Annual Technical Report 2013 on Patent Information Activities submitted by Lithuania (CWS/ATR/PI/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 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. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN PATENT INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of patent information activities and expected time frames for their realization
Patent protection for inventions is granted according to the Law on Patents of the Republic of Lithuania (Official Gazette, 2011, No. 4-127), which entered into force on 3 February 2012.
There are three ways to obtain patent protection in the Republic of Lithuania: filing an application directly with the SPB (national way), under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) (international way) and under the European Patent Convention (Euro and Euro-PCT applications) (regional way).
The patent application, which makes a set of documents, is directly filed with the State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania, by direct mail, and since 2013 - also electronically.Online services EPAS has been introduced. This online service is free of charge.
In 2013, 127 applications have been filed with the SPB, 117 of those were filed by the Lithuanian applicants. Conventional priority was requested for 7 patent applications. In comparison with the year 2012 the number of domestic patent applications under the national procedure increased by 7.6 %.
In 2013, 10 international applications entered the national level, all of them had priority (or priorities) of earlier application (or applications).
In 2013, 18 international applications were filed with SPB as receiving office. In comparison with the year 2012 the number of patent applications under the PCT received by SPB from domestic applicants increased by 80 % (from 10 to 18).
In 2013, 28 applications for supplementary protection certificates were filed.In comparison with the year 2012 the number of applications for SPC increased 27.3 %.
The number of European patents to be validated in Lithuania shows a constant rise.
European patents validated in Lithuania in 2012 year were 1176, in 2013 - 1309 (increasing in 11.3 %)
On 31 December 2013, 7264 patents remained in force: 6745 were European patents and 510 national patents.
New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies and plans mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks
An agreement between Lithuania and European Patent Office has been signed on the 9th of October 2013 in Vilnius - Lithuania has been provided with simplified conditions for using EPO sources for checking the patentability of inventions claimed in national patent applications. It is expected that the quality of inventions should increase due to improved and financially more attractive patentability checking. Intellectual property protection is an important issue in the European economy today: recent study indicates that approximately 35 percent of workplaces in EU are generated by Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) intensive industries.
An agreement has been signed between Benoît Battistelli, President of European Patent Office (EPO), and Rimvydas Naujokas, director of The State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania (SPB), during the international conference on IPR which took place in Vilnius and is the biggest event of this type in The Baltic states.
An important advantage is that as of next year, the price of such services will be much lower for Lithuanian applicants. Additional discounts will be granted for applicants of certain categories, first of all, small and medium business companies and universities.
Main areas of patent information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year
From April 2, 2013, the State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania has started to accept national patent applications filed online. The State Patent Bureau (SPB), in the framework of bilateral cooperation project with the European Patent Office (EPO) „Online filing“, has implemented a package of electronic services, aimed to provide applicants with an option to file patent applications online.
The project has been included in the Bilateral Cooperation Plan of SPB and EPO of 2012-2015 and is designed to harmonize technical solutions in the field of patent applications and the overall management of these applications, including archiving and storage of patent documents. The general objective of the project is to increase the number of applications filed online, to automate the filing process bringing patent administration systems across Europe for the benefit of users and making the system more attractive to applicants.
With the use of the software package provided by the EPO (so called “EPO Online Filing“), it is possible to file European patent applications, international PCT applications and national patent applications, as well as requests regarding the validation of European patents, applications for supplementary protection certificates, also subsequent documents which have been already filed online.
In December of 2012, the State Patent Bureau implemented OLF national plug-in, in order to file European and PCT applications online. Further national functionalities according to the national legislation were introduced. Meanwhile, the SPB is focussed on building new functions in order to extend OLF to subsequent filings online.
Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and grants with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes
Traditionally in 2013 most national patent applications were filed by Lithuanian science institutions and research centers. Last year leaders' positions were held by Kaunas University of Technology and Center for Physical Sciences and Technology - each submitted 8 national applications, followed by Vilnius Gediminas Technical University with 7 applications.
In 2013 most of the filings received by the SPB were submitted by applicants from Lithuania, which comprised 85.40 % of all national filings that year. Taking into account applications received by the SPB from foreign countries, 4 applications were submitted by applicants from China and Russia, 3 applications from Japan, Estonia, and Taiwan. According to the data received in 2013, 93 national patents were granted by the State of Patent Bureau of Lithuania, and in addition to that 1309 European patents entered into force last year.
The number of Lithuanian applicants filed abroad according to PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) and EPC (European Patent Convention) has increased. The number of European patent filings increased by 57% and reached 74.
Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
Annual review : http://www.vpb.gov.lt/files/567.pdf
Statistics: http://www.vpb.gov.lt/docs/20140303_1.pdf
II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT 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
Forms related to obtaining a national patent are available only in the Lithuanian language.
Information for applicants: http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?n=253&l=en
Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
The dossiers of the patent applications are kept on paper in numerical order under the application number.
Classification1, preclassification2 (if applicable), reclassification3 activities; classification systems used (e.g., International Patent Classification (IPC)); matters concerning indexing of patent information
Applications are classified in accordance with the International Patent Classification, core level.
Abstracting, reviewing, and translation of the information contained in patent documents
Lithuanian language invention abstracts of patent applications and patents have been published as presented by applicants.
English language abstracts to be published on the Espacenet database have been translated by SPB examiners.
Other activities
N/A
III. SOURCES OF PATENT INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE
Main types of publications of the Office (patent applications, full text, first pages, abstracts, bibliographic data, granted patents, etc.), medium (on paper, on CDs, online – URLs)
In the Official Gazette of the SPB there are published the most important bibliographic data (including patent classification, excluding abstracts and figurative accessories) of the patent applications laid open to public inspection after the lapse of 18 months from the filing date and bibliographic data (including patent classification, abstracts and figurative accessories) of the granted patents. 2013 annual review 93 patent specifications type B documents were published.
Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online – URL), etc.
SPB published on its website (http://www.vpb.lt/en/)on the 25th of every month the Official Bulletin "Inventions, Designs, Trademarks" (12 publications per year), #2 of Bulletin has annex "Statistics of the year 2012 on the legal protection of industrial property in the Republic of Lithuania" and databases of Lithuanian Patents and European Patents entered into force in the Republic of Lithuania.
Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external collections and databases
The SPB published on its website (http://www.vpb.lt/en/) the Official Bulletin "Inventions, Designs, Trademarks" and databases of Lithuanian Patents and European Patents entered into force in the Republic of Lithuania.
SPB website Databases have been an exact copy of the data stored in the Common Software Database. Common Software Database contained bibliographic, legal status data, abstract data, national patent applications (A documents) and national patent specifications (B documents), translated claims of European Patents entered into force in the Republic of Lithuania
Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to external users, conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)
The Lithuanian Patent Office homepage with Rss-reader at http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=EN . The homepage enables access to patent, design, trademark registration information both in Lithuanian and English. It also contains all legal acts (Lithuanian legal acts are in Lithuanian), and other legislation as well as material on legal protection of industrial property, relevant links, current news and the public databases of subjects for legal protection of the Lithuanian Patent Office, EPO, WIPO, OHIM
Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)
Bibliographic, legal status data, abstracts in Lithuanian and English of Lithuanian patent applications and
patents, extracted from SPB Common Software Database, have been posted on EPO FTP sites prior to the actual publication date.
Scanned Patent Specifications (B documents) SPB sent to the Espacenet database.
The bibliographic, legal status data on Lithuanian Patent Applications, PCT Applications, Lithuanian Patents and European Patents have been supplied to EPO to be included into INPADOC PFS, INPADOC PRS and Espacenet.
PCT Applications data have been also supplied to WIPO to be included into PATENTSCOPE® search service database.
Other sources
N/A
IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements
During the development of electronic services, “Online Filing” software and its portlet were installed with the help of the European Patent Office, which allows applicants to submit their national patent applications electronically.
Another project was developed at the same time as the “Online Filing” project: "Designview” Web service was installed in cooperation with the Office of Harmonization for the Internal Market (OHIM) for the access to the information on the registered designs of national services that use this service. The data of “Designview”, like the ones introduced earlier for the trademarks of “TMView” systems, are updated every day.
In 2013, SPB installed the software that enables to get data on existing European patents in XML format, and then save them to the database of SPB. The system that allows the transfer of national patent data and legal status and bibliographic data of the European Patent Office valid in Lithuania to the European Patent Office in XML format was previously installed. Thus, two-way SPB and the European Patent Office data flows are ensured.
Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office
Workstations connected to the Office network are of the Office staff direct service. The computers run WINDOWS(HP, VISTA, 7) and MS OFFICE -2003/2007/2010 software
Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
The SPB published on its website (http://www.vpb.lt/en/) the Official Bulletin Inventions, Designs, Trademarks and databases of Lithuanian Patents and European Patents entered into force in the Republic
of Lithuania. SPB website Databases have been an exact copy of the data stored in the Common Software Databases. Common Software Databases contained bibliographic, legal status data, abstract data, national patent applications (A documents) and national patent specifications (B documents), translated claims of European Patents entered into force in the Republic of Lithuania
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 SPB published on its website (http://www.vpb.lt/en/) the Official Bulletin Inventions, Designs, Trademarks and databases of Lithuanian Patents and European Patents entered into force in the Republic
of Lithuania. SPB website Databases have been an exact copy of the data stored in the Common Software Databases. Common Software Databases contained bibliographic, legal status data, abstract data, national patent applications (A documents) and national patent specifications (B documents), translated claims of European Patents entered into force in the Republic of Lithuania
Other matters
N/A
V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF PATENT INFORMATION
Patent library: equipment, collection management, network of patent libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign patent 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).
The Library participates in the project of Integral Information System of the Libraries (LIBIS).
LTL is a member of Lithuanian Librarians’ Association (LLA) and Lithuanian Research Library Consortium (LRLC).
There are a center, 17 departments and 10 reading-rooms in the Library. The Library numbers 113 employees (85 of them are the professional librarians). We have branches in Kaunas, Klaipėda and Panevėžys.
The readers of the Library can use printings and documents in the reading rooms, in the lending rooms, in ILL and IILL. The necessary material is copied, printed, scanned, recorded on the discs etc. When searching for information, the readers may use traditional as well as computer catalogues. The information is provided orally, in written, via telephone, e-mail and fax.
The Library provides fee-paying services for contracted legal entities (organizations).
Since January 2013 Lithuanian Technical Library (LTL) has acquired the status of WIPO Depository Library in the Republic of Lithuania. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is the United Nations agency dedicated to the use of intellectual property (patents, copyright, trademarks, designs, etc.) as a means of stimulating innovation and creativity.
This initiative provides an excellent opportunity to enhance cooperation between LTL and WIPO in the dissemination of intellectual property information in Lithuania, raise awareness of WIPO’s activities and services and to emphasize the importance of intellectual property in promoting social and economic development. Upon agreement with WIPO, The State Patent Bureau of Lithuania and Lithuanian Technical Library the approval to set up WIPO Depository Library was achieved in November 2012.
49 WIPO depository libraries which comply with the obligations incumbent upon Depository Libraries have been created in 70 countries. Depository Libraries are set up in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Romania, and Slovakia.
Publications related to different business procedures and patent 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”, also there were participated in two exhibitions. In 2013 there were prepared 95 press releases and news.
In 2013 there was prepared an e-publication “The State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania Annual Review of Year 2012”, also announced the official statistics of 2012 and 12 official bulletins (gazettes) of the SPB
Office’s initiatives on providing foreign patent information in the local language(s) (e.g., machine translation tools, translation of abstracts)
In 2013, taking part in the project, executed by the EPO and Google, on the introduction of automatic translation system of patent documents, all the e-patents, submitted to the EPO in an electronic template – almost 10 000 – were digitized into the Lithuanian translations of the European patent definitions. Also 3 technical non-patent literature publications were developed in Lithuanian and English.
Cooperation with universities, research centers, 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 personnel organized more than ten seminars and conferences on the topic of protection of the EU and Lithuanian industrial property rights, developed and delivered a variety of themes on the subject, organized and participated in national and international exhibitions, developed and distributed more than one hundred of information reports, articles and publications on intellectual property issues and actively continued to enhance the dissemination of information through introduction and advancement of online services and databases.
Other activities
N/A
VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF PATENT INFORMATION
International exchange and sharing of patent information in machine-readable form, e.g., priority documents, bibliographic data, abstracts, search reports, full text information
The distribution of official patent publications of the SPB in foreign states and intergovernmental organisations
on the basis of mutual exchange has been effected by Lithuanian Technical Library.
Bibliographic, legal status data, abstracts in Lithuanian and English of Lithuanian patent applications and
patents, extracted from SPB Common Software Database, have been posted on EPO FTP sites prior to the actual publication date.
Scanned Patent Specifications (B documents) SPB sent to the Espacenet database. Lithuanian Patent
Applications (A documents) have been not available on the Espacenet database.
The bibliographic, legal status data on Lithuanian Patent Applications, PCT Applications, Lithuanian Patents and European Patents have been supplied to EPO to be included into INPADOC PFS, INPADOC PRS and Espacenet.
PCT Applications data have been also supplied to WIPO to be included into PATENTSCOPE® search service database.
Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to patent information
In June, November and December 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.
On 26 April 2013 the State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania, together with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), already for the third consecutive year, awarded the WIPO nomination "Best Young Inventor" to a competition winner in Lithuania. The aim of this award is to promote youth to become more active in the field of innovation and to draw attention of the creators to importance of intellectual property rights protection. This year, the honourable WIPO award was awarded to the designer programmer Mr Alexey Zaicevskij for invention related with the camera's rotation and stabilization mechanisms, which can be used in the light manned aircrafts.
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.
In 2013, participating in the project Federated Patent Register, executed by EPO, there was introduced a direct interface (called deep linking), and the legal status data of the national patents were made available in the European Patent Office online databases, i.e. the possibility to perform a patent search both in the European and the Lithuanian patent databases was implemented by a "one stop" principle.
In 2013, taking part in the project, executed by the EPO and Google, on the introduction of automatic translation system of patent documents, all the e-patents, submitted to the EPO in an electronic template - almost 10 000 - were digitized into the Lithuanian translations of the European patent definitions. Also 3 technical non-patent literature publications were developed in Lithuanian and English.
Assistance to developing countries
N/A
Other activities
N/A
VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS
| 1. | Classification is allotting one or more classification symbols (e.g., IPC symbols) to a patent application, either before or during search and examination, which symbols are then published with the patent application.
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| 2. | Preclassification is allotting an initial broad classification symbol (e.g., IPC class or subclass, or administrative unit) to a patent application, using human or automated means for internal administrative purposes (e.g., routing an application to the appropriate examiner). Usually preclassification is applied by the administration of an office.
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| 3. | Reclassification is the reconsideration and usually the replacement of one or more previously allotted classification symbols to a patent document, following a revision and the entry into force of a new version of the Classification system (e.g., the IPC). The new symbols are available on patent databases.
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