Annual Technical Report 2008 on Industrial Design Information Activities submitted by Republic of Moldova (SCIT/ATR/ID/2008/MD)
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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
384 applications for the registration of 1499 industrial designs were filed with the AGEPI in 2008. Of these, 101 (26.3%) applications were filed under the national procedure, including 417 (28%) industrial designs and under the Hague Agreement – 283 (73.7%) applications with 1082 (72%) industrial designs. The total number of filed applications decreased by 9 (2.3%) and that of industrial designs included therein increased by 28 (1.9%), compared with the year 2007. It should be mentioned that the number of applications and of industrial designs filed under the national procedure increased by 16 (18.8%), respectively – by 64 (18.1%) and of those filed under the Hague Agreement procedure decreased by 25 (8.1%), respectively – by 36 (3.2%).
In the period under review, the national applicants filed 74 applications (19.3 per cent of the total number), with 383 (25.6%) industrial designs covered therein, being attested a decrease of these indexes by 12 and, respectively, by 30.3 per cent, as compared with the previous year. The majority of applications – 72 (97%) and of industrial designs – 369 (96%) was filed by these applicants under the national procedure and only 2 applications (3%) with 14 (4%) industrial designs were filed under the Hague Agreement procedure.
The foreign applicants filed 310 applications with 1116 industrial designs, that is 80.7 and, respectively, 74.4 per cent of the total of filed ones, constituting by 5.8% and, respectively, by 5.2% less than in 2007. Most of them – 281 applications (90.6%) with 1068 (90.7%) industrial designs – were filed under the Hague Agreement procedure, under the national procedure being filed 29 (9.4%) applications including 48 (9.3%) industrial designs. The latter constitute, respectively, 28.7% and 11.5% from indexes relating to the national procedure.
Except for applications for registration, 547 applications for the renewal of registration of 1603 industrial designs were filed in 2008, close on the level of the previous year (554 and, respectively, 1644). The absolute majority of renewal applications – 496 (90.7%) proceeds from foreign applicants, of these 490 proceeding under the Hague Agreement.
For the space of the year 2008 there were subjected to substantive examination: 65 applications covering 319 industrial designs, filed under the national procedure; 301 international applications with 1057 industrial designs proceeded under the Hague Agreement.
88 registration certificates for 406 industrial designs, constituting by 15.4% fewer certificates and, respectively, by 38.1% more industrial designs compared with 2007, were issued in the year under review.
In the period under review, there were adopted decisions of renewal for 55% (506 from 922) of the international registrations of which term was supposed to expire in 2008 (by 11.7% more than in 2007) covering 1489 industrial designs and for circa 34% (55 from 161) of the national certificates of which term of validity was supposed to expire in 2008, for the latter ones being issued 52 renewal certificates (by 53% more than in the previous year) for 133 industrial designs.
Of the sum total of 1017 certificates of registration of industrial designs issued by AGEPI during the entire period of its activity, 613 (60%) were valid on December 31, 2008, including 209 renewed, which constitutes 34% of the valid certificates, and of the sum total of 5555 international registrations of industrial designs having obtained protection on the territory of the Republic of Moldova in the same period, there were valid 3471 (62.5%), including 2138 renewed, which constitutes 61.6% of the valid international registrations.
Statistical information on industrial designs is provided on the AGEPI site: http://www.agepi.md/en/statistica/desene.php
After entry into force of the new Law № 161-XVI of 12.07.2007 on the Protection of Industrial Designs, AGEPI elaborated the Regulations on Industrial Designs Filing, Examination and Registration Procedure, approved under the Republic of Moldova Government Decree No. 1496 of 29.12.2008. This normative act establishes the provisions of filing in an application for the protection of the industrial design, the necessary norms to be applied to the documents supposed to be annexed to the application, registration and examination procedures of the application, the examination of the comments and oppositions submitted by the third party, data published in the Official Bulletin of Industrial Property of the Republic of Moldova, as well as norms governing other related activities, such as renewal of the titles of protection, surrender of registration etc.
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 most important publications in the field of industrial design documentation are the following:
- The Official Bulletin of Industrial Property Protection (BOPI) – monthly publication (PDF format);
- The National Industrial Designs Register;
- The National Industrial Designs Applications Register.
BOPI includes Sections VI with information on industrial designs, from January 2000 onwards are available online via the AGEPI web site at www.agepi.md in portable document format (PDF).
Section VI contains:
- BA1L Applications for registration (bibliographic data and graphic reproduction);
- List of industrial designs applications containing a request on publication delay;
- FF4L List of registered industrial designs;
- FG4L List of industrial design certificates issued in …(date of issuing);
- ND4L List of renewal industrial designs;
- FG4L Numerical Index of industrial designs registered in the Republic of Moldova according to the Hague Agreement;
- FG4L Subject Index of industrial designs registered in the Republic of Moldova according to the Hague Agreement;
- ND4L List of industrial designs renewed in the Republic of Moldova according to the Hague Agreement.
Section VII contains various types of notices referring to all amendments occurred to the legal status of the protected industrial property objects (List of amendments, List of assignment agreements, Errata, FC9L List of rejected industrial designs, FA9L List of withdrawal industrial designs, MK4L List of industrial design certificates the term of validity of which expired, etc), etc.
As from 2002, searches related to industrial designs, published in BOPI, can be performed on-line via our web site www.agepi.md. The Collection contains graphic reproductions of the industrial designs and bibliographic data of the products.
III. Matters concerning classifying, reclassifying and indexing of industrial design information according to the classification systems applied
Republic of Moldova became a state party to the Locarno Agreement Establishing an International Classification for Industrial Designs (1968) on December 1, 1997.
The Agency uses the International Classification for Industrial Designs since 1994. All the documents are classified according to the Locarno Classification.
The classification symbols (the 8th edition of the Classification) of an application are allotted by the applicant. It is up to the Agency to afterwards check, and eventually to correct, the classification symbols.
The full texts (Romanian and Russian) of the 9th edition of the Locarno Classification (as in force on January 1, 2009) were published in BOPI, no.12/2008.
The classification is used for the novelty examination, for search purposes and for statistics.
IV. Search file establishment and upkeep
During daily practice the examiners have at their disposal the following databases:
- National automated searchable database “Industrial Design”, supporting a number of search fields;
- International applications received in the International Design Bulletin (paper form and CD-ROM);
- Card - files of industrial designs grouped by categories of the Locarno Classification, of the following countries: BY, BG, HR, MK, LT, TJ, UZ;
- Collection of FI, RO, RU, UA, HU, SK, GE, SI, EE, CZ applications received in the Design Bulletins (paper form, CD-ROM and searchable database); OHIM, UK (searchable database).
The searches cover a period of 15 years for the collection of industrial designs registered under the national procedure and - 20 years for the collection of industrial designs registered under the Hague Agreement.
Moreover, the manual paper search files consist of special books, periodicals, booklets, and a number of other lists and sources. The examiner’s search files are updated on a regular basis.
V. Activities in the field of computerized search systems for industrial designs
In 2002 the interface for on-line searches in Data Base “Industrial Design” available in Romanian, English and Russian, was put into operation. At present, the “Industrial designs” Data Base contains information on the applications, published in BOPI, filed from 1993 up to date and on the registered objects. The users have access to the bibliographic data and images of industrial designs.
All examiners have access to the Internet at their desks.
In 2004 a Data Base, including the international applications filled under the Hague System and designating the Republic of Moldova was elaborated. This data base is used as a Register and for examination procedure without being used for examination novelty.
VI. Administration of industrial design information products and 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)
The Intellectual Property Information Retrieval Center (IP IRC) was created on January 1st, 2008, on the basis of the AGEPI Library, which took over its fund and information functions.
The IP IRC functions simultaneously as an in-house and public library and is open to the public during 5 days (except Saturday and Sunday) from 9:00 to 16:00. All the received documents are registered, classified and grouped for storage purpose.
The main information sources of the IP IRC collection are the official publications of the AGEPI, Official gazettes and literature (normative, methodical, reference books, dictionaries), periodicals.
On December 31, 2008, the information collection of the IP IRC counted 25796782 document copies, including: books and booklets – 5118 copies; serial and periodical publications (journals, newspapers, official bulletins) – 40541 copies; documents on electronic carrier – 25742839 copies; national documents – 8284 copies.
Due to the new acquisitions, the electronic catalogue of the IP IRC database was completed with the bibliographic descriptions of 1085 titles (DB “BOOKS” – with 765 registrations and DB “IP ART” – with 320 articles from the periodical editions and collections of scientific materials.
In 2008, the main ways of completing IP IRC collection, remained the same – the bilateral exchange with homologous offices from abroad, subscription to the specialized periodicals, acquisition of the literature by means of libraries, publishing houses, book fairs, donations etc.
The AGEPI Library cooperates intensively with 56 territorial Libraries and 37 foreign libraries of Patent Offices abroad to which the IP information (official gazette) and other literature in this field is furnished regularly for further dissemination information in field of IP in the territory.
The AGEPI IP IRC has a general reading room and a specialized PC room. The total area constitutes 125 sq. m.
In the year 2008, by the Center’s services benefited 1263 persons, of which 271 new users. Almost 28 thousands of documents were borrowed to readers. At the same time, the beneficiaries were provided 552 free consultations on use of electronic databases, search in the document array of the Center, application of the IPC Classification in the documentary search process etc.
In advertisement of users, it was monthly presented on the AGEPI web site www.agepi.md – the information on the DB Internet addresses in the field of IP, and the information on the new acquisitions in the IP IRC collection.
VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of industrial design documentation and information
During the year, the IP IRCenter rendered methodological assistance to more public libraries, including to those of the State Teachers’ Training University “A.Russo” from Bălţi, The International Free University of Moldova, the State University of Physical Training and Sports, the Public Law Library.
In collaboration with the Association of librarians of Moldova, IP IRC contributed to the promotion and dissemination of IP information by organizing book, CD and DVD exhibitions, specialized seminars, round tables, initiation courses on bibliographic information issues, competitions, both in the IP IRC premises and outside, as follows:
• Exhibition of AGEPI publications and launching of the magazine of IP „Intellectus” , new series at the XVII-th edition of the International Book Fair organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the National Library;
• Open Days with the main title „Intellectual property in the service of the whole society” and the book fair on the most relevant publications in IP field available at IP IRC. The actions at issue joined the program of the „Right to know 2008”, organized by the „Access – Info” Center;
• Round table with the generic „Information sources in the field of intellectual property”, organized at the Library of the State University of Physical Training and Sports, etc.
An ample information dissemination activity was carried out within the national exhibitions „ExpoVin Moldova”, „Cominfo”, „ Beauty”, „Moldconstruct, Moldenergy”, „ArtExpo”, 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)
For the space of the year 2008, the AGEPI personnel participated in the following international events related to industrial designs activity:
1. International Symposiums “Protection of the community design” and “Protection of the industrial designs and utility models in Romania”, organized by the State Office for Inventions and Trademarks of Romania (OSIM), in Tulcea, Romania;
2. The 12th edition of the International; Scientific and Practical Conference on Actual Problematic issues of IP Protection, organized by the State Department of Intellectual Property of Ukraine in cooperation with WIPO and EPO, in Yalta, Ukraine;
3. Training program „Design and Innovation policy in Developing Countries”, organized by the United Nations University Maastricht Economic and social Research and Training center on innovation and Technology located in Maastricht, the Netherlands;
4. The 20th session of the Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications (SCT), organized by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), in Geneva, Switzerland.
On the other hand, in the year under review, AGEPI provided for, independently or in common with other institutions and organizations, the organization of 27 practical-scientific, methodical-information and education manifestations: seminars, symposia, and conferences, such as following:
• The 10th edition of the Annual Scientific Practical Symposium “AGEPI Readings”;
• Training Courses for the specialists from research & development sector on commercialization of scientific results, organized in common with the Science&Technology Center of Ukraine;
• Sub regional Symposium “Training and Upgrading in the field of intellectual property”, organized in Chisinau by the WIPO with AGEPI and the Ministry of Education and Youth of the Republic of Moldova.
In March 2-8, 2008, within the AGEPI, has been organized an exchange of experience in the field of industrial design examination and protection, with the representatives of OSIM.
Within the 7th edition of the national exhibition “Made in Moldova”, organized under the patronage of the Government of the Republic of Moldova, AGEPI organized the Round Table “Aspects on the protection of industrial designs in the Republic of Moldova”, within which there were approached the provisions on the new Law on the protection of Industrial Designs, as well as the practical aspects of registration and observance of rights in industrial designs.