In some countries, such as France, the United States, Australia and Portugal, an applicant may file a provisional patent application in addition to a standard patent application. Moreover, even if the provisional patent application does not contain details of patent claims or other provisions, the applicant is able to establish priority in relation to the invention described in the application. However, such provisional patent applications must be converted to standard patent applications within 12 months of filing.

At present, it is not possible to file provisional patent applications in Slovakia. However, it is important to point out here that a patent application filed by an applicant in Slovakia does not have to contain all the required details in order to establish the date of application. Specifically, an applicant can establish a filing date if the patent contains at least the following information: details about the applicant's apparent intention to file a patent application; Details that can be used to identify and contact the applicant; And part of the specification (for the purpose of determining the date of application, it is not necessary to write this part in a language other than the national language).

However, if a patent applicant has only filed an application that meets the minimum requirements for the establishment of the application date described above, then in most cases it may be necessary to file the remaining application documents in the specified form and language within 12 months of the filing of the application.

In order to give Slovak applicants the same advantages as those in countries where provisional patent applications can be filed, the Slovak Industrial Property Office has amended the time limit for the amendment of an application that does not contain all the required elements with effect from September 1, 2023, thus ensuring that applicants filing such applications have 12 months to amend their application documents. There is no need to make repeated requests to the Bureau for time extensions.

Thus, this filing with the Slovak Industrial Property Office, which contains only the minimum elements required to obtain the filing date, will be a comprehensive alternative to filing provisional patent applications with certain foreign patents.

From the applicant's point of view, filing a patent application that only meets the minimum requirements of the filing date may even be somewhat more advantageous than filing a traditional provisional patent application. For example, there is no need to rush the submission of the converted application, and the 12-month period for the submission of complete application documents set by the Industrial Property Office can be extended at the request of the applicant. (Compiled from www.indprop.gov.sk)