Lawyer Monthly Magazine -December 2019 Edition

believe a granted patent gives them an exclusive right to use a certain invention, which actually is not the case. A granted patent might depend on other rights, so freedom to use it might be influenced by other parties. How long does patent protection last? Term of protection for granted patents is up to 20 years since its filing for most jurisdictions, provided the maintenance fees are paid. This is not different for Slovakia. The protection for pharmaceutical composition can last up to 25 years from filing of the base patent application under the Supplementary Protection Certificate regimen. For utility models in Slovakia, the term of protection is up to 10 years from filing. How are patent rights enforced? In Slovakia, the patent rights are enforced via the courts and their decisions. There is a central court responsible for all patent related matters. The process might be quite cumbersome, because opposite to trademarks, courts have not gathered extensive experience in patent related cases, especially for patent protected methods. To come to a conclusion in infringement cases, the court relies heavily on expert opinions of patent office examiners. In some cases, external court appointed experts are used. Those might, however, have limited experience with and sometimes an incorrect understanding of the scope of protection of the patents. Because of this, a good local patent attorney is a must when starting an infringement case in Slovakia for proprietors who want to get quick and effective results. Before infringement proceedings, it is also advisable to perform a background PATENTS How Do Patents Work in Slovakia? check on the potential infringer to understand what to expect. One should also be aware that most small and medium enterprises managers may not speak the same language as their opposition, however, this is slowly changing. We also do not have a positive experience with cease and desist letters, as most accused infringers rather risk hearing the court’s decision, as they are aware of the fact the resulting penalties are typically quite limited and monetary compensation related to loss of profit might be hard to prove. What conditions must be met to obtain patent protection? For patents, there are three main conditions that must be met to get a granted patent for inventions, which includes: novelty, inventive steps and industrial application. This does not differ for utility models, so the inventiveness hurdle is technically the same as for patents. The difference is in the excluded subject matter - such as for utility models methods for producing chemical and pharmaceutical compounds, or themedical use of compounds and technical solutions related to products comprising biological material What rights does a patent provide? Patents grant their proprietors the right to prevent third parties from using an invention as defined by the claims in a certain territory where the patent has been granted. For products, the use means producing, importing, selling or using, by other means, the product which falls within the scope of the claims; whereas for methods, it is understood as performing the method defined in the claim. Protection for method claims also cover products, directly obtained by such methods. One should bear in mind, personal use is excluded from the scope of protection in most jurisdictions, including Slovakia. Patent rights are mostly not understood correctly by most of the businesses within Central Europe, including in Slovakia. The proprietors typically What rights does a patent provide and what conditions must be met in order to gain patent protection in Slovakia? Speaking to Dagmar Cechvalova, who has more than 50 years of experience in the patent field, she reveals all the basics behind patent filing. 48 WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM | DEC 2019 Professional Excellence By Dagmar Cechvalova, inventa CONTACT inventa Patent and Trademark Agency Ltd. Palisady 50 811 06 Bratislava Slovakia Tel: +421 2 5441 9167 inventa@inventa.sk www.inventa.sk We often see applicants approaching a patent attorney only after they face an office action, which they are not able respond to. In many cases, this is simply too late and even the best patent attorney does not manage to save their application.