Annual Technical Report 2013 on Industrial Design Information Activities submitted by Lithuania (CWS/ATR/ID/2013/LT)
Where URLs are requested below, it is preferred that either URLs which are likely to remain stable over time (three years or more) are provided, or home (main) page URLs are provided with a short explanation of how to access the corresponding information.
The expression "industrial designs" covers industrial designs and models. Offices which issue design patents should report their design patent information activities in this series of Annual Technical Reports.
I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of industrial design information activities and expected time frames for their realization
Protection of design is provided by the Law on Design of the Republic of Lithuania (Official Gazette, 2002, Nr. 112-4980, as amended), which entered into force on 1 January 2003.
There are three ways to get exclusive rights for design protection in Lithuania: under the Law on Design of the Republic of Lithuania, by filing an application directly with the SPB (national way); under the Council Regulation No. 6/2002 of 12 December 2001 on the Community Design, under which a Community design registered with the EU Office for Harmonization of the Internal Market (OHIM) is protected in Lithuania from 1 May 2004 (regional way). Since 26 September 2008, after Lithuania joined the Geneva act of the Hague Agreement on International Registration of Industrial Design, registration of international design may be extended to Lithuania (international way).
New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies(plans) mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks
In collaboration with OHIM, in 2013 the design data of the Republic of Lithuania was integrated into the European design search system (DesignView). By assistance from this system, the design register data of the Republic of Lithuania became an integral part of the European Union design search database. Now, nearly 3000 SPB registered designs are available through DesignView database
Main areas of industrial design information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year
On December 2013 the design register of the Republic of Lithuania has been integrated into the Designview database. The State Patent Bureau becomes the twelfth national office to do so. The other offices that have previously joined the Designview are: Portugal, Benelux, Estonia, Spain, Greece OBI, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Latvia, Slovenia, Czech and the OHIM. Now almost 3.000 designs registered by the VPB are available via Designview database.
Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and grants (registrations) with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes
From the establishment of the State Patent Bureau until 31 December 2013, the SPB received 68854 applications for registration of a trademark via national way. Within this period 56416 trademarks have been registered at the Register of Trademarks of the Republic of Lithuania, 33702 of them were valid registrations; 31166 changes at the Register, 11101 transfers of rights and 1114 license agreements were recorded. Also, 1966 marks given as security (withdrawals of security) and 348 seizures (withdrawals of seizures) were entered.
Since 1997, 54285 notifications regarding the extension of international marks registrations in Lithuania have been received from the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO); 50940 decisions were adopted to grant protection, having performed the examination.
At the end of 2013, 75461 registrations of trademarks, applications for which have been filed under the national and international ways, and 986496 Community trademarks, registered at the Register of Community trademarks of the EU, were in effect in Lithuania.
Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
Annual review: http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=en&n=318
Statistics: http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=en&n=321
II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Information and support provided by the Office to applicants regarding filing on paper and/or e-filing (instructions, seminars, etc.) – URLs
http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=en&n=260
Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
It is not possible to file design applications with the SPB electronically. Some documents related to the Register of Design could be filed electronically.
Classification and reclassification activities; classification system used, e.g., International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification), other classification
Registrations have been classified in accordance with the ninth edition of International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification).
Internationally agreed Numbers for the Identification of Data (INID Codes) relating to designs were used in the Register of Designs of the Republic of Lithuania and at SPB's Official Bulletin Inventions,Designs, Trademarks in 2013
Other activities
N/A
III. SOURCES OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE
Main types of publications in the field of industrial design information, outline of the content (industrial design applications, design patents, registrations, etc.) and medium (on paper, on CDs, online – URLs)
Information....
Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URL), etc.
Information on designs has been published in the SPB Official Bulletin Inventions, Designs, Trademarks once per month, and published in an electronic format and has been accessible on SPB website (http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=en&n=245).
Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external documentation and databases
The SPB provide database of national and international design registration on it's website free of charge (http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=en&n=263)
Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) and services available to external users; conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)
The Design Register of the Republic of Lithuania was open to public access only in the following forms:
Extract from the Register (on request);
SPB Official Bulletin.
Design Database on SPB website free of charge.
Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)
The SPB website Designs Database has been an exact copy of the data stored in the Design Register of the Republic of Lithuania and contained data on designs registered and application filed directly with the State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania.The bibliographical data of industrial design were stored in CS software.Files are stored in paper format.
Other sources
N/A
IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements
The work area of the Lithuanian Patent Office requires the use of many information technology facilities. In 2013 the Patent Office had 60 computer workplaces, supplied with the required software, external devices and means for data communication
Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office
Common Software (CS) v. 3.31
Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
Designview database of OHIM
Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file
N/A
Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)
The State Patent Bureau of the Republic of the Republic of Lithuania (SPB) published on its website (http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=en&n=245) the Official Bulletin Inventions, Designs, Trademarks and on its website
(http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=en&n=263) Database of the Design of the Republic of Lithuania
Other matters
N/A
V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION
Office’s library (if deals with industrial design information): equipment, collection management, network of libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign libraries
Lithuanian Technical Library (LTL) is a library of national significance, which accumulates the collection maintenance of books, technical and economy periodic, documents on industrial property, company catalogues, normative and other documents.
The collection maintenance of printings is accumulated in accordance with the developing trends of economy, agriculture, industry and science.
State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania is a founder of Lithuanian Technical Library (since 1998). The Library is funded from the State budget. On 1 February 1999 the Library established a Patent Information Center, which is a deposit library of patent documents of Lithuania, foreign countries and international organizations.
LTL is a public library, available for all the citizens and legal entities of Lithuania and foreign countries. The Library performs the functions of the methodology center of technical libraries network, Interlibrary Exchange System (ILL) and International Interlibrary Exchange System (IILL).
Publications related to different business procedures and industrial design information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.
In 2013 there were issued several information leaflets: “Trademarks”, “Design”, as well as a portfolio of legal regulations "Legislation regulating prevention of inventions, designs, trademarks and topography of semiconductor products in the Republic of Lithuania”,
Cooperation with universities, technology and innovation support centers, etc.
In 2013, the State Patent Bureau, Klaipeda University and Lithuanian Technical Library signed a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at strengthening cooperation in industrial property, innovation and dissemination of information and public education, the exchange of scientific knowledge and experience, publications and information about the protection of intellectual property.
Education and training: training courses, e learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.
In 2013, the SPB, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (Trademarks and Designs) (OHIM), organized the seminar “Protection of design developers in the European Union. 10 years of Community design” to celebrate the World Intellectual Property Day. The participants actively debated whether it is difficult to develop a competitive design in the EU, in which way it can be protected. The seminar opened discussions of legal and practical aspects of the protection of the registered and unregistered design in the European Community, debates about the ways of design protection both under copyright law and in terms of legal options of industrial design. Design developers shared their experiences on problems and challenges in design protection, which they faced in developing fashion, graphic design and furniture industries
In 2013, in cities of Klaipeda, Kaunas, Siauliai and Vilnius, the SPB under the Cooperation Agreement with OHIM organized seminars-discussions on the topic of "Possibilities of Trademark and Design Legal Protection in Lithuania and the EU", in which the SPB experts introduced to the seminar participants the possibilities of trademark and design legal protection in Lithuania and the European Union, introduced how to use the SPB, OHIM and WIPO trademark or design databases in order to search for trademarks or designs.
Other activities
N/A
VI.INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION
International exchange of industrial design information in machine-readable form (e.g., Official Gazettes)
N/A
Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to industrial design information
In 2013 the SPB successfully participated in the projects of the OHIM Cooperation Fund (CF) with a total value of 50 million euros, where participation expenses of the SPB are covered by the CF. Part of the projects is related with development of electronic services, access to industrial property information and its simplification. In 2013 the project of implementation of the quality standards of the European trademarks and design network in the fields of applicants/customers service, trademarks and designs registration, and investigation of appeals or oppositions was partially implemented
Assistance to developing countries
N/A
Other activities
N/A
VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS