TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS

Technical solution can be protected as patent or utility model. Cumulative protection of both the institutions is allowed also.

For patent grant the below mentioned requirements must be met:

• novelty
• inventive step
• industrial exploitation

Besides products and technologies, patents can be granted also to medicines, substances produced chemically, microorganisms used in industrial production, biotechnological processes and products resulting from them. Patent granted in the Czech Republic can be valid for 20 years following the date of application filing. The protected active substance of medicines and plant-protective agents can be granted Supplementary protection certificates (SPC) extending the patent validity for 5 years. It is forbidden to use the protected technical solution without the patent owner’s consent.

Patent protection can be obtained the national way or via European patent in the member states of the European Patent Organisation (EPO) or via an international patent as provided by Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) as the case may be, which makes it possible for the applicant to obtain protection in nearly 150 states via a single application.

In order to obtain protection to technical solution of a lower degree of inventive step and in the easier, quicker and less expensive way the institution of utility model can be applied. New and industrially exploitable technical solutions exceeding the framework of mere professional skill can be protected as utility models. This kind of protection is not, however, applicable to production processes or work activities and to biological reproductive materials.

Before filing a technical solution for protection, a search to determine i.a. the state of the art should be done.