In the beginning it might be useful to mention that in the Slovak Republic the judicial system is composed of three levels – three instances. The first instance is represented by district courts courts of general jurisdiction. Then there is the second instance, consisting of county courts that function as appellate courts, and the last resort is represented by the supreme court, whose task is to reach decisions mainly in matters of extraordinary remedies. In some specified cases of commercial and criminal law, county courts act as first instance courts and the role of the appellate court is then passed to the supreme court.
Slovak courts and judiciary are fully independent. This means that all the judges are bound only by their consciousness and valid law. The jurist opinion of courts of higher instance is obligatory to courts of lower instance only with respect to a particular case. Despite that, there exists predominantly an informal system of precedence which is customarily applied to all cases, granting that decisions of the supreme court (primarily those generalising and representative) are officially published and widely respected. In appellate proceedings (judicial reviews) the relevant court of higher instance is able either to modify or to confirm the sentence or, if the sentence is found inadequate, to suspend it altogether and remit the case to the respective court of lower instance.
The regulations concerning civil procedures are provided for by the Slovak Code of Civil Procedure, Act No. 99/1963, Digest of Laws, in accordance with the wording of later regulations. Requirements that need to be complied with if a party intends to file an action are relatively simple. The party wishing to file an action has only to supply the following information in his or her formal written request: identification of the parties involved in the enforcement procedure to be initiated, the merits of the case, the evidence proposed and the proposal for the court regarding the desirable kind of decision it should reach.
Pursuant to Section 80, letters b) and c) of the Slovak Code of Civil Procedure, in filing a legal action the party is able to require the court to decide primarily whether the duty established by the law is complied with in a legal relationship or in any violation of the law. The court could also determine whether there is any legal relationship or right at all given that there is an urgent valuable interest concerning this question. A party to an enforcement proceeding is thus entitled to ask the court to reach a decision in any of the ways corresponding to all the relevant criteria cited. In practice this means that courts decide on matters of damage payments, of adequate compensation for a non proprietary injury, which may also come in the form of financial compensation. Courts are authorised to order or forbid certain actions. Courts also decide on the existence or non existence of a right or legal relationship, given that there is a valuable interest concerning such a decision. Representation of a party by his or her counsel is not mandatory in trial proceedings, and legal fees account for 4% of the recoverable debt, the maximum amount being set as Sk 100 000, in commercial cases as Sk 500 000.
There are several situations in which county courts function as first instance courts, namely in the following cases: enforcement of tradename rights, trademark rights and label of origin rights, then in matters of legal relationship concerning competition protection, unfair competition, patent rights, protected layout-designs and industrial designs and topography of semiconductor products as a subject of trade. The same applies to relationships resulting from copyrights and related rights. In such cases the supreme court functions as an appellate court.
Formal requirements necessary for appealing against a sentence are more or less identical with those of filing an action. The structure of courts and their interrelationships are established by the Act on Courts and Judiciary No. 335/1991, Digest of Laws, in accordance with the wording of later regulations. The jurisdiction of courts concerning cases and localities as well as functions is established by the already cited Slovak Code of Civil Procedure.
In the field of patent protection, there is the central administrative authority the Slovak Industrial Property Office ("SIPO"), which keeps the registers of separate subjects of industrial property, makes decisions regarding the entry or the cancellation in the registers, the annulment of the patent in the registers, changes in registers and the relevant agenda. The decision of SIPO can be, after all proper remedies of administrative proceedings have been exhausted, submitted to a court, if there is a formal request, and the court will review the decision’s legality. Decisions of SIPO can be reviewed by the supreme court.
Aside from all the standard procedures of legal proceedings, in enforcement of rights, if there is a case of emergency, a request can be applied to obtain preliminary measures, pursuant to Section 74 and the following provisions of the Slovak Code of Civil Procedure. Pursuant to Section 76, paragraph 1, letters d), e) and f), through preliminary measures the court is authorised primarily to order a party to pay a security or to deposit an object in court, to do something, to abstain from something, or to bear something, or the court is able to forbid a party to use certain things or rights. Preliminary measures represent from a procedural point of view a considerably simplified and rapid action, allowing the court to omit hearing the parties in person, but on the other hand binding it to reach a decision within the set period of one month, starting from the day the respective action has been filed. Preliminary measures can be enforced immediately, regardless of any contingent appeal against them, however, their effect is limited temporarily and also by their content, since they should not substitute a proper decision on the merits of the case and their effect is in principle bound to filing a proper legal action subsequently, within a proper time period determined by the court. As soon as a proper decision on the merits of the case is reached, the effect of the preliminary measures ceases by law. Otherwise it can cease when the time period determined by the court is over, or if the party does not comply with his or her obligation and fails to file a proper legal action regarding the case.
