Annual Technical Report 2002 on Industrial Design Information Activities submitted by Czech Republic (SCIT/ATR/ID/2002/CZ)
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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. Evolution of registration activities
In 2002, 710 industrial design applications were filed, representing an increase of 3,8 % in comparison with 2001 (684 applications).
As of December 31, 2002, there were 468 pending applications. The majority of them were filed in 2002 (only 7 applications were from 2001).
In 2002, there were almost 3,5 industrial designs per application.
The most part of industrial design applications concerned packages and containers for the transport (95), furnishing (63), office equipment (50) and household goods (48). There were 287 foreign applications in 2002 representing an increase compared to 2001. The majority of foreign applications was from the USA (62) and Germany (48). In 2002, 423 applications from domestic applicants were filed (417 in 2001). In 2002, 560 industrial designs were registered (675 in 2001). As of December 31, 2002, there were 4,689 valid industrial designs in the Czech Republic, 2,657 of which belong to domestic holders, 558 to the USA, 418 to Germany, 187 to the Netherlands and 125 to Denmark.
The average time of industrial design application procedure was 8 months in 2002.
II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, and distribution of industrial design documents and of secondary sources of industrial design information, i.e., official gazettes
The new Act No. 207/2000 Coll. on Industrial Designs came into force on October 1, 2000. This Act harmonizes the industrial design protection in the Czech Republic with the Directive 97/71/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of October 13, 1998 on the legal protection of designs.
The Industrial Property Office of the Czech Republic carries out the substantive examination of industrial design applications. The subject of the application is not published during the examination procedure. Subjects of negatively settled applications are also never published (about 10% of cases).
Industrial design information is accessible in the reading room and in the Official Bulletin. The Official Bulletin of the Industrial Property Office (Vestnik UPV) is issued monthly on paper carrier, in two parts. Part A contains inventions, utility models, industrial designs and topographies of semiconductor products. Part B contains trademarks and appellations of origin.
As from No. 1/2000, the Official Bulletin is available on the web site of the Industrial Property Office as an electronic book in PDF format.
The standard contents of the chapter "Industrial Designs" in part A are the following:
- List of registered industrial designs (numerical series with classification symbols)
- Registered industrial designs arranged according to the classes of the Locarno Classification (announcement contents a representation and bibliographic data)
- List of owners of registered industrial designs provided with the number of the registration and its classification
- Official decisions and announcements
III. Matters concerning classifying, reclassifying and indexing of industrial design information according to the classification systems applied
- The 7th edition of the Locarno Classification is used since January 1, 1999.
- The new files are created according to each new edition; the files are not reclassified.
IV. Search file establishment and upkeep
Industrial design search file of the Office comprises the industrial design collection of the Czech Republic and Czechoslovakia and official bulletins of foreign offices containing registered industrial designs.
The file of industrial designs of the Czech Republic and Czechoslovakia comprises backfile from 1964. Information unit (the card) contains basic bibliographic data of the industrial design in the moment of decision concerning application and representation of the industrial design or its description if there is any.
In regards to the classification systems, building the file arranged according to the national classification was terminated and the new version of the file based on the Locarno Classification was introduced.
V. Activities in the field of computerized search systems for industrial designs
- The search industrial design database containing image information functions in the test operation. This database is accessible on-line on the web site of the Office. It contains registered industrial designs since 1982 to 2002. The retrospective file of the registered industrial designs for this database was created. The database contains bibliographic and figurative data of about 21,000 registered industrial designs.
- The administrative system of industrial designs in the application DISPO covering data since 1986 is used for the support of the industrial design application procedure. It contains data elements concerning applications and individual steps of procedure including decisions. Data are continuously updated. The database contains juridical status of individual registered industrial designs.
- The application for industrial designs is operated on the IBM server, operation system UNIX AIX, and on workstations with operation system Windows. The database system used is ORACLE 8i. The application is operated on-line in the Token-Ring network. It contains the register of industrial design applications, register of registered industrial designs, and register with the application procedure protocol.
- The database application supports also printouts for correspondence with applicants. The text editor used is MS WORD.
VI. Administration of industrial design services available to the public (relating to facilities, e.g., for lodging applications, registering designs, assisting clients with search procedures, obtaining official publications and registry extracts
An information centre functions during the hours of work of the Office. It provides the public with general information concerning industrial property protection and the applicants with necessary information.
In the public reading room, open practically during working hours, industrial design collections are available to the public. Personal assistance and consultations for beginners are carried out by the reading room staff. The register section supplies legal status information. The public can order the searches made by the Office's experts as the charged service.
VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of industrial design documentation and information
The Bulletin of the Czech IPO was distributed to 43 places abroad.
VIII. Matters concerning education and training including technical assistance to developing countries
- The Industrial Property Training Institute of the Czech Office carries out the educational, promotional and editorial activity of the Office. The industrial design matter forms part of the two years study and some short-term courses.
- The Czech IPO issues the magazine Industrial Property.
- In the framework of courses organized by the WIPO Worldwide Academy, the Office welcomed trainees from Lithuania and Kazakhstan.
IX. Other relevant matters