Slovenia: Patent Applications Increase, Trademark and Design Applications Decrease in 2013

The Slovenian Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) has recently published its annual report for 2013, which includes statistics related to patents, designs and trademarks.

According to the report, the total number of all patent applications increased compared to the previous year, which the SIPO explains as an increased interest of foreigners in the Slovenian market. The SIPO received 454 national patent applications (17% increase), 87 PCT applications (23% increase) and 2,021 European patent validation requests (2% increase). The SIPO also noted a considerable increase in Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) applications, which increased by 38% to 42 applications in 2013.

The report shows a decrease in the number of national industrial design applications by 10.7% to 92, compared to 103 in 2012. In addition, the number of applications filed with the WIPO under the Hague Agreement fell by 13% to only 76 applications. The only noticeable increase was in the number of applications for the Registered Community Designs filed with the OHIM, which increased from 125 in 2012 to 152 in 2013.

The report shows a considerable decrease in the number of national and international trademark applications. National trademark applications fell from 1,718 in 2012 to only 1,502 in 2013 (decrease of 12.6%) and the international designations under the Madrid Agreement and Protocol fell from 1,821 to 1,696. However, the report shows that the number of Community Trademark (CTM) applications and registrations increased in both their total numbers and in terms of applications and registrations by the Slovenian trademark holders. As a possible reason, the SIPO suggests an increased popularity and practicality of the CTM system.

In 2013, the SIPO received 77 oppositions against national trademark applications and 28 oppositions against international registrations designating Slovenia. The SIPO annual report also mentions the number of administrative procedure delays to be 73 in terms of trademarks. The reason for this high number of administrative delays is a reduced number of the SIPO trademark examiners, which caused considerable delays in issuing opposition proceedings decisions.

The Administrative Court of Slovenia received 3 administrative lawsuits against the decisions in patent matters and 7 administrative lawsuits with respect to trademark decisions. Interestingly, the SIPO reports that they received 22 administrative court rulings in 2013 (both first and appellate instance) where 7 rulings revoked the SIPO’s decisions. This means that the Slovenian administrative courts confirmed 68% of the SIPO’s decisions. However, compared to 2012, when the SIPO received 50 court rulings, of which 92% confirmed the SIPO’s decisions, the above percentage shows both a decreased percentage of confirmed SIPO’s decisions and a considerably lower number of overall rulings issued by the administrative courts, both of first instance and appellate instance.

The complete report is available in Slovenian on the SIPO’s website.

By: Andrej Bukovnik

For more information, please contact Andrej Bukovnik.