Ministry of Culture - Directorate of Authors' Rights

The activities of the Slovak Ministry of Culture in the field of copyright and cinematography are performed by the Directorate of Copyright and Cinematography, which acts in accordance with these activities and generally binding legal regulations.

The Directorate fulfils main tasks and objectives of state policy in the field of copyright; it is particularly responsible for drawing up proposals for legislative plans and generally binding legal regulations in this field. The Directorate prepares background materials and opinions for the court proceedings in disputes in the field of copyright and rights related to the copyright law and it supervises the exercise of collective administration of rights under copyright law. The Directorate co-operates with the relevant structures of the European Union and the Council of Europe, as well as with other international organisations involved in the protection of copyright and rights related to copyright and it also participates in the work of contact and management committees and expert groups of the European Commission and the Council of the European Union in the field of copyright. The Directorate processes and disseminates information and analytical materials in the field of intellectual property to legal and natural persons in the Slovak Republic and it also comments on proposals of international treaties, conventions and agreements drawn up and submitted by the Ministry concerning the field of intellectual property. Slovak legal amendment of copyright and rights related to copyright, which is in principle based on classical European standards, meets the criteria required by the European Union when concerning the achieved degree of approximation and compatibility with the law of the European Union. In addition to seven European directives regulating the area of copyright and rights related to the copyright law, the European Parliament and the Council Directive 2004/48/EC on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights was included into Slovak legal system under the Act No. 84/2007 Coll., with effect from 1 March 2007. The purpose of the Directive is to create the environment appropriate for innovation and investment, whereas the protection of intellectual property is considered to be essential for the success of the internal market. The Directorate in co-operation with the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic have created a new information portal . that was launched by the Ministry of Culture on 12 September 2008. The portal, designed for professionals, as well as for the general public, aims to achieve improvements in the enforcement of intellectual property rights in Slovakia.

It is an important information source on the legislation (legal regulations of the Slovak Republic, legal acts of the European Union and international treaties, which Slovakia is bound to) and it also includes judicial and administrative decisions, references to literature from the field of intellectual property rights. Through links on the website information and relevant database of the Office of Harmonization for the Internal Market (OHIM), the European Patent Office (EPO) and World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) are accessible.