Transmitted by Satellite, Protocol to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks, Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Micro-organisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure and Nairobi Treaty on the Protection of the Olypic Symbol. Slovenia is also a member of the World Trade Organisation and is therefore bound by the TRIPs Agreement. Patents Inventions which are new, involve an inventive step and are industrially applicable are patentable. The definition basically follows the wording of Art. 52 of the European Patent Convention.
Protection thus covers even plant or animal varieties.
The maximum term of a patent is twenty years from the date of filing. In certain cases, e.g. pharmaceutical products, the term can be extended up to additional five years for applications filed after January 1, 1993. If it is not submitted in due time, the validity of the patent irrevocably lapses after the tenth year. The Law also provides that a patentee who intends to sue a third person for patent infringement must submit the DoE to the Office at the same time as or before filing the suit. There exists an alternative to the usual national application way of patent protection.