SLOVENIA: An Introduction to Intellectual Property

Background 

For Slovenia, being a small country has its benefits. Intellectual property (IP) experts are able to work closely with the Slovenian Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), which has been extremely active in the past few years, aiming to increase awareness of IP rights and their enforcement. Experts also attend a yearly overview of court case law presented by esteemed judges, keenly listening to experts’ feedback to achieve the common goal of improving IP rights awareness.

One recent improvement is that publicly available case law now includes names and/or figurative representations of trade marks (which were previously omitted for anonymisation purposes). This allows for better IP rights protection and enforcement. Additionally, as of 2024, SIPO’s decisions on trade mark refusals and opposition rejections are now publicly accessible, offering deeper insight into its decision-making process. That said, we believe there is still room for improvement in the field of IP rights awareness and enforcement – some of the reasons for this, and opportunities, are discussed herein.

IP Litigation and Awareness 

According to recent research conducted by the Slovenian Institute for Economic Research (the “Institute”) on the topic of IP, Slovenia has a relatively well-functioning IP management support system. However, due to a lack of awareness and resources of rights-holders and infringers, there are relatively few cases of IP litigation, resulting in limited case law, as disputes often result in out-of-court settlements or coexistence agreements. Thus, when cases do reach court, judges (and parties) often rely on foreign case law (notably German and UK case law), especially for patent infringement disputes. The Institute also detected relatively low awareness of the importance of IP in the economy and public sectors, and consequently a lack of awareness and limited respect of IP rights among the general public (a European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) survey conducted in 2023 showed that awareness of IP in Slovenia is lower than the EU average).

As an important background element, it should be noted that Slovenia is not typically the final destination of counterfeit goods, and that most goods seized by customs authorities in Slovenia are in transit to other EU or third countries. There is also an opinion that the increased use of artificial intelligence (AI) and the growth of online sales (compared to in-store sales) in recent years will significantly influence IP rights and their management, and that raising awareness of IP rights-holders will be crucial in preventing infringements and protecting important assets of companies. Online infringements of IP rights have already been on the rise in Slovenia, at least in the authors’ experience.

The Slovenian economy consists of a relatively high number of SMEs; however, only a small proportion of these protect and manage IP rights. Owing to resource constraints, SMEs have difficulties in enforcing IP rights and often treat them as an unnecessary burden, or as something to invest in at a later stage (ie, when the company is more successful and thus has more resources).

This is particularly the case for the cultural and creative sector. Especially in the area of trade marks, there is a perception that proprietors are not well informed about the need to keep themselves abreast of new trade mark applications (by means of trade mark monitoring) and to take timely action against them if they consider that they infringe their rights. We have also noticed an increase in the monitoring of trade mark applications by foreign entities (usually EU trade mark proprietors) as well as of Slovenian trade mark applications. Again, this resulted in limitations of the list of goods and services and/or in application withdrawals. Presumably, this is also a consequence of the lack of resources allocated to IP rights protection and enforcement.

Outlook 

In recent years, the Slovenian government has recognised the neglect in acknowledging the importance of IP and consequently adopted the first National Intellectual Property Strategy 2030 (the “Strategy”) in June of 2024. This initiative is a step in the right direction with respect to strengthening IP’s role in fostering innovation, creativity and strategic management. In this regard, the Strategy sets out three main goals:

• strengthening the environment for the effective creation, development, protection and management of IP;
• increasing awareness and knowledge of IP; and
• strengthening the role of IP in the private and public sectors, and in society at large.

Furthermore, in 2023, the Slovenian Industrial Property Act underwent significant amendments, especially in the following fields:

• patents (mainly to align the scope of protection offered by a patent with unitary effect with the provisions of the Agreement on the Unified Patent Court); and
•  trade marks (with the most important amendment being that the competence for dealing with nullity and non-use cancellation proceedings was transferred from the court to SIPO). 

The District Court of Ljubljana still remains the only competent first-instance court for IP infringement matters, though this is expected to relieve the court of the burden of litigation and to bring proceedings to a swifter conclusion.

There have also been important developments in the field of copyright, notably in the area of collective rights management. The legislation underwent significant changes in 2022, and SIPO has been quite active in this field, issuing a number of new licences to various collective management societies such as:

• collective management of the right to make available to the public works of authorship in the field of music;
• collective management of the right of performers and film producers to adequate compensation;
• collective management of the copyright of co-authors of audiovisual works;
• collective management of the rights of film producers;
• collective management of the rights of co-authors of audiovisual works; and
• collective management of copyright in literary, scientific and journalistic works and their translations, to name just a few.

Enforcement of IP Rights

Lastly, in October 2024, Slovenian customs authorities introduced the mandatory use of EUIPO’s IP Enforcement Portal (IPEP) for the electronic submission of applications for customs action. As a result, IP rights holders (or their legal representatives) seeking customs protection in Slovenia must register with IPEP and organize their product portfolio along with the associated IP rights within the portal. While this modernisation may pose initial challenges, it offers significant advantages, including a clearer overview of applications across multiple jurisdictions and simplified management of granted decisions, as IPEP enables easier tracking of their validity.