Sometimes the well-formulated letter from attorney-at-law or patent attorney suffices and the infringer voluntarily ceases and desists from infringing.

However, if the infringer does not cease the infringement, it is most often necessary to file a lawsuit with the competent court (for the Slovak Republic, the competent court in intellectual property cases is the District Court of Banská Bystrica). We can represent you in Slovakia and we cooperate with many foreign law firms to ensure that you can claim your rights abroad, too.

In particular, it is possible to demand in court that the infringer:

• ceases and desists from the infringement,
• remedies the consequences of the infringement,
• compensates the damage or loss of profit incurred by the infringement,
• apologizes,
• pays appropriate monetary compensation.

In most cases we also request that:

• the court issues a preliminary injunction ordering the infringer to cease and desist from infringement; the court must rule on the application for preliminary injunction within 30 days and this is a very effective way of preventing more serious damage,
• the court orders the infringer to comply with the so-called information obligation and to disclose the extent of infringement and profits gained from the infringement.

The customs action works followingly:

• an application for an internal domestic measure is submitted; after the formalities have been checked, it is approved by the Financial Administration within 30 working days;
• the measure is valid for 2 years with the possibility of extension;
• with this measure, it is possible to send customs officers to any warehouse, shop, establishment, etc. where you know that there are goods that infringe your industrial rights;
• the customs officers will seize the infringing goods immediately and the owner of the goods must subsequently prove that the goods do not infringe the industrial rights; otherwise the goods are destroyed.

This is a very effective way of quickly cracking down on infringers right where the goods are located.

In serious cases, especially in case of great damage, infringement of industrial rights can also be a criminal offence. A criminal complaint may then be appropriate.

Disputes concerning .sk, .cz, .eu, .com and many other domains are now handled by arbitration centers composed of experts in IT and intellectual property law. We have extensive experience with representing clients before arbitration centers and we can represent you as well.

The advantages of alternative dispute resolution are:

• the domain is blocked during the proceedings, thus avoiding the cyber flight, where the infringer transfers the domain to a third party in order to avoid consequences,
• the speed of the procedure (the cases are usually decided within 3-4 months),
• predictability and professionalism of decisions (decisions are made by specialized experts),
• immediate and automatic enforceability of decisions (if successful, the domain is transferred within a few days of the decision).

The disadvantages are:

• the absence of preliminary injunctions (however, it is possible to file a parallel petition to the court),
• higher fees,
• arbitration centers do not award costs (however, sometimes it is possible to successfully recover them by lawsuits as damages),
• arbitration centers do not deal with more difficult cases.

The competitors’ actions described above are also unfair competition and it is therefore possible to seek cancellation or forced transfer of the domain name through a lawsuit in court. We can represent you in Slovakia and we cooperate with many foreign law firms to ensure that you can enforce your domain rights in foreign courts, too.

The advantages of lawsuit are:

• the possibility to request the provisional removal of the domain content by means of preliminary injunction,
• the courts award the costs,
• the possibility of appeal,
• difficult cases are dealt with, too.

The disadvantages are:

• the length of the proceedings (it may take years to reach a final decision),
• lower specialization of judges in domain law,
• the risk of cyber flight (it can be prevented by preliminary injunction, but if the injunction is not granted, the risk is considerable),
• the need to enforce the judgment through a bailiff if the defendant does not voluntarily comply with the obligation to transfer or cancel the domain.