Annual Technical Report 2002 on Patent Information Activities submitted by Serbia and Montenegro (SCIT/ATR/PI/2002/YU)
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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
NOTE: The two-letter country code YU should be used for Serbia and Montenegro, formerly Yugoslavia, until the ISO 3166/MA has taken a final decision and the Standards and Documentation Working Group of the Standing Committee on Information Technology reaches a decision concerning the revision of WIPO Standard ST.3 and the two-letter code to represent Serbia and Montenegro.
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In the course of 2002, there occurred an increase in the number of applications for the protection of inventions in comparison to 2001. Applications for 1165 inventions were filed, so that in comparison to the previous year, the increase of the number of applications is 11.5%. In comparison to the previous year, the number of applications of domestic applicants (507) increased by 7.9%, and the number of applications from foreign applicants (658) increased by 14.4%. At the same time, 625 PCT applications entered the national phase, and that represents 53.7% of the total number of applications.
In the Federal Intellectual Property Office, as the receiving Office, 29 international applications were filed in 2002, which represents a decrease of 9.4% in comparison to the previous year.
In comparison to the previous year, the number of applications for the grant of patent increased by 8.7 %. The number of petty patent applications increased by 35.5% in comparison to the previous year, and was exactly 12.8% of the total number of applications filed.
Table I, in the attached document shows a survey of the applications filed for patents and petty patents in the last five years.
In the year 2002, 131 patents and 89 petty patents were registered. Table II of the attached document shows the number of registered patents and petty patents in the last five years.
The number of patent applications in the specified fields of art in comparison to the total number of patent applications filed and in comparison to the previous year is shown in the Table III of the attached document.
The percentage of patent applications filed from seven mentioned fields of art in comparison to the total number of filed patent applications is 69.8%. In comparison to 2001, it can be noted that the number of applications in the field of organic chemistry increased almost 13.0%. In the field of preparations for medicine, dental or toilet purposes the number of applications, in comparison to the previous year, increased by 48%.
The number of petty patent applications in the specified field of art in relation to the total number of filed petty patent applications and in comparison to the previous year is shown in Table IV of the attached document.
The percentage of filed petty patents from the six mentioned fields of art in relation to the total number of filed applications of petty patents is 61.1%.
II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, distribution and use of primary and secondary sources of patent information
The basic documents, which were printed in paper form in 2002, are the following:
- 7 issues (2100 copies) of the official journal, The Intellectual Property Gazette,
- 292 patent documents, from that number 126 belong to the Petty Patent,
- 349 patents certificates,
- 57,010 copies of different forms, instructions for patent applications and other needs of the Office,
- Section B of the VII edition of International Patent Classification (563 pages, 150 copies).
In 2002, the following publications were edited and printed:
"Protection of Copyright and Related Right", third edition, 170 pages, 200 copies,
"Patent Cooperation Treaty – Basic Instructions", first edition, 20 pages, 500 copies,
"What is a Patent", colored booklet, plastic cover, 1000 copies
"Information's Services of Intellectual Property Office", booklet, 120 copies
In the Intellectual Property Gazette there were published bibliographical data, abstracts and technical drawings (one characteristic drawing) of patent applications - patent document A. In 2002, 474 patent applications were published. After the publication in the Intellectual Property Gazette, the patent application is accessible for survey and coping on the request of the user in the Office.
Bibliographical data, the first patent claim and drawings for 131 registered patents (B) and 89 petty patents, were published in the Intellectual Property Gazette in 2002.
III. Matters concerning abstracting, classifying, reclassifying and indexing of technical information contained in patent documents
Patent documents (patent application A, patent B and petty patents) were classified according to IPC 7. Other classification systems were not used.
Parallel systems of indexing suffered no changes in regard to the report of the activities in 2000 and 2001.
Bibliographical data included in the internal database are used in the framework of the information system of the Office.
IV. Search file establishment and upkeep
Search reports were made according to the WIPO recommended standards and on the basis of available fund of paper documentation, INPADOC collection of microfiches, CD/DVD collections and Internet database. In 2002, our Office got from EPO missing CDs with patent documents for period 2000-2002, so we have completed all digital collections.
V. Activities in the field of computerized and other mechanized search systems
In the Office, the same databases for computerized and other mechanized search as in 2001 are used.
Our Office is in the process of joining the PRECES project. To this effect, some necessary preparations were made for entering into the mutual project of South-East European countries, after meeting with the delegation of the Hungarian Office and Arcanum company.
VI. Administration of the industrial property office library 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)
In 2002, at the Office public library , 571 requests for presentation of patent documents were processed. From that number, 231 requests were from patent examiners, 5 written requests were from users and 335 requests were from visitors to the library.
In 2002, we received 204 demands for search of patent documentation (38% according to the subject of invention and 62% according to the bibliographical data). The highest percentage of searched patent documentation, according to the technical field, belongs to pharmacy and technology (79%), machine engineering (15%), electronics (1%), building constructions (1%) and the rest (4%).
With the help of the experts in the Office, 183 demands for patent documentation search were resolved in order to establish the state of art for the benefit of external users (about 60% more than in the previous year).
All information supplied to internal users is free of charge, except for written requests.
VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of patent documentation and information
In 2002, the Office received patent documents from the following countries: AT (1149), CH (741), PL (2465) in paper form. On the digital carrier CD or DVD, the Office received patent documents from the following countries and the regional offices: DE(68546), EP-A and EP-B (405928), SI(799), RU(14430) and JP as published Patent Abstracts of Japan. In 2002, the Office received from EPO patent documents on CD/DVD, which were missing in the collections for the years 2000, 2001 and 2002.
In 2002, the Office forwarded 3616 YU documents of patents and petty patents to 16 countries.
Our Office received 261 patent bulletins from 24 countries and PCT Gazette whereas bulletins from 5 countries and PCT Gazette are on CD and the rest is in paper form. The Office sent 455 copies of The Intellectual Property Gazette to 49 countries.
The Office still has no electronic data carrier for the exchange of patent documents.
The exchange of patent documents and the filing of applications are still carried out on paper.
VIII. Other relevant matters concerning education and training in, and promotion of, the use of patent information, including technical assistance to developing countries
In 2002, 4 patent experts from the Office participated in the specialist seminars at the EPO. Two patent law experts were on the seminar about “Procedure on charge”, held in Munich from September 9 to 13. One patent examiner participated in the seminar about “Search and Examining Patent Application in the Field of Physics, Electronic and Mechanics”, held in Berlin from September 16 to 25. One patent examiner took part in the seminar about “Search and Examining Patent Application in the Field of Chemistry” held in Hag from September 30 to October 9.
The delegates of our Office took part in the following sessions organized by WIPO: The Second Session of Working Group on reform of the PCT, which was held in Geneva from April 15 to 19; Session of the Standing Committee on the Patent Law (SCP), which took place in Geneva from May 6 to 10; Seminar about New Technology and Search Techniques, held in Hag from June 25 to 28.
The Seminar “European Patent System and Yugoslavia” organized by EPO, was held in Belgrade from May 20 to 24. Participants were patent experts from the Office and patent attorneys.
Patent experts from the Office participated in the seminar “Examination Procedure on European Patent Application” organized by EPO for patent examiners, patent attorneys and other interested parties, in Belgrade from July 1 to 5.
WIPO's sub-regional seminar about Intellectual Property and SMEs was held in Belgrade from November 12 to 13. Participants were representatives of domestic SMEs and representatives of national offices of Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Macedonia. Besides the experts from WIPO, instructors at this seminar were patent experts from the Office and the representatives from the Government of the Republic of Serbia and Government of the Republic of Montenegro.
A WIPO national seminar about PCT was held in Belgrade in November 27 and 28 where participants were experts from the Office, Patent Attorneys, large enterprises representative and other interested parties.
Four different experts from the Office visited the Romanian Office, OSIM, with the aim of cooperating and introducing their: information system, data bases, patent examination procedure, patent collections and documentation organizing, and their experience with use of the PRECES program.
In 2002, cooperation between our Office and the Croatian Office for Intellectual Property was established.
In the frame of education and the promotion of patent information, six seminars for targeted groups and for the general public were held all around the country (Belgrade, Novi Sad, Leskovac).
During 2002, four patent examiners were engaged as court experts.
IX. Other relevant 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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