États-Unis d'Amérique

République slovaque

Moyens de faire respecter les DPI

2. Please describe briefly the procedure that must be followed by a foreign party to initiate an enforcement procedure in each of the courts and administrative bodies identified in response to question 1 and cite the legal authorities establishing those procedures.

Foreign parties have in principle the same position both in courts and before the Slovak Industrial Property Office as nationals or residents of the Slovak Republic. As far as the language barrier is concerned, a court is obliged to grant translation at the expenses of the party not speaking the Slovak language. In case there is a citizen of the Slovak Republic who does not speak Slovak, in court, the translation fees are paid by the State. Unlike a court proceeding, in an administrative proceeding before the Slovak Industrial Property Office a foreign party has to be represented by his or her patent attorney authorised to act before SIPO, that is, a patent attorney acting in the Slovak Republic.