- What is a patent ?
- How a patent can be obtained ?
- Which are the basic administrative fees for protection ?
- What is a utility model ?
- How the registration of a utility model can be obtained ?
- Which are the basic administrative fees for protection ?
- How to register an invention abroad ?
- Where can you get further information ?
Technical Solutions
and Legal Protection thereof
What is a patent ?
How a patent can be obtained ?
Which are the basic administrative fees for patent protection ?
What is a utility model ?
How the registration of a utility model can be obtained ?
Which are the basic administrative fees for protection thereof ?
How an invention can be registered abroad ?
Where can you get more information ?
Industrial Property Office
Industrial Property Office
Antonína Čermáka 2a
160 68 Praha 6 - Bubeneč
phone: +420 220 383 xxx (direct dialing)
+420 220 383 111 (switchboard)
+420 220 383 121 Information Centre
fax: +420 224 324 718
e-mail: objednavky@upv.cz
posta@upv.cz
helpdesk@upv.cz
studovna@upv.cz
Internet: http://www.upv.cz
Reading Room and Inventions, Utility Models and Industrial Designs Information Centre is open to the public:
Monday 8.00 - 17.00
Tuesday 8.00 - 16.00
Wednesday 8.00 - 17.00
Thursday 8.00 - 16.00
Friday 8.00 - 14.30
Trade Mark Information Centre is open to the public:
Monday 8.00 - 12.00 13.00 - 17.00
Tuesday 8.00 - 12.00 13.00 - 16.00
Wednesday 8.00 - 12.00 13.00 - 17.00
Thursday 8.00 - 12.00 13.00 - 16.00
Friday 8.00 - 12.30 13.00 - 14.30
The patent attorneys and lawyers:
The patent attorneys and lawyers provide the professional help on industrial property matters for natural and legal persons.
They provide not only the professional advice, act for you when making an application, file it and represent you before the Industrial Property Office.
Contacts:
Chamber of Patent Attorneys of the Czech Republic Czech Bar Association
Gorkého 12 Národní třída16
602 00 Brno 110 00 Praha 1
tel./fax: 541 248 246 tel.: 224 947 307
e-mail: kpz@patent-agents.cz fax: 224 946 724
http://www.patent-agents.cz/ http://www.cak.cz
2/2006
Technical Solutions and Legal Protection thereof
Technical solutions and legal protection thereof
One of the main tasks of the Industrial Property Office (hereinafter Office) is to decide on providing industrial legal protection of technical solutions in the form of granting patents of inventions and registering utility models.
The purpose of the industrial legal protection is to guarantee benefits to the creator and owners of new technical solutions and to secure results of their creative work in order to prevent easy and quick acquisition thereof by competitors, who would spend any cost therefor and deprive the creators of the new solution or a person, who provided funds for and controlled the project of profit, that appertains to him within the framework of standard practices.
In the present time there are offered two kinds of legal protection of technical solutions: a patent protection or utility model protection. These protection kinds differ from each other particularly in protection period and financial costs for acquiring and maintaining the acquired protection. Higher financial costs for patent granting procedure and maintenance of its validity, as well as a longer time of procedure for granting a patent are compensated by both a longer protection period and thanks to examination of patentability conditions by a great security for patent proprietor in its position on the market.
Protection objects, i.e. an invention, respectively a technical solution are comparable; for the invention capable of protection by a patent there is assumed a higher professional activity, whose input was necessary for resolution of the given technical problem.
Patent or utility model protection and application procedure are governed particularly by the following legal rules of law:
- Law No. 527/1990 Coll., on Inventions and Rationalization Proposals, as amended;
- Decree No. 21/2002 Coll. amending
- Decree No. 550/1990 Coll., on Patent and Industrial Design Procedure;
- Law No. 478/1992 Coll., on Utility Models, as amended;
- Law No. 634/2004 Coll., on Administration Fees;
- Law No. 116/2000 Coll., amending some Acts on the Protection of Industrial Property;
- Law No. 173/2002 Coll., on the Maintenance Fees for Patents and Supplementary Protection Certificates for Pharmaceuticals and Plant Protection Products and on the Amendment to several laws.
What is a patent ?
Patents are titles of protection that are granted for inventions complying with law‘s conditions for granting this protection. The patent owner has an exclusive right to employ the protected invention, to authorize approval for exploitation thereof by other persons (through the mediation of a license agreement) and has also a right to assign the patent to another person. An invention to which a patent was granted, e.g. a product, manufacturing equipment, chemical substance or process of manufacture, cannot be offered for sale or employed by a third person for industrial or commercial purposes without consent of the owner. If the patent relates to processes of manufacture, the owner can prohibit making use of them by the third persons. The prohibition right relates also to a goods that is the direct result of the protected manufacturing process.
Patents are granted for inventions, which are new, involve an inventive step and are industrially applicable. Discoveries, scientific theories, mathematical methods, mere appearance of products, plans, rules and methods for performing mental acts, computer programs, mere presentation of information are not patentable. Patent cannot be granted for inventions that are contrary to public order, particularly to humanity and morality principles, further for prevention, diagnostics and treatment of humans and animals, plant varieties and animal breeds as well as biological methods of growing and breeding thereof.
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