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The Slovenian Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) operates as a body within the Ministry of the Economy, Tourism and Sport and performs its work independently. The office performs tasks in the field of intellectual property, including copyright law and industrial property law.

It also represents the Republic of Slovenia in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the European Patent Office (EPO) and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). In the implementation of international conventions to which Slovenia is a signatory, the office works with WIPO, EPO and the national offices of other countries with which Slovenia has concluded appropriate agreements. It works with EUIPO regarding all activities related to the EU trademark and Community design and the convergence of practices and tools in the field of trademarks and designs.

The Slovenian Intellectual Property Office is one of the smaller establishments of its kind in Europe, but is highly productive in terms of the ratio between the number of applications for industrial property rights and the number of employees.

The main tasks of the office include the following: carrying out procedures for granting patents and supplementary protection certificates for medicinal and plant-protection products and procedures for the registration of trademarks, designs, topographies of semiconductor circuits and geographical indications, with the exception of those relating to agricultural products, foodstuffs, wines and other products obtained from grapes or wine; keeping registers of industrial property rights; preparing proposals for amendments to legislative regulations in the field of intellectual property; providing information services relating to industrial property rights; issuing authorisations for the collective management of copyright and related rights and supervision of the activities of collecting societies; representing the Republic of Slovenia in foreign and international organisations in the field of intellectual property on the basis of an authorisation issued by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia; and publishing the Official Bulletin on Industrial Property. It performs administrative and technical tasks for the Conciliation Board, which operates pursuant to the Employment Related Inventions Act and is responsible for the settlement of disputes between employers and employees concerning employment-related inventions. It also provides administrative assistance to the Copyright Board, mediators in the resolution of disputes between collecting societies and representative associations of users of protected works, between users and right holders, and in the case of alternative multi-territorial licensing disputes between a collecting society and online service providers or one or more right holders or another collecting society.

Leadership

Internal organisational units