Trademark registration Slovakia

Registering a brand name in Slovakia is mandatory in order to claim the exclusive rights thereto. The country has a first-to-file jurisdiction. Only in very exceptional cases can the rights over an unregistered trademark be protected. If you want to register a trademark in Slovakia, you should contact INDPROP, the Slovak intellectual property agency. Applications in several classes are possible in the country. So there is no need to submit a separate application for each class.

If you want to register a brand in Slovakia, you can use various elements or a combination thereof. In this country, you are allowed to use words (including personal names), designs, letters, numbers, colors, the shape of goods or their packaging, sounds and more. Any element that:

• is able to distinguish your goods or services from other companies and
• be registered in the Trademark Register, so that the scope of its protection is clear to both authorities and the general public,
  can be accepted as trademark.

If you want to register a brand name in Slovakia, you go through the same step-by-step plan as any other entrepreneur who wants to have his product or service protected in this country. The procedure corresponds to the one used in most other European countries. The application procedure includes a formal review, a check on the distinctiveness of your product or service and a trademark search for existing trademarks. The procedure usually takes about six months.

After the review by the Slovak Intellectual Property Office, your trademark will appear in the Slovak Trade Bulletin. Third parties are then given three months to object. In the event of an objection, the overall duration of the application procedure will be longer. Third parties can, among other things, lodge an objection if they believe that the acceptance of your trademark will lead to infringement of their already registered trademark.

If you want to register a brand name in Slovakia and it consists of several types of elements, we speak of a combined brand. The trademark protection you obtain from this applies exclusively to the combination of elements as you have registered it with the Slovak Intellectual Property Office. This also implies that you may use the individual elements of your trademark separately from the rest for commercial purposes, but that these elements are not protected in themselves.

If you intend to also use one of the separate elements to promote your product or service, then you would do well to start a separate registration procedure for this. If you fail to do this, a third party can use your brand element legally and therefore without consequences. Only if he or she offers the same or very similar goods or services, you can object to this on the grounds of confusing similarity. The success of such an objection is variable.