”) on the day from which the applicant enjoys the priority right or after this day. This shall also apply to international applications with designation for the Slovak Republic; publication of an international application shall be the publication in the Journal, and for European patent applications with designation for the Slovak Republic (hereinafter referred to as “European patent application”); publication of a European patent application shall be the publication pursuant to Article 93 or Article 153 of the European Patent Convention. Confidential patent application shall be deemed to be published after the expiry of 18 months from the day of rise of priority right. Disclosure of results of an applicant’s work or his legal predecessor shall not be considered as state of the art provided that such disclosure occurred no earlier than six months preceding the filing the application.
Article 8
Inventive activity
Technical solution shall be considered as a result of an inventive activity if it is not for a person skilled in the art obvious from state of the art. Contents of applications, patent applications, international applications and European patent applications which have not been published by the day from which an applicant enjoys the priority right shall not be taken into consideration in determination of an inventive activity.
Article 9
Industrial application
Technical solution shall be considered to be industrially applicable if its subject-matter can be produced or used in any branch, particularly in any branch of industry and agriculture.
R i g h t t o u t i l i t y m o d e l p r o t e c t i o n
Article 10
An author of a technical solution (hereinafter referred to as “author”) shall have the right to utility model protection. An author is a person who has created a technical solution by his own creative activity. Co-authors of a technical solution (hereinafter referred to as “co-authors”) shall have the right to utility model protection within extent to which they participated in creating of a technical solution.
Article 11
If an author has created a technical solution within the framework of fulfilling tasks from an employment relationship, similar employment relationship or member relationship, right to utility model protection shall pass to an employer, until parties of this relationship agreed otherwise. The right of being an author shall remain unaffected. An author who has created a technical solution pursuant to paragraph 1 shall be obliged to inform an employer about this fact in writing immediately and at the same time he shall submit any materials necessary for assessment of a technical solution. An employer shall be entitled to exercise right to the utility model protection vis-à-vis an author in writing, within the period of three months from notification pursuant to paragraph 2. If an employer fails to exercise right to utility model protection within the period pursuant to paragraph 3, this right shall pass back to the author. An employer as well as an author shall be obliged to preserve confidentiality about a technical solution vis-à-vis third parties. An author, against whom the right to utility model protection pursuant to paragraph 3 has been exercised, shall be entitled to an appropriate remuneration from an employer. Technical and economic importance of a technical solution and a contribution achievable by its exploitation or other application, as well as extent and contents of a workload of an author shall be decisive for determining amount of remuneration. If remuneration fails evidently to correspond with the contribution achieved by later exploitation or other application of a technical solution, an author shall have the right to supplementary compensation. Rights and obligations pursuant to paragraphs 1 to 5 shall remain unaffected after legal relationship between author and employer has ceased.
Article 12
Right to utility model protection except right to the authorship shall belong to legal successors of persons stated in Article 10 (1) and (3) and Article 11(1). An agreement on assignment of right to utility model protection shall be made in writing, otherwise it is invalid. Right to utility model protection shall be transferred to another person in cases specified by special regulations. Together with assignment or transfer of right to utility model protection, which shall be executed after filing an application, assignment or transfer of rights conferred by an application shall occur concurrently. Assignment or transfer of rights conferred by an application shall come into effect vis-à-vis third parties on the day of its entry into the Register.
P A R T II
EFFECTS OF UTILITY MODEL
Article 13
Rights conferred by registration
A utility model owner shall have an exclusive right to exploit a technical solution protected by utility model, to prevent third parties from exploitation of a technical solution protected by utility model without his consent, to provide his consent with exploitation of a technical solution protected by utility model, to assign a utility model to another person or to establish a lien to a utility model. A utility model shall be effective from the day on which an announcement of entry of a utility model is published in the Journal. A reasonable compensation from a person, who has used a subject-matter of an application after publication of an application, shall belong to an applicant. Right to reasonable compensation shall be executed only from the day on which effects of a utility model begin.
Article 14
Scope of protection
Scope of protection conferred by utility model shall be determined by contents of claims. Description or drawings shall be used for interpretation of claims in case of any uncertainties. Scope of protection conferred by an application shall be preliminarily determined by contents of claims for protection published pursuant to Article 38(4). Scope of preliminary protection shall be retroactively determined by
Article 15
Exploitation of utility model
The user of the utility model is a person, who: produces, utilises, offers or places on the market, or stores or imports for this purpose the product protected by utility model; utilises the process protected by utility model (hereinafter referred to as “protected process”) or offers such protected process for utilisation to another person; produces, utilises, offers or places on the market, or stores or imports for this purpose the product directly obtained by the protected process; identical products shall be deemed to be produced by the protected process, until it is proved otherwise; supplies or offers to supply to a person not entitled to exploit a utility model any means enabling him to carry out a technical solution protected by utility model, if a person knows or with regard to circumstances he should know that these means are intended or suitable to realise a technical solution; this shall not apply if these means are being available on the market and the supplier did not instigate the person not entitled to exploit a utility model to act contrary to sub-paragraphs a) to c).
Article 16
Exhaustion of rights
A utility model owner shall not be entitled to prohibit third parties to dispose of a product protected by utility model after placing the product on the market in the member state of European Union or in the state which is a contracting party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area by the utility model owner or with his explicit consent.
L i m i t a t i o n t o e f f e c t s o f
u t i l i t y m o d e l
Article 17
Right of a utility model owner shall not be exercised vis-à-vis person who before the right of priority has exploited a technical solution protected by utility model or has made appropriate arrangements immediately aiming at exploitation of a technical solution protected by utility model independently from an author or owner of a utility model (hereinafter referred to as “prior user”) in the territory of the Slovak Republic. Assignment or transfer of right of a prior user for exploitation of a technical solution pursuant to paragraph 1 shall be possible exclusively as a part of assignment or transfer of a company or its part, within which a technical solution is being used.
Article 18
Rights of a utility model owner shall not be infringed if a technical solution is exploited on board vessels of other states which are contracting parties to an international convention or parties to the World Trade Organisation, in a body of a vessel, machinery, tackle and other accessories, if these vessels temporarily or accidentally enter the territory of the Slovak Republic provided that a technical solution is used exclusively for needs of a vessel; in construction or operation of aircrafts or land vehicles of states which are contracting parties to an international convention or parties to the World Trade Organisation or in their components or other accessories of these aircrafts or land vehicles if they temporarily or accidentally enter the territory of the Slovak Republic; when conducting activities pursuant to an international convention, if these activities relate to an aircraft of a state benefiting from advantages of this convention; in individual preparation of a medicine in a pharmacy according to a medical prescription or in activity related to a medicine prepared in this way; in an activity conducted privately and for non-commercial purposes; in an activity conducted for experimental purposes. Persons using a technical solution pursuant to paragraph 1(d) to (f) shall not be considered to be persons using a technical solution pursuant to Article 15(d).
Article 19
Co-ownership of utility model