Copyright registration in Slovakia. Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Slovakia is a developed country with an advanced high-income economy, ranking very high in the Human Development Index. It also performs favorably in measurements of civil liberties, press freedom, internet freedom, democratic governance, and peacefulness. The country maintains a combination of a market economy with a comprehensive social security system, providing citizens with universal health care, free education, and one of the longest paid parental leaves in the OECD. Accordingly, many businesses want to enter this market and one of the most important preparations a business needs to take before expanding to this country is to learn the procedure of copyright registration in Slovakia.
Copyright in Slovakia
Unlike other intellectual property rights such as trademarks, patents, industrial designs, plant varieties, etc., copyright does not need to be registered for protection but will be automatically protected from the time the works are created.
The creation must be visible in a certain material form, like content, quality, form, medium, language, published or unpublished, registered or unregistered.
Accordingly, whether registered or not, the copyright to the work will still be protected. However, the creator should still apply for copyright registration in Slovakia early because early registration will give the author/owner of the work many advantages in the event of a dispute.
When unauthorized use of work occurs around the world, the owner of a work who has made a copyright registration in Slovakia will not have to waste time and complicate matters with proving himself/herself to be the legitimate owner of the work.
Thereby, in order to avoid passivity, the owner of the work should make a copyright registration in Slovakia immediately to protect their rights and interests when there is an infringement.
Copyright registration in Slovakia
Slovakia is a member country of The Berne Convention for Copyright since 1993.
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (the Berne Convention) is an international agreement governing copyright. The agreement was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886.
As Slovakia is a contracting party of the Berne Convention, any work originating in Slovakia will be given copyright protection in each of the Berne Convention member countries.
In most countries, copyright protection is automatic as soon as the work existed in material form. However, the copyright registration in Slovakia is critical in order for the copyright owner to obtain evidence of copyright.
Evidence of copyright is extremely important even when the works are automatically protected according to copyright law.
When registering, the work will get an application submission date, as well as information about the creation and proof of creative concept and development. This provides unambiguous proof of authorship and ownership that can’t be denied.
Proof of copyright is essential in an age when the publishing, dissemination, and theft of material is extremely easy with the exposure of the Internet.
If copyright registration is not made, copyright owners will lose a big amount of money as well as time needed to resolve issues related to copyright, proving ownership of the original work.
If the copyright owner has already registered for copyright protection to the IP office, they would have a strong legal foundation which would increase their chance of winning against the violating parties.
Documents for copyright registration in Slovakia
To obtain copyright registration in Slovakia, the author of the work needs to prepare the following documents:
- Declaration of copyright registration in Slovakia;
- Two copies of copyrighted work;
- Documents proving the right to apply;
- Written consent of co-authors, if the work has co-authors;
- Written consent of the co-owners, if the copyright is jointly owned;
- Notarized identity card of the author or owner of the work;
- Power of Attorney, if the applicant is an authorized person;
- Notarized copy of the company’s business registration certificate (if the owner is a company).
The copyright law of Slovakia
Slovakia was formed on 1 January 1993 when Czechoslovakia was peacefully dissolved into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Slovakia has been a member of the Berne Convention since 1 January 1993, the World Trade Organization since 1 January 1995 and the WIPO Copyright Treaty since 6 March 2002.
As of 2018 the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), an agency of the United Nations, listed Act No. 185/2015 Coll. on Copyright and Related Rights (as amended by Act No. 125/2016 Coll.) as the main copyright law enacted by the legislature of Slovakia.
WIPO holds an English-language version of the text of this law in the WIPO Lex database. Slov-Lex holds the text in Slovak.
You can see a list of Slovakia IP firms here.