PATENTS

The office provides a comprehensive service for all my clients' needs relating to inventions, utility models and industrial designs, both domestically and worldwide.

I carry out domestic and foreign searches for novelty of technical solutions, for non-infringement of patents in force, for state of the art and names, all including final evaluations. For foreign searches, I work with my international partner offices.

The office drafts license contracts for my clients and reviews those drafts produced by the other contracting party, always in close cooperation with my client. The office directly handles the registration of license contracts with the IPO of Slovak Republic. The office also manages the registration of license contracts in other countries via my international network of partner patent and legal offices.

TRADE MARKS

My typical trademark activity involves lodging applications, carrying on proceedings and monitoring validity of trademarks. I liaise with attorneys all over the world and my office alone provides services in English, German, Czech and Slovak.

I am equipped to handle all of a client's trademark matters at home and abroad, and have extensive experience managing large trademark portfolios. I submit national and international applications following the forms laid out in the Madrid Agreement and Protocol, and file community trademark applications with the EUIPO in Alicante (EUTMs). I advise my clients, on which form, or forms of protection, will best suit a given case.

I manage the entire trademark protection process for my clients: filing, registration, renewal and monitoring. 

I monitor the market for potential trademark confusion and evaluate potential trademark collisions. My office then advise the client on an appropriate strategy, such as filing oppositions, observations and requests for trademark cancellation, and revocations.

I always prepare a number of strategies for the client and will recommend the preferred optimal solution for each situation.

PRODUCT PIRACY

The Slovak Republic has updated its product piracy laws to keep up with European Union law and wider international efforts to create a global intellectual property standard. The country's legislation now meets all obligations that derive from its membership of (a) the World Trade Organization (namely, the TRIPS agreement), and (b) the Paris Convention (as amended by additional protocols).

These robust product piracy laws protect manufacturers and consumers alike by helping consumers to distinguish identical or confusingly similar products by their manufacturer and therefore permitting them to rely on the products' quality.

Violation typically involves the unauthorized use of incorporeal goods - such as trademark ­­- which are so ubiquitous that their misuse becomes difficult to control. The counterfeit product bears an unauthorised mark and, in most cases, this involves illegal use of a trademark, but can also involve a utility model, work protected by copyright, or industrial design.

My office is one of the pioneers in this field, and has provided product piracy services to reputable foreign manufacturers of branded goods for more than 15 years.

In order to assist my clients, I employ the means and instruments of European Union law as well as national penal, civil, commercial and administrative laws. I handle counterfeit cases related to clothing, footwear, perfumes, sports apparel of variety sport brands, pharmaceuticals, home appliances and electronics, food and drink, building materials and apartment accessories, chemical-technological components and many other commodities from all spheres of business, including services.

LEGAL SERVICES

Legal services in connection with administrative and judicial proceedings

I provide legal services within the whole extent of intellectual and industrial property rights including the enforcement of these rights as well as the services in the field of the fight against product piracy - counterfeits. I have been providing these services for more than 15 years, knowing that it is not the most important that it is not decisive to obtain a protective right, but above all to keep it being able to use its subject on the market.
My law firm also focuses on the protection of copyright and other rights protected by copyright law, including software law and collective rights management.

In the area of ​​administrative law, my focus is primarily on services in adversarial proceedings before the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic; in connection with Act No. 250/2007 Coll. on protection of consumer, particularly in relation to the Slovak Trade Inspection and the State Veterinary and Food Administration of the Slovak Republic. This is followed by legal services in matters relating to review actions against decisions of state administration bodies including the submission of subsequent cassation complaints and representation before the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic. Another area is the representation in the marketing authorization of pharmaceuticals before the State Institute for Drug Control and in launching nutritional supplements into circulation according to Act no. 152/1995 Coll., On foodstuffs.

Equally important area of ​​provided legal services is the area of ​​combating product piracy - counterfeits. In my dealings with the customs authorities in the fight against counterfeits, my office has been one of the pioneers in this field, and I have been providing services to producers of original brands for over 15 years. These services are followed by court actions to determine whether goods seized by the customs authorities infringe the intellectual property rights of the decision-holder.

My office also offers years of experience in litigation (court proceedings as well as arbitration, ADR and UDRP) at all levels of the courts. In the area of ​​industrial property rights specifically before the District Court in Banská Bystrica and in the second instance before the Regional Court in Banská Bystrica, or further before the Supreme Court of the SR. The most frequently filed court actions are petitions for ordering urgent measures (preliminary injunctions), injunctive actions, removal of defective situations/infringing state of the matter, and filing the actions for damages, or release of unjust enrichment. The lawsuit is not the goal governing the representation of the clients, but rather an ultimate step in resolving the legal conflicts. It is therefore understandable that services in this conflict area are initially focused on processing case analyses and opinions on them, communicating with the counterparty, preparing and concluding coexistence agreements and other contracts in a conciliatory and mutually acceptable solution to legal collisions.
An integral part of the legal services is the drafting and preparing of licenses, sublicenses and other contracts in the field of intellectual property, including contracts with authors of works of art, logos, trademark owners, patent owners, or advertising products of any kind.

The law firm also provides representation in arbitration proceedings before SOPK, in ADR (domain name disputes), etc.
The transmission of all principal acts in advance to the client for his/her opinion is a standard part of the services.