Intellectual property is a type of property that is the product of human creativity and is the name of the legal concept that protects intellectual activity or knowledge. The legal concept defines the rights of the author over his intellectual creations and the rights of public access to these creations.
This is the subject of a specific area of law – intellectual property law, which is governed by the Industrial Property Act and the Copyright and Related Rights Act.
The industrial property rights governed by this area of law include: patents, designs, trademarks, geographical indications, supplementary protection certificates, semiconductor topographies and plant breeders’ rights. These require registration or grant by the competent national (or even international) office. In the Republic of Slovenia, this is the responsibility of the Slovenian Intellectual Property Office.
In addition, there are copyright and related rights. These do not require any registration procedure, as copyright belongs to the author from the very creation of the copyright work.
There are other forms of intellectual property which are also the result of innovative thinking and creativity, but which are not expressed in a form suitable for protection by any of the above rights. These include, for example, trade secrets, know-how, recipes.
Intellectual property is basically divided into:
Copyright is an umbrella term for a number of rights that ensure the exercise of the author’s pecuniary (material) and personal (moral) interests in the exploitation of the author’s work. They are divided into material copyright, moral copyright and other rights of the author.
Copyright belongs to the author by virtue of the creation of the work itself, so no procedure is necessary for the work to be protected by copyright. For example: when a writer writes a novel, his work is already protected and he has a copyright in it. Copyright lasts for the author’s lifetime and for 70 years after his death.
As a product of the human spirit, a work of authorship is an intangible good, but it can be reproduced in physical form (making copies) or in a non-physical form (making it available to the public) or transformed into a new work of authorship (translation, adaptation) by certain processes, which is known as exploitation of the work of authorship.
Material copyright gives the author a monopoly over the particular forms of exploitation of the copyright work (right of reproduction, right of public performance, etc.). The author will pursue his material interests by exploiting his work himself to the exclusion of all others, or by allowing someone else to exploit his work in return for payment.
More recently, material copyright no longer refers only to the exploitation of the copyright work, but also to certain forms of disposal of copies of the copyright work (distribution rights, rental rights).
In addition to material copyright, there are also economic rights which are not monopoly rights, but merely provide the author with a monetary remuneration (tracing right, public lending right) or some other economic interest (right of access).
Moral copyrights represent a spiritual link between the author and his work. Moral copyrights ensure that the author can exercise his moral interests in his work, even if he has transferred the right to exploit the work to another person.
Through moral copyright, the author will be able to demand that his name be put on every copy of his work or on every public communication of his work, to resist the destruction or defacement of his work, etc.
The author is the natural person who created the work. The author is normally the person whose name, pseudonym or sign appears in the usual way on the original or on publication of the work.
Works of authorship are individual intellectual creations in the fields of literature, science and the arts, expressed in any way, for example:
spoken works such as speeches, sermons, lectures;
written works, such as works of fiction, articles, manuals, studies and computer programmes;
However, they are not protected as works of authorship:
A patent is the exclusive and legally protected right of a natural or legal person to an invention that is new, inventive and capable of industrial application. An invention or technical solution is new if it is not covered by the state of the art, that is to say, it has not been made available to the public by oral or written description, by use or by any other means prior to the filing date of the patent application.
An invention is inventive step if, to a person skilled in the art, the subject matter of the invention is not obvious from the state of the art.
An invention is capable of industrial application if the subject matter of the invention can be produced or used in any economic activity, including agriculture.
Discoveries, scientific theories, mathematical methods and other rules, schemes, methods and procedures for spiritual activity are not directly considered as such inventions and therefore cannot be the subject of patent protection.
A patent may not be granted in respect of an invention of a surgical or diagnostic procedure or of a treatment procedure applied directly on a living human or animal body, except in respect of an invention relating to products, in particular substances and mixtures, used in such a procedure.
Nor may a patent protect an invention the use of which is contrary to public policy or morality.
A patent lasts for 20 years from the date of filing of the application and a patent with a reduced term for 10 years from the date of filing of the application.
Prior to researching or, at the latest, before applying for an invention and preparing a patent application, the state of the art should also be checked in publicly accessible patent databases or registers.
Patent information databases/registries:
A design is an exclusive right of a natural or legal person protecting the appearance of a product which is new and individual in nature.
The registration procedure starts with an application to the Slovenian Intellectual Property Office, which Slovenian applicants may file themselves or through an agent registered in the Register of Agents at the Office, while foreign applicants may file only through an agent.
Before applying for a design registration, we advise you to find out what can be registered as a design, whether your design is genuinely new and has an individual character, etc.
On the way to commercialisation, it is also necessary to check the state of the art and to carry out market research to make sure that the idea is really new and innovative.
Database of registered designs: DesignView.
The duration of the design shall be for one or more periods of five years from the date of filing of the application, up to a maximum of 25 years. It may be renewed every five years on payment of the appropriate fees.
An application for registration of a design shall in principle be filed in those countries where we wish to protect our interests or where we expect our competitors to seek to exploit our design by manufacturing the product and by offering and marketing it.
A sign or combination of signs which distinguishes the goods or services of one undertaking from those of another undertaking and can be represented graphically may be registered as a trade mark.
The registration procedure starts with an application to the Slovenian Intellectual Property Office, which may be filed by Slovenian applicants themselves or through an agent registered in the Register of Agents at the Office, and by foreign applicants only through an agent.
Before applying for a trade mark registration, you should find out what can be registered as a trade mark, whether the same or similar trade mark has already been registered, how the registration procedure works, etc.
On the way to commercialisation, it is also necessary to check the state of the art and carry out market research to make sure that the idea is really new and innovative.
Baza registriranih blagovnih znamk: TMView
The duration of the trade mark is 10 years from the date of filing and may be renewed for new 10-year periods as many times as desired.
The Office does not carry out a full examination of trade mark applications, i.e. whether the possible registration of a trade mark would infringe the earlier rights of others. It only carries out such an examination on the basis of third-party opposition.
A trade mark can be registered for other countries in three ways: a national application, an international application or a European application.
A geographical indication protects indications that mark the origin of goods from a geographical area, if a characteristic of those goods is essentially dependent on their geographical origin.
In Slovenia, several regulations govern geographical indications.
Before applying for registration of a geographical indication, it is necessary to find out what can be registered as a geographical indication, which authority is competent for registration, how the procedure under the Industrial Property Act works, who can apply, etc.
The duration of a geographical indication is not limited in time. Nor does the Office have to pay any fees for the maintenance of a registered GI.
A plant breeder’s right is the right to dispose of the seed material and crops of a protected new variety of plant. The right shall last until the end of the twentieth year from the date on which the right is acquired. In the case of hops, vines and tree species, it shall run until the end of the 25th year from the date of acquisition.
A semiconductor device is a device for performing an electronic function which, in its final form or intermediate form, is an indivisible whole consisting of one or more layers bonded together by semiconductor elements, at least one of which is an active element.
A semiconductor circuit topography is a uniquely defined sequence of interconnected image patterns for each layer of a semiconductor circuit, where these patterns represent the arrangement of semiconductor devices on the layers, regardless of how this arrangement is represented by notation, codes or otherwise expressed.
A topography is protectable if it is original, that is, if it is the result of one’s own creative effort and was not known at the time of its creation from everyday use in industry.
