CWS.ATR.PI.2010.BR

Annual Technical Report 2010 on Patent Information Activities submitted by Brazil (CWS/ATR/PI/2010/BR)

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 term "patent" covers utility models and Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs). Offices which issue design patents should report their design patent information activities in their Annual Technical Reports on Industrial Design Information Activities.

I. Evolution of patent activities

Changes experienced in terms of application filings and grants with respect to the previous year

Applications for BR patents and PCT national phase entrance increased from 25.951 in 2009 to 28.052 in 2010 (+ 8,1%), although data for 2010 is not final because of PCT national phase and because the number of applications done by residents.
Patents granted increased from 3.153 in 2009 to 3.620 in 2010 (+14,8 %).

URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide statistics related to patents

Statistics related to Brazilian patents applications are available at
https://www.inpi.gov.br/menu-esquerdo/instituto/estatisticas-new-version.

II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, distribution and use of primary and secondary sources of patent information

Publishing, printing, copying (main types of publications of the Office in the field of patent information, etc.)

(1) Paper Patent Documents
Published patent applications documents are prepared by the Center of Dissemination of Technological Information (CEDIN), a division of the Directorate of Cooperation for Development (DICOD) that is responsible for maintaining and divulgating the technological information. With respect to granted patents, the Directorate of Patents (DIRPA) is responsible for digitalizing them.
The patent applications documents are published with a letter code “A”, the utility models are published with a letter code “U” and the Addition Certificates are published with a letter code “E”. Letter codes “B”, “Y” and “F” refers to, respectively, granted patents of invention, utility models and Addition Certificates.
Copies of all published patents are sent to the search files.

(2) Industrial Property Gazette
Since April 2005, official notices and selected bibliographic data relating to BR patent applications and granted patents are internally generated and published in the official weekly electronic Brazilian Official Gazette (Revista da Propriedade Industrial - RPI). Official gazettes are available on the Brazilian Patent Office website in PDF and TXT format, at http://www.inpi.gov.br/menu-superior/revistas, and all published officials gazettes are stored in the library and are available to the public.


(3) Internet
Bibliographic data of Brazilian patents are available for consultation at an internal database (SINPI) and at internet (www.inpi.gov.br). Keywords searches in titles or abstracts are available only in Portuguese. Brazilian patent documents’ first pages contain bibliographic data, according to WIPO standards.
INPI sends to the European Patent Office the bibliographic data and electronic copies of the whole patent applications and granted patents, as soon as the domestic publication was done, to be part of EPOQUE system and of the searchable websites at Espacenet database (worldwide.espacenet.com) and Latipat database (lp.espacenet.com). In 2010, 400.269 pages of patent documents were digitalized and sent to EPO.
Brazilian documents also compose Patentscope database.

Main types of announcements of the Office in the field of patent information

INPI's website (www.inpi.gov.br) plays an increasingly important part in the dissemination of notices regarding to patents, as well as it informs the public and the community of users all the information concerning training activities, events and legal information concerning intellectual property.

Besides, the official gazette weekly provides to the users the information concerning INPI's decisions on patent matters.

Mass storage media used (paper, microforms, optical storage, etc.)

INPI has a collection of DVD and CD-ROM containing published or granted US, WO, EP, DE, ES, FR, JP, OA and CH patent documents, and paper copies of the whole documents can be provided for internal or external demands.

Brazilian Office has also a paper collection of BR, US, WO, EP, AU, CA, NL, DE, CH, GB and FR patent documents classified according to the IPC and a microform patent document collection from BR, ES, US, FR, GB, DE and CH. This collection has been frozen since the implementation of the search systems. Internal users access CD-ROM, DVD, Epoque, Dialog, Internet and SINPI (internal database) and external users access CD-ROM, DVD, Internet.

Word processing and office automation

INPI has access to Microsoft Windows and BROffice softwares, which provides an integrated and extensive network of applications that are available to all staff. All personal have their own workstation on which numerous applications are available. Word processing can be carried out using Microsoft Word and BROffice Writer; PowerPoint, Excel, BROffice Impress and BROffice Calc are also available.

The current version of the IPC is available for consultation in Portuguese at http://pesquisa.inpi.gov.br/ipc/index.php.

Search tools, including online access to commercial databases, are available to technical staff, patent examiners and technical personal performing patent information activities to external users. There is also a corporate mainframe database (Integrated System of Industrial Property - SINPI), for processing the life of a BR patent application, where searches can also be performed.

The Office's intranet contains a large collection of useful information for the INPI staff.

Copies of the documents cited in the search reports are produced in-house to supply the applicants. All the staff access the Internet and the Office’s intranet and has their own official e-mail addresses.

URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide access to online publication of patent documents and gazettes, and to other primary and secondary sources of patent information, including patent publication servers and download of bulk patent data

INPI’s website provides online access to the patent applications and granted patents. Patent gazettes can be accessed in http://www.inpi.gov.br/menu-superior/revistas. Brazilian patents database is available through Internet at http://www.inpi.gov.br/menu-superior/pesquisas.

III. Matters concerning abstracting, classifying, reclassifying and indexing of technical information contained in patent documents

Abstracting, reviewing, translating

No service of translation, abstracting and reviewing is conducted by INPI.

Classification¹, preclassification² (if applicable), and reclassification³ activities; Classification system used, e.g., International Patent Classification (IPC), other classification (please indicate whether or not patent documents are classified by your Office and, if so, which classification is used)

Patent applications are classified by INPI staff according to the latest edition of the International Patent Classification, advanced level. Documents are reclassified whenever a new version of the IPC entries into force or following a revision of the allotted classification symbols given to a patent document.

Bibliographic data and full-text processing

Bibliographic data processing is used for search using the internal system (SINPI) and through Internet (http://www.inpi.gov.br/menu-superior/pesquisas).

IV. Search file establishment and upkeep

File building

File building and updating of search files, classified under the IPC is centralized. BR patent documents collection is arranged according to the IPC.

In 2010 Brazilian patent collection increased 14.347 documents.

Updating

Administrative staff carries out updating of search files centrally.

Documentation from other offices maintained and/or considered part of the available search file

Paper collection contains US, WO, EP, AU, CA, NL, DE, CH, GB and FR patent documents.

CD-ROM and DVD collection contains US, WO, EP, DE, ES, FR, JP, OA and CH patent documents.

Either paper or digital documents are available through search techniques, for internal patent examiners and external users.

V. Activities in the field of computerized and other mechanized search systems

In-house systems (online/offline)

The SINPI database (Integrated System of Industrial Property) is the in-house system available for searching. Technical searching can be carried out using the IPC code or indexing terms, combinations of terms from the same or different headings for searching patent documents, legal status or other parameters. Brazilian patent applications database is available through Internet at http://www.inpi.gov.br/menu-superior/pesquisas.

External databases

Since 2005 patent examiners from INPI/BR have access to EPOQUE (European Patent Office Query) system in order to perform their examination searches. Their tasks became faster using this tool.

Besides EPOQUE they also have the access to the databank DIALOG and other specialized databases (chemical, biotech, etc.) in order to carry out searches in patent documents or other publications. INPI staff access these databases using a number of online hosts that the Office subscribes to. The official policy is that a worldwide online search should be carried out as whole or part of every patent search or examination done in this Office. Workstations with CD or DVD drivers are used by the technical staff for information purposes and also by the external searchers. They also access free online patent databases that are available through internet
and non patent literature databases that are available through EPOQUE, DIALOG and through internet.

Administrative management systems (e.g., register, legal status, statistics and administrative support)

Register, legal status and administrative support information is stored on the SINPI database.

Equipment used (hardware, including the types of terminal and network used, and software), carriers used

Servers IBM and HP are used to support Internet, Internal Databases, E-mail and Intranet. The internal network uses a client-server arrangement on an Ethernet LAN running Informix Netware. The PCs used by all staff performing patent and information activities are Pentium 4, 2.8 GHz, machines with 17" and 21" screens and DVD drivers.

Existing online thesauri; their structure, presentation and usefulness for computerized searches

INPI does not use online thesauri.

VI. Administration of the industrial property office library, and information products and services available to the public (relating to facilities, e.g., for lodging applications, for assisting clients on searching procedures, for obtaining official publications and registry extracts)

Planning, administration, automation, security, buildings

INPI has an internal library that is conducted by the Center of Dissemination of Technological Information (CEDIN). The library collection contains technical books, pamphlets, manuals, some legal reports, name and subject-matter indexing books, periodicals and official gazettes from many different countries. The collection is located in the office’s main building in a securely manner, and the consultation can be done via intranet (INPI staff) or locally (INPI staff and external users).

Collecting, acquisitions, preparation

All INPI staff is free to suggest additional material for inclusion in the library collection, and the administrative manager periodically asks for suggestions.

In 2010 the library staff received approximately 3.589 requests from researchers and 6.586 copies of articles or technical information were demanded by the internal and external researchers. The library was updated with 595 new books, pamphlets etc.

In 2010 the library published 19 Bibliographic Alerts that list new publications available in the library and help to divulgate matters concerned to intellectual property. The Bibliographic Alerts are available through INPI intranet.

Collection management, preservation

The Center of Dissemination of Technological Information (CEDIN) is in charge of maintaining the library.

Interlibrary lending, resource sharing, networks of patent libraries in the country

The library provides external services to customers. They provide copies of articles, technical searchers, and have a close contact with other specialized libraries from over Brazil and abroad. It can be accessed through the e-mail biblioteca@inpi.gov.br.

The library has became a reference for graduate courses in Library Science from the University of Rio de Janeiro – UNIRIO and from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro – UFRJ and has received groups interested in knowing the processing methodology used by the library, as well as the collection and specialized services designed to INPI.

Information services available to the public (including computerized services and search files contained in libraries remote from your Office and patent information posted by your Office on the World Wide Web)

The Patent Office's Search and Advisory Service continues to promote its activities in providing priced patent investigations. In 2010, 678 patent searches were processed.

INPI has developed a service (Central Enquiry Unit) to provide answers to customers’ doubts, available at INPI's homepage (http://www.inpi.gov.br/menu-esquerdo/pasta_ouvidoria).

INPI sends to the European Patent Office the bibliographic data and electronic copies of the whole patent applications and granted patents, as soon as the domestic publication is done, to be part of the searchable website at Espacenet.

URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide information on business procedures such as: filing, publication, examination and grant procedures related to patents; opposition and appeal procedures related to patents; etc.

http://www.inpi.gov.br/menu-esquerdo/patente/pasta_processamento.

URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide a description of information products and services offered by the Office (e.g., patent search service(s) and patent databases), as well as information on how to access and utilize them

Patent search services and Patent databases::
http://www.inpi.gov.br/menu-esquerdo/informacao/buscas-e-banco-de-patentes

Patent application copy service:
http://www.inpi.gov.br/menu-esquerdo/informacao/servicos-e-produtos/index_html-new-version-new-version-new-version

Official patent application copy service (certified full copy):
http://www.inpi.gov.br/menu-esquerdo/patente/pasta_servicos/copia_html

Other services relating to patent documents:
http://www.inpi.gov.br/menu-esquerdo/patente/pasta_servicos

VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of patent documentation and information

International or regional cooperation in the exchange of machine-readable information, e.g., bibliographic data, abstract and/or full text information

INPI makes use of all relevant WIPO standards. In 2010, 36.003 published Brazilian patents applications were sent to foreign patent offices in a cooperation exchange. In 2010, INPI has sent the Brazilian patents applications (PI – patent invention, MU- utility model, C- additional certificate) and/or industrial designs documents (DI) in paper to ARIPO (PI, MU, C – without priority); SU (PI, C – without priority); GB, CU, DE (PI, MU, C – without priority) and PY (PI, MU, C, all the documents applied in Brazil). Also, INPI has sent to EPO and USPTO the digitalized Brazilian documents by ftp.

Medium used for exchange of priority documents

Paper. The full certified copies of documents must be requested to INPI through an specific form.

Medium allowed for filing applications

Patent applications are accepted only on paper form. An online system for electronic filing of patent applications is been developed.

VIII. Other relevant matters concerning education and training in, and promotion of, the use of patent information, including technical assistance to developing countries (please indicate URLs of web pages of the Office’s website wherever appropriate)

Training courses for national and foreign participants, use of audiovisual means

In accordance with the Brazilian Innovation Law, INPI has began an extensive training program, including seminars and courses, aiming to prepare managers and technicians staff in different aspects of intellectual property.

By the end of 2010, INPI has trained managers and technicians from Universities, Institutions of Research and Development and Institutions supporting small and medium-sized enterprises.

In 2010, under an agreement with WIPO, the training of the staff appointed as the tutors of WIPO distance learning courses was performed. The first edition on the General Course on Intellectual Property (DL 101P) was conducted by the tutors and was administrated by the Academy of Intellectual Property, Innovation and Development of INPI.

In cooperation with USPTO, Brazilian Patent Office promoted the 3rd edition of Roadshow INPI-USPTO in order to clarify issues related to the role of Intellectual Property in promoting competitiveness and exports.

Assistance to developing countries (sending consultants and experts, receiving trainees from developing countries, etc.)

The Brazilian Patent Office has an active bilateral and cooperation programs with different countries, including a number of developing countries. In 2010, the Search and Advisory Service carried out 2 free patent searches with WIPO to Dominican Republic under the Program of Patent Information Services for Developing Countries, and 31 free patent searches to Paraguay under a bilateral cooperation.

INPI also delivers seminars and lectures in different places including developing countries.

Brazilian Patent Office promoted in cooperation with National Institute for the Defense of Competition and Protection of Intellectual Property of Peru (INDECOPI ), the 2nd Module of Training of Patent Examiners of Latin American Countries.

INPI also promoted a specific training to the external experts hired by the National Institute of Intellectual Property of Chile (INAPI) to perform patent search activities. Also at INAPI, Brazilian Patent Office staff ministered a Technology Foresight course.

Dominican Republic and Colombia also received a training of patent examiners.

Promotional activities (seminars, exhibitions, visits, advertising, etc.)

The Directorate of Cooperation for Development (DICOD) continued to promote in 2010 INPI's presence at many exhibitions or seminars, and conducted visitors to the Office.

The Academy of Intellectual Property, Innovation and Development of INPI organized the III Academic Meeting on Intellectual Property, Innovation and Development (III ENAPID) and seminars on IP Issues. These events are directed to the community involved in research and development projects relating to intellectual property and innovation.

Studies to identify trends in new technology, e.g., by the use of patent statistics and preparation of monographs

Programs and Studies Coordination (CEPRO), a coordination of the Center of Dissemination of Technological Information (CEDIN), is in charge of preparing programs and studies using bibliographic and technological information available in patent documents in order to provide statistical information to monitor the trends in patent activity.

In 2010 INPI published the study “Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of Stem Cell Patenting in Brazil” that was presented at the event “Stem Cells – Europe 2010” in Edinburgh. All the published studies, including the old ones, are available at http://www.inpi.gov.br/menu-esquerdo/informacao/servicos-e-produtos/estudos_html-new-version.

In 2010 INPI published 20 Technological Alerts consisting of a survey of the technology published worldwide on strategic affairs of the Federal Government, including Bio-fuel, Stem Cell, Nanobiotechnology, Fuel Cell, Wind Energy, Solar Energy, Nuclear Energy, Nanotechnology, Technology Related to Hearing Impaired, Technology Related to Visual Impaired and Technology Related to Motor Disabilities. For each subject there will be a semiannual publication. The Technological Alerts were about. All published Technological Alerts are available at http://www.inpi.gov.br/menu-esquerdo/informacao/servicos-e-produtos/alerta-tecnologico-1.html.

IX. Other general information related to the Office that is available on the Internet -- URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that:

provide information on legislation related to patents

Information on legislation related to patents is available at http://www.inpi.gov.br/menu-esquerdo/patente/pasta_legislacao.

contain the Annual Report of the Office

The Annual Report of INPI is available at
http://www.inpi.gov.br/menu-esquerdo/instituto/copy_of_relatorios-de-gestao-new-version-new-version.

contain patent-related news regarding the Office

Patent-related news regarding to the Office is available at
http://www.inpi.gov.br/menu-superior/imprensa.

X. Other relevant matters

The Organization Structure of Brazilian Patent Office was changed in 2010.

After being accepted in 2007 as an International Searching Authority (ISA) and an International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA), INPI started to prepare all the administrative and technical needs for the execution of this new task. Brazilian Patent Office began to act as ISA and IPEA in August, 2009. In 2010, 311 international applications have chosen Brazil as the competent ISA. INPI has a working group responsible for the Quality Control System of patent applications examined in the context of ISA/IPEA.

In 2010 INPI continued with the Innovation and Intellectual Property Academy activities. The Professional Master Degree Course in Intellectual Property and Innovation received students from different areas (lawyers, engineers, managers etc).

Brazilian National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) and National Institute of Metrology (INMETRO) continued working in close collaboration, in order to establish the Brazilian Center of Biological Material. The final objective of this project is not only to provide the necessary infrastructure for accepting patent applications in the biotechnological field with the biological material, but also to contribute for the organization of services, which will allow the offering of certificates for research and development, according to international requirements of safety. The Center will be located at Xerém, in Rio de Janeiro, and will be divided in two sections: one for materials in secrecy conditions and another for materials capable of being used in research.

In 2010 the Program of Automatic Supplying of Technological Information (PROFINT) gave support to 44 institutions. INPI sent to these institutions 79.167 front pages of patent documents in 2010. These documents are selected in the IPC fields that the institutions have chosen. INPI has a signed contract with each one of these institutions. In 2010 INPI began to offer training activities to technical staff of the institutions associated to the Program in order to help them to select and analyse the information received.

The Technological Observatory of INPI (OBTEC), created in 2010, conducts monitoring of specific sectors of the world technological development, gathering data and formatting information from the access of patent documentation databases and technological information in general. The activities of the Observatory has a punctual character, as it aims to assist demands which come from Agreements of Cooperation in a shared management system and, therefore, the OBTEC is an environment dedicated to the direct interaction between INPI and the various agents of the National System of Innovation.