Amendment to the Slovenian Industrial Property Act (ZIL-1E)
On 16 March 2020, the new amendment to the Slovenian Industrial Property Act (ZIL-1E) was published in the Official Gazzete. ZIL-1E will enter into force on Sunday, 29 March 2020.
The amendment implements into Slovenian legislation the EU Directive 2015/2436 to approximate the laws of the Member States relating to trade marks. Consequently, the amendment brings the Slovenian trademark legislation considerably closer to the regulation of EU trademarks.
Most notable changes, introduced by the ZIL-1E amendment, are as follows:
– the definition of trademark no longer requires the mark to be graphically represented. Instead, it is enough that the mark is represented in any appropriate form using generally available technology (this implicitly introduces sound marks, movement marks, multimedia marks, even holographic marks …);
– absolute grounds for refusal of registration are revised, as they no longer contain grounds not included in the Directive …, whereas additional grounds, such as opposition to traditional terms for wines, opposition to traditional specialties guaranteed etc. are added;
– relative grounds for refusal of registration now contain more detailed descriptions;
– registration procedure will now closely resemble that of the EU trademarks. Parties will now be able to settle during the pposition procedure and the opponent to the registration will need to prove prior use of their trademark, should the applicant so require.
In addition, the new amendment ZIL-1E also introduces provisions that will facilitate the Slovenian Intellectual Property Office’s (SIPO) transition to electronic conduct of business.
European Commission has finally published the consultation document on stakeholders’ dialogue regarding the implementation of Article 17 of the Directive (EU) 2019/790 on Copyright and Related Rights on Digital Single Market. The document sums up the stakeholders’ main concerns and sets forth the initial views of the European Commission with the aim to finalise the Commission guidance on Article 17 implementation.
The International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence (IRCAI) with its seat in Slovenia is holding a virtual Consultation on draft Recommendation on the Ethics of AI from 27 to 29 July 2020. As an expert from Slovenia, dr. Maja Bogataj Jančič will partake in the Consultation as well.
Cultural heritage preservation is crucial not only for maintaining but also for development of society on national, as well as international level. Despite the fact that cultural heritage objects remind us of the past times when today’s technology did not exist yet, technological development can be harnessed for preservation, restoration and research of cultural heritage through its digitisation. With the aim of improving policy instruments for cultural heritage digitisation across Europe, the European Commission launched the Public consultation on digital access to European cultural heritage.
Between 7 and 9 July the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) organised the second session of the Conversation on Intellectual Property and Artificial Intelligence. The first session was held last September. On its basis, WIPO published the Draft Issues Paper on Intellectual Property Policy and Artificial Intelligence on which the interested public then submitted comments. In May, WIPO issued the Revised Issues Paper on Intellectual Property Policy and Artificial Intelligence that has been the basis of the second meeting.