The latest amendment of the Slovenian Industrial Property Act (ZIL-1F)
On 27 July 2023, the latest amendment of the Slovenian Industrial Property Act ZIL-1 F entered into force.
The amendment introduced
welcome changes to the Slovenian legislation by simplifying some of the
procedures and aligning some of the Articles with the Agreement on a Unified
Patent Court and the EU Directive 2015/2436 of the European Parliament and of
the Council on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to
trademarks. The procedures for cancellation and declaration of nullity of trademarks are no
longer court procedures but are now administrative procedures before the
Slovenian Intellectual Property Office. We hope that this important change,
i.e. the transfer of competence, will lead to faster decision making in these
procedures.
Trademark infringement actions remain under the jurisdiction
of the District Court in Ljubljana, as do matters where a counterclaim for
cancellation or declaration of nullity is filed in an infringement action.
In the field of patents, the Slovenian Industrial Property
Act is now aligned with the Agreement on a Unified Patent Court, as the Unified
Patent Court now has jurisdiction over disputes relating to national patents
based on European patents as well as unitary patents.
The amended Industrial Property Act also provides that the
Slovenian Intellectual Property Office issues an ex officio decision on
declaration of nullity of the patent recorded in the Slovenian Patent Register
on the basis of a European patent which has been revoked in its entirety at the
European Patent Office. This provision follows the legal practice established
in the Judgement of the Administrative Court No. I U 246/2020-6.
The amended Industrial Property Act also shortens the
objective deadline for filing a request for continuation of the procedure from
six to four months.
Finally, the amendment enables the Slovenian Intellectual
Property Office to conclude contracts with other national offices and
international organisations, such as the European Patent Organisation, for the
provision of information services.
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