TRADEMARK

Entitlement to file: any legal or natural person

Foreign applicant: needs to assign a professional representative registered with the Slovenian Intellectual Property Office (SIPO)

Subject-matter of trademark protection: trademark can be registered for any sign or combination of signs which can be graphically presented and enables the consumer to differentiate between the goods and/or services of one subject from the goods and/or services of another subject, such as words, letters, numbers, figurative elements, threedimensional images, including shapes of the goods or their packaging, colour combination, as well as any combination of all the before mentioned elements.

Types of trademark protections: trademarks can be protected as trade and/or service marks, and the Slovenian Industrial Property also introduces the institute of a collective trademark.

Exceptions to trademark protection: appearance of the product shall not be registered if:
• it cannot constitute a mark;
• it is devoid of any distinctive character;
• it serves, in trade, to designate merely the kind, quality, quantity, intended purpose, value, geographical origin, or the time of production of the goods or of rendering of the service, or other characteristics of the goods or services;
• it contains or consists of a geographical indication identifying wines or spirits, where the mark application relates to wines or spirits not having this origin;
• it consists exclusively of signs or indicationswhich have become customary in the current language or in the bona fide and established practices of the trade;
• it consists exclusively of the shape which results from the nature of the goods themselves or is necessary to obtain a technical result or gives substantial value to the goods;
• it is contrary to public order or morality;
• it deceives the public, in particular to the nature, quality or geographical origin of the goods or services;
• it contains official signs or hallmarks for controlling or guaranteeing the quality of goods, or imitations thereof;
• it has not been authorised by the competent authorities and should be refused pursuant to Article 6ter of the Paris Convention;
•  it includes or imitates badges, emblems or escutcheons other than those covered by Article 6ter of the Paris Convention and which are of particularpublic interest, unless the consent of the competent authorities to its registration has been given.

Examination: formal examination as well as absolute grounds examination are done ex offo.

Publication and registration: if the trademark meets the formal requirements and is accepted on the absolute grounds, the Slovenian IP Office publishes the trademark in the monthly Trademark Bulletin.

Oppositions: may be filed by any proprietors of older trademark applications or registrations or other rights valid in the territory of Slovenia, in 3 months after the trademark is published in the Trademark Bulletin, based on relative grounds.

Use: trademark should be used by the proprietor of the trademark or any third person authorized by the proprietor. If the trademark is not used within five years after the registration it can be subject to the cancellation due to the non-use.

Term of the trademark validity: unlimited, it may be renewed every 10 years