Annual Technical Report 2010 on Trademark Information Activities submitted by Estonia (CWS/ATR/TM/2010/EE)
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.
I. Evolution of registration activities
Changes experienced in terms of application filings and registrations with respect to the previous year
1386 trademark registration applications were filed in 2010, which is about 5% more than last year (1317 applications in 2009). The number of applications filed by Estonian applicants has increased a bit. If there were 1043 applications filed in 2009, then in 2010 there were 1067, which is 2,2% more. International trademark registrations designating Estonia numbered 1746 (1955 in 2009). There were 11% less international registrations than last year. In total 3132 trademarks were filed for legal protection (3272 in 2009). A falling tendency that began already in 2004 due to Estonia’s accession to the European Union continued in 2010. The falling is not as big as in the previous years and the number of national applications has even increased a little, but altogether there were still 4% less applications than last year.
At the end of the year 698 734 Community trademarks were valid in Estonia, including 430 trademarks from Estonia, 29 593 registered national trademarks and 33 046 international trademarks with legal protection extended to Estonia.
The Trademark Department rendered 4196 decisions – 1615 for national applications and 2581 for international registrations, which is about 3% more than in 2009 (4083 decisions). Estonian applicants filed 38 international trademark registration applications for forwarding to WIPO (45 in 2009). Among the countries designated for protection, Latvia and Lithuania were the first, followed by Russia, Finland, Sweden and Germany. In about 20% of the applications the European Union was designated.
Trends or areas experiencing rapid changes with respect to the previous year
In 2010 applications from the EU member states made up 69% of the total of trademarks, including 34% from Estonian applicants. Among the EU member states Germany is the most interested in gaining legal protection in Estonia. Applications and international registrations from Germany form 6,4% of the total of applications, followed by France (4,5%) and Poland (2,3%). Of other states Russia (7%), Switzerland (5,3%), the USA (4,4%) and China (4,3%) were also interested.
The most popular goods for which legal protection was applied in 2010 were pharmaceutical preparations (6,8%), followed by foodstuffs (5,4%), electrical and scientific apparatus (5,3%), cosmetics, printed products and clothes (each 4%).
The most popular services were advertising, business management and office functions (8,6%), followed by education, training, entertainment, cultural and sports activities (5%), scientific and technological research, design and development of computer hard- and software (3,7%).
URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide statistics related to trademarks
http://www.epa.ee/client/default.asp?wa_id=565&wa_object_id=1&wa_id_key=
II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, and distribution of secondary sources of trademark information, i.e., trademark gazettes
Publishing, printing, copying techniques
The official publication of the Estonian Patent Office is the Estonian Trademark Gazette, published under the Trademark Act. The Gazette contains the text and reproductions of all trademark applications published for opposition, all trademarks that have been registered, all registrations that have been amended, renewed, expired or cancelled.
Registered trademarks are published in the Estonian Trademark Gazette twice – first, after the decision on registration of the trademark in Part I and second, after the entry of a trademark in the register of trademarks and service marks in Part III. International registrations are published for appeal in Part II of the Gazette.
The Estonian Trademark Gazette is published 12 times a year. The Estonian Trademark Gazette of the Estonian Patent Office is available also electronically
http://www.epa.ee/default.asp?wa_id=576
Main types of announcements of the Office in the field of trademark information
The Estonian Patent Office continued to issue methodological guides on legal protection of industrial property.
The Estonian Patent Office homepage at www.epa.ee was currently updated. The homepage enables access trademark registration information both in Estonian and English. It also contains all legal acts, regulations and international agreements by the Government of the Republic and Minister of Economic Affairs, and other legislation as well as material on legal protection of trademarks, relevant links, current news and the public databases.
For those who are interested, including the Customs Authorities, Police and Commercial Register, the Trademark Database is available on the Internet. This contains data about registered and pending trademarks, as well as international registrations designating Estonia. The database is updated once a week.
The examiners of the Trademark Department provide consultations on the issues related to trademarks in the office, by phone and e-mail. 105 people were given consultations of about 54 hours in 2010. Presentations on trademarks were made at the regular trainings in the Office and also on the intellectual property seminars organized by Tartu Art College and Tartu City Government.
In 2010 the seminars held in the classroom of the Patent Office played an essential role. Namely, the Small-Sized Enterprise Support Division arranged 8 seminars in the classroom (4 on the legal protection of inventions and 4 on registering trademarks). In total 143 people took part in them. Demand for such seminars is also high.
URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide access to online trademark gazettes and to other sources of trademark information, including download of bulk trademark data
The Estonian Trademark Gazette of the Estonian Patent Office is available also electronically
http://www.epa.ee/default.asp?wa_id=576
III. Matters concerning classifying, reclassifying and indexing of trademark information
Classification and reclassification activities; Classification systems used, e.g., International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (Nice Classification), International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks (Vienna Classification), other classification (please indicate whether goods and services for the registration of marks and whether the figurative elements of marks are classified by your Office and, if so, which classification(s) is (are) used)
International Classifications (Nice Classification, Vienna Classification) of Goods and Services for the purpose of the registration of marks are used.
Before filing a registration application with the Patent Office, it is possible to submit an enquiry on registered and pending trademarks and to use the database of trademarks via the Internet which also includes international registrations of trademarks designating the Republic of Estonia.
Use of electronic classification systems to check the classification symbols furnished by an applicant and which are contained in the lists of goods and/or services
International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks used in the Estonian Patent Office (in Estonian)
http://www.epa.ee/client/default.asp?wa_id=831&wa_id_key=
Bibliographic data and processing
WIPO Standard St. 60 is used for bibliographic data coding.
IV. Trademark manual search file establishment and upkeep
The Estonian Patent Office does not use the manual search files.
V. Activities in the field of computerized trademark search systems
In-house systems (online/offline)
The databases of the office are the core subject of the information system. These databases are administered by the Common Software (CS). CS is a system with client server architecture, based on the database software Informix and operation system UNIX. Automated data entry software SPIRIT-MECA is also integrated to CS. To facilitate trademark examination procedure the software ACSEPTO of figurative and verbal searches is in use. The search base is quite large containing data of trademarks valid in Estonia and Community trademarks, also data of the emblems, official control and warranty signs and names of international intergovernmental organizations under protection in compliance with Article 6ter of Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. In cooperation with the European Patent Organization there is a direct connection (Patnet2) that enables the examiners to use the databases of EPO in their work.
Several e-services are available at our homepage. The portal of electronic filing of trademarks has been accessible since April 2007, in 2008 software for the electronic filing of patent, utility model and industrial design applications was added, as well as software for filing the Estonian-language patent specifications of the European patents validated in Estonia. So digitally signed applications can be filed without coming to the Office. The portal is available at the address online.epa.ee. In addition, the services of the databases of electronic searches have been available on the web page of the Estonian Patent Office (www.epa.ee) for a long time. Starting from 25 October 2010 it has been possible to look at the Estonian trademark applications on the international trademark search portal TMView (www.tmview.europa.eu). At present the portal enables free access to the trademark applications and registrations of 11 intellectual property organizations.
External databases
There is also possibility to use CTM-online via web page of the Estonian Patent Office.
Equipment used (hardware, including the types of terminal and network used, and software), carriers used
In 2010 the Patent Office had 80 computer workplaces, supplied with the required software, external devices and means for data communication. There were 11 server computers for the common serving of work computers connected to the Internet. These means form a closely integrated system and it is essential in the everyday work of the office that it functions without failures.
VI. Administration of trademark information products and services available to the public (relating to facilities, e.g., for lodging applications, registering trademarks, assisting clients with search procedures, obtaining official publications and registry extracts)
Planning, administration, automation, security
The computerised Estonian trademark database (compiled at the Patent Library) contains registered marks and published applications (both national and international) and it can be exploited at the reading room of the Patent Library. Search is carried out by the bibliographer and the customers pay a moderate price for the computerised services.
The Patent Library renders services using the following CD/DVD-ROM databases:
ROMARIN (WO), also available via the website of WIPO,
US TRADEMARKS BIB
TRADEMARKS ASSIGNMENTS
TRACES
USAMARK
In-house online access is established to the commercial databases Questel-Orbit via the Internet connection. This database is charged on the bases of annual fee and on the bases of usage.
URLs of web pages of the Office's website for electronic filing of trademark applications
https://online.epa.ee/
URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide information on business procedures such as: filing, publication, examination and registration procedures related to trademarks; opposition and appeal procedures related to trademarks; etc.
http://www.epa.ee/client/default.asp?wa_id=399&wa_object_id=1&wa_id_key=
(in Estonian)
URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide a description of information products and services offered by the Office (e.g., trademark search service(s) and trademark databases), as well as information on how to access and utilize them
http://www.epa.ee/client/default.asp?wa_id=916&wa_object_id=1&wa_id_key=
VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of trademark documentation and information
International or regional cooperation in the exchange of trademark information, e.g., in the form of official gazettes
The Estonian Patent Library has agreements with 26 trademark offices on exchange of trademark gazettes.
Exchange of machine-readable information
We send information on International registrations to the WIPO so that the lists (Rule 16(1) a, b, grant of protection etc.) are generated in Common Software;
Data of national trademarks to OHIM into TMView search system;
OHIM data according to the projects (seniority, euroclass, etc.)
VIII. Matters concerning education and training, including technical assistance to developing countries (please indicate URLs of web pages of the Office’s website wherever appropriate)
Promotional activities (seminars, exhibitions, visits, advertising, etc.)
2010 was the fifth year of operation for the Small-Sized Enterprise Support Division, whose main task is to arrange events for entrepreneurs and the public in order to rise their awareness about the legal protection of industrial property, and also to ensure that the Patent Office attends events (lectures, presentations, etc.) introducing intellectual property arranged by other institutions.
The year brought along a number of changes, and was full of work and successful for the Division. Many activities undertaken in the previous years continued.
Training courses for national and foreign participants
In 2010 the seminars held in the classroom of the Patent Office played an essential role. Namely, the Small-Sized Enterprise Support Division arranged 8 seminars in the classroom (4 on the legal protection of inventions and 4 on registering trademarks). In total 143 people took part in them. Demand for such seminars is also high.
In addition, cooperation with other institutions is still important for the Small-Sized Enterprise Support Division. For example in March a seminar was arranged for the students of Tartu Art College in order to rise their knowledge about intellectual property. 50 people took part in the seminar.
Cooperaton with Tallinn City Enterprise continued successfully in 2010. On 6–7 October there was a subsequent Tallinn Entrepreneurship Day where the Patent Office participated in cooperation with the Estonian Patent Information Centre. On both days the Patent Office was there with an info desk, providing materials and publications on intellectual property. The examiners could also be consulted. In the framework of Tallinn Entrepreneurship Day a seminar Invention and Cooperation took place.
Besides the above-mentioned the Patent Office in cooperation with Tartu City Government arranged an info day for entrepreneurs Intellectual Property in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Tartu. The info day took place on 27 April and was dedicated to celebrating the World Intellectual Property Day.
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 trademarks
http://www.epa.ee/client/default.asp?wa_id=456&wa_object_id=1&wa_id_key=
(mainly in Estonian)
contain the Annual Report of the Office
http://www.epa.ee/client/default.asp?wa_id=877&wa_object_id=1&wa_id_key=
contain trademark-related news regarding the Office
http://www.epa.ee/rss.asp?wa_site_id=2