Tradition in the protection of industrial property in Slovenia dates from 1991 within the Ministry of Science and Technology, when Slovenia separated from Yugoslavia. The same year Slovenia became a member of WIPO.
As of December 2000, SIPO operates as an autonomous body within the Ministry of the Economy.

Slovenia is also, contractor and a member of other international organizations and agreements: TRIPS agreement, the Paris Convention, Nice agreement on the international classification of goods and services, Madrid Agreement of the International trade mark registration…) and EPO.

Interestingly, Slovenia is no longer a member of PCT (from 2001), therefore in Slovenia there is no option for filing a PCT patent nor can it be one of the directly designated states. (PCT national phase in Slovenia is still open for PCT applications filed prior to December 07, 2001. And PCT applications filed after this date, may only enter Slovenia through PCT/EP route, provided that among designated states Slovenia (SI) and European Patent (EP) are designated).

Amendments to the IP law published in July 2023 switched the jurisdiction for cancellation actions and annulments procedures to the IPO. Before, the Ljubljana District Court had exclusive jurisdiction to decide on enforcement and invalidity actions.

There is no graphical representation requirement for trade marks, from March 2020, and Slovenia implements most of the provisions from the EU Directive 2015/2436.
This means that the doors are open to the registration of more types of non-traditional trade marks such as holograms or movement marks.

Also from 2020, the holder of the earlier trade mark cannot enforce its rights against the holder of a later trade mark if the holder of the earlier trade mark was aware of the later trade mark and its use on the market, and tolerated it without opposing it for five consecutive years.

In respect to proving the reputation of EU trade marks (as the basis for an opposition), in order to avoid existing uncertainty, the reputation of EU mark will be assessed on the territory of the European Union, per amendments to the IP law published in July 2023

In cases of 3D trade marks, maximum number of images that can be submitted in the filing procedure is 6 – this is especially important to keep in mind if there is a priority document comprising of more images.

Trade marks can be renewed 1 year from the renewal deadline at the earliest, and the grace period is 6 months long.

In Slovenia it is possible to file a short-term patent, which is the result of a creative effort, correspondent to a utility model/small patent in other ex-YU countries. It can be later converted into a regular one, by a substantial examination request filed 12 months from the application date, but before granting.

SPC protection is available, if the subject matter of the patent is a product, a process for its manufacture, or the use of a product – that is subject to an official authorization procedure before it can be placed on the market and commercialized.

Patent annuities can be paid 1 year before the deadline and the grace period is the usual 6 months.

If the EP annuity falls within 2 months from the date of the publication, it can be paid at no extra charge.

Renewal of designs falls every 5 years, for a total of 25 years.

No limitation is currently foreseen on coexistence between EPs valid in SI and EPs with unitary effects – a limitation of Slovenian Courts over European patents is foreseen: opt-outs are possible for the next 7 years (which can be extended for 7 more years or even more)

In Slovenia the POA in all IP matters, must be signed with full name and position of the signatory at the authorizing entity, notarization/legalization is not required. The July 2023 amendments to the IP law now allow accepting scanned POA copies in electronic form, following the principle of simplification.