SCIT.ATR.PI.2004.SK

Annual Technical Report 2004 on Patent Information Activities submitted by Slovakia (SCIT/ATR/PI/2004/SK)

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. Evolution of patent activities

Changes experienced in terms of application filings and grants with respect to the previous year

Patents

There were 453 patent applications filed in 2004 that is decrease by 72.5 % in comparison with the year 2003. Decrease in the number of patent applications is connected with accession of the Slovak Republic to the European Patent Convention (most of the applicants using the PCT system for filing of patent applications prefers the possibility to protect their inventions by the European patent in the territory of the Slovak Republic since July 1, 2002). The PCT applications form 44.2 % (200) of all applications. At the same time, the number of PCT applications grew by 16.2 % to the figure of 99 053, in which the Slovak Republic is the designated country. The total number of patent applications filed by domestic applicants increased by 1 %. The largest share in the number of patent application filed by foreign applicants (238) have the USA (58), the Czech Republic (32) and Germany (24).

In the year 2004, three European applications were filed.

555 patents were granted that is a decrease by 14.9 % in comparison with the year 2003.

There were 11 application of SPC’s filed in 2004. All of them are from foreign applicants, the most number is from the USA - 4 applications. There were 9 SPC's granted.

On December 31, 2004 there were 4,037 valid patents in the Slovak Republic.

Utility models

There were 348 utility model applications filed in the Office in 2004. This number has increased by 3 % in comparison with the previous year. Similarly, the number of applications filed by the Slovak applicants increased by 4.1 % (282 applications). The share of the Slovak applicants in total number of 348 applications is 81 %. A greater growth occurred in number of registered utility models (358). Increase by 31.1 % is mainly caused by domestic applicants which creates 76.5 % of all applicants.

A significant increase 33.3 % has been recorded in the number of registered utility models of foreign applicants.

On December 31, 2004 there were 1,761 valid utility models in the Slovak Republic.

In comparison with the statistics of the years 1999 - 2004, there are following results in patent and in utility model area:

patents_tab - Statistical data of patents models_tab - Statistical data of utility models

Trends or areas experiencing rapid changes with respect to the previous year

Patents

Application in the field of organic chemistry (18 %) and medical, dental and hygienic preparations (15 %) have the largest share.

Utility models

Almost 35 % registered utility models are from the branch of civil engineering and transport.

II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, distribution and use of primary and secondary sources of patent information

Publishing, printing, copying (main types of publications of the office in the field of patent information, etc.)

Main types of official publications:

Official Gazette “Vestník ÚPV SR“

Patent documents (codes of documents according to the WIPO ST.16):

- published patent applications A3
- patent specifications B6
- supplementary protection certificates without code
- translations of patent claims of European patent application T1
- corrected translations of patent claims of European patent application T2
- translations of European patent specification T3
- corrected translations of European patent specification T4
- translations of modified wording of European patent specification T5
- corrections of patent documents A8, A9, B8, B9, U8, U9, T8, T9

Patents and utility models information forms part of the Official Gazette - “ Vestník ÚPV SR”, covering all industrial property rights in one publication. Paper form issued monthly is published in standard size A4, paperback and usually in cca 300 pages. In 2004 the Gazette had a circulation of 250 copies, of which 107 were distributed by subscription. Other copies were sent free of charge to patent information centres and contact and information points of the IPO, within the frame of industrial property information exchange to foreign offices and as the statutory copies according to the act as well. Electronic form of Official Gazette, available to the public in the Internet free of charge, contains searchable data.

The following numbers of documents were published in the Official Gazette in 2004:

1106 patent applications
535 patent specifications
329 utility models
2 application for granting SPC's
16 granted SPC's
4 translations of patent claims of European patent application
22 translations of European patent specification

Distribution

The Office distributed Slovak patent specifications to patent information centres and contact and information points of the IPO to build the territorial fund of the national patent documentation and to the IPO of the Czech Republic within the frame of exchange as well. Slovak patents published on ESPACE-PRECES CD-ROM are being distributed by the Hungarian Patent Office to foreign patent offices within the frame of mutual patent information exchange. The Official Gazette “Vestník ÚPV SR” has been distributed within the frame of mutual exchange to 32 countries including organizations EPO and WIPO last year.

Main types of announcements of the Office in the field of patent information

The Gazette contains patent announcements arranged in following main chapters:

- list of published patent applications (numerical series with classification symbols)
- bibliographic data and abstracts of published patent applications with an image, where available (arranged according to the International Patent Classification)
- list of granted patents (numerical series with classification symbols)
- bibliographic data of granted patents (arranged according to the International Patent Classification)
- list of translations of patent claims of European patent applications (numerical series with classification symbols)
- bibliographic data of translations of patent claims of European patent applications (arranged according to the International Patent Classification)
- list of translations of European patent specifications (numerical series with classification symbols)
- bibliographic data of translations of European patent specifications (arranged according to the International Patent Classification)
- bibliographic data of published applications for granting the supplementary protection certificates (arranged according to the document numbers)
- bibliographic data of granted supplementary protection certificates (arranged according to the document numbers)
- list of registered utility models (numerical series with classification symbols)
- bibliographic data of registered utility models (arranged according to the
International Patent Classification)
- official decisions (revocation, cancellation, etc.)
- assignments of rights and other changes of owners
- list of registered utility models with the extended term of validity
- bibliographic data of registered utility models with the extended term of validity
- registration of licencing contracts in respect of patents and author’s certificates
- termination of licencing contracts
- the right of lien
- corrections of names, addresess, dates and mistakes

Mass storage media used (paper, microforms, optical storage, etc.)

Patent documents are available in paper form in the Office’s library and, in addition, patent specifications are available also in electronic form in the Office’s web site as well as on ESPACE-PRECES CD-ROM (Patents from the Region of Eastern and Central European States). As an index to this fulltext CD-ROM is ESPACE ACCESS PRECES (complete bibliographic information) used.

Word processing and office automation

Word processing and office automation is ensured by application over the patent and utility models database.

(New) techniques used for the generation of patent information (printing, recording, photocomposing, etc.)

MS Office 97, QuarkXpress 5.0 for Windows and Corel Draw 10, Photoshop 6.0, FineReader 6.0, Adobe Acrobat 5.05 CE, SLEX99 – Lexicon of Slovak Language are used for the data processing; the photocomposing and printing is carried out by the Office.

The Desk-Top Publishing technology is used for data and images processing, for the Gazette and first pages of the patent documents.

III. Matters concerning abstracting, classifying, reclassifying and indexing of technical information contained in patent documents

Abstracting, reviewing, translating

Abstracts printed on the first pages of patent documents as well as a part of official announcements are revised and in case of need corrected by the Office’s experts before publication of application. Abstracts appear only in case of patent application publications in the Official Gazette. The English translation of abstracts are being sent to the EPIDOS for the ESPACE-PRECES CD-ROM production and publication in the database esp@cenet.

Classification and reclassification activities; Classification system used, e.g., International Patent Classification (IPC), other classification (please indicate whether or not patent documents are classified by your Office and, if so, which classification is used)

The applications are classified and reclassified by office´s experts according to the International Patent Classification - Int.Cl.7. The WIPO Standards ST.8 and ST.10/C are also used for these purposes. Reclassifying is carried out before granting of patent.

Hybrid system indexing

For indexing of technical information contained in patent documents the hybrid systems of the IPC are used.

Bibliographic data and full-text processing for search purposes

The WIPO Standard ST. 9 is used for patent and utility model bibliographic data coding in all relevant outcomes or records. All bibliographic data are being processed in electronic database form. The fully searchable data are updated and made available to the public daily in the Internet.

Digitalisation

In 2004, the Office continued in digitalisation of the national patent documentation. The project of retrospective digitalisation of patent documents from the former Czechoslovakia, in co-operation with the IPO of the Czech Republik and the EPO, was completed in the first half of the previous year. Digitalisation has continued by processing of full texts of utility models into electronic fulltext format. Identification was done by means of OCR Fine Reader software and the results were exported to the doc format. The same method started to be used for procession of full texts of national published patent applications and patent application without priority.

IV. Search file establishment and upkeep

File building

The patent documentation search file used by the patent examiners and the technical public contains patent documents from 26 countries, the EPO, the WIPO and the OAPI, patent gazettes from 33 countries, including the EPO and the WIPO and the non-patent literature (53 titles technical periodicals and 8,099 titles special monographies).

Updating

Updating of patent documentation search file is performed regularly according to current technical possibilities.

Storage, including mass storage media

The basis of the patent fund forms the collection stored on the paper medium (cca 10 millions documents). However the majority of the patent documentation is currently received on electronic carriers. In 2004 the regular annual accession of optical discs reached 923 pieces of optical discs with full texts and bibliographic information concerning the patent documents.

Documentation from other offices maintained and/or considered part of the available search file

In 2004, within the frame of mutual exchange, the IPO SR received patent and utility model gazettes from the following states and organizations: AT, AU, BA, BG, BR, CH, CZ, DE, EE, EG, ES, FI, FR, GB, HR, HU, IT, KG, LT, LV, MD, MK, NO, PL, PT, RO, RU, Sl, SM, UA, US, EPO a WIPO.

IPO SR is maintaining the patent documentation collection stored in paper form, which forms, as a part of PCT minimum documentation, the basis of search files within the range:
- from 1950 to 1990: the documentation DD (from 1958), DE (from 1951), CH (from 1944), FR (from 1945), GB (from 1967), PL (from 1963), SU (from 1941), US (from 1960) and the documentation EPO (from 1978) a WIPO (from 1978)
- from 1919 to the present: national documentation SK and formal CS
- from 1993 to the present: national documentation CZ

V. Activities in the field of computerized and other mechanized search systems

In-house systems (online/offline)

Office is keeping and creating national search database on granted patents, published patent applications and registered utility models. Nowadays, selected data are also available through Internet.

It is possible to carry out searches according to bibliographic data in all the databases used for granted patents, published patent applications and registered utility models.

Following search CD-ROM are used through the local CD-ROM network by the
Ultranet 2000 system:

ESPACE - ACCESS EP - A
ESPACE - ACCESS EP - B
ESPACE – ACCESS – EPC (EUROPE)
ESPACE – ACCESS - PRECES
ESPACE – ACCESS - RUSSIA
ESPACE – BULLETIN
PCT Gazette
PCT Impact
GLOBALPAT
PAJ
ESPACE - LEGAL
IPC CLASS 2000
WIPO Handbook
List of Blue sheets Espace CD ROM
ECLA Classification in PDF format
legal and economic information, encyclopedia and statistics
translating dictionaries

External databases

Searches carried out in the STN on-line service, access to EPOQUE, DERWENT, INPADOC, CAS and the like databases.

Using the esp@cenet Internet database and other free available databases of the national offices (e.g. Czech patent and utility models database) and WIPO.

Administrative management systems (e.g., register, legal status, statistics, administrative support, etc.)

The Office automation management system contains patent, european patents, utility models and PCT registry (data since 1993 – patents, data since 2003 - european patents, data since 1992 – utility models and data since 1995 – PCT applications filed with IPO SR as a receiving office)using “INVENTIO” software.

Administrative management system based on Lotus Domino.

Equipment used (hardware, including the types of terminal and network used, and software), carriers used

Fast ETHERNET 1000/100/10 Mbit/s, WINDOWS 2000 for servers; workstations PC Pentium, Windows 2000, HP Unix for database, Informix Dynamic Server 9.21, Citrix Metaframe 1.8, SAN HP MSA 1500 CS.

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)

Planning, administration, automation, security, buildings

In 2004, the office’s reading room has been visited by 1.828 users and 1.307 of it were from the public. In total there were provided 7.657 borrowings of patent and other literature made available to the public and 27.999 copies of patent documents for the manual and computer search purposes, as well as copies from technical periodicals and other associated and non-patent literature were made. In 2004 there were performed 332 patent searches, 2.923 trademark searches and 43 design searches based on 1.125 written and 118 personally requests.

The office’s reading room including the search workstation opens daily from 8:00 to 15:00 except the Wednesday (8:00-16:00).

All online services and other basic information are available via Internet address of IPO
SR: www.upv.sk.

Collecting, acquisitions, preparation

In the last year were processed 16.651 patent documents in paper form and 923 optical discs containing full texts and bibliographic information relating to patent documents as well to made them available for search purposes. The entire acquisition of patent documents amounted to1 518.475 documents, out of which 1 501.824 entries represented documents in electrical form. In addition, there were stored 9.008 first pages of Slovak and Czech patent documents according to additional IPC symbols into the systematical fund. Other new entries, for instance Official Gazettes of the foreign offices (37) and miscellaneous associated literature, were processed on the monthly basis.

The patent literature (patent documentation and official gazettes) were acquired within the frame of mutual exchange and the non-patent literature mostly by purchase and by subscription or as a gift.

Interlibrary lending, resource sharing, networks of patent libraries in the country

In 2004, the IPO SR has continued in its co-operation with four patent information centres and six contact and information points of the IPO SR, which were established in 2003 under assistance of the EPO for the purpose of raising awareness about IP rights. The centres and points in the State Scientific Library in Banská Bystrica and Košice and other regional and district libraries in Zvolen, Žilina, Prešov, Trenčín, Trnava a Nitra as well as in the Slovak National Library in Martin and Slovak Centre of Scientific a Technical Information in Bratislava were provided with equipment (personal computers, access to Internet etc.) according to bilateral programm of co-operation with EPO. Training courses relating to how to make available industrial property information to the public were also provided by the Office to the library’s staff.

Patent information centres

The main goal of patent information centres is to provide complex information services in the field of patent, trademark and industrial design information, search services, consultation and metodical assistance concerning the searching of information, making copies of required patent documents, printing records from electronic form etc. Every patent information centre serve as a contact and information point.

Contact and information points

The main goal of contact and information points of the Office is to inform the public about where can apply for protection of the results of creative activity, and particularly to inform the general public about the existence of the national institution, which protects immaterial goods, industrial property.

The Office supported the activity of centres and contact and information points by regular sending Slovak patent specifications in paper also on optical discs (fulltext ESPACE-PRECES CD-ROM, bibliographic data thereof on ESPACE ACCESS PRECES ) as well as announcements concerning industrial property rights in the Official Gazette form, all information materials and recources made available to the public, publications published by Office, information pamphlets, documents and forms relating to applying for protection of industrial property rights, access to office’s databases via Internet etc.

Information and consultancy points for innovations

In 2004, the IPO SR established four information and consultancy points of the IPO SR for innovations-Innoinfo in Banská Bystrica, Martin, Žilina and Čadca to support small and medium entrepreneurs, or technical universities. The new information and consultancy points will provide the basic information on industrial protection.

Information services available to the public (including computerized services and search files contained in libraries remote from your Office and patent information posted by your Office on the World Wide Web)

The library provides following services to the public:

- lending service (patent documents, Gazettes) in the reading room
- reprographic services upon request or on the place
- sale of special monographies and periodical publications (“Intellectual Property”, “Vestník ÚPV SR”)
- interlibrary lending service
- international interlibrary lending service
- searches: state of the art, patent families, bibliographic data upon request in written or on-line form
- monitoring of the state of selected technical fields upon request (permanent sending of documents)
- CD-ROM workstations available in the reading room
- methodical and consultation assistance for the public

Patent information on the World Wide Web:

- general information
- information about Office activities (seminars, training courses, etc.)
- application guide and forms
- relevant laws
- Annual Reports
- selected registry data
- patent specifications (meanwhile since 1993)
- Official Gazette
- order forms (searches, non-patent literature)
- products and services
- IPC (7-th edition)

New workplace of the IPO SR

The Office has opened its new workplace in the building of the Ministry of Finance in Bratislava. It offers especially searches in the fields of trademarks, designs and patents. In the new workplace, there is a filing room and room for discussions and negotiations .

VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of patent documentation and information

International or regional cooperation in the exchange of machine-readable information, e.g., bibliographic data, abstract and/or full text information

Regional co-operation

In 2004 IPO SR continued in participation in the joint ESPACE PRECES CD-ROM project (patent specifications of BG, CZ, HU, LT, LV, PL, RO and SK).

International co-operation

Bibliographic data and abstracts of the published patent applications and granted patents in English were supplied to the EPIDOS database in electronic form.

In 2004 followed the mutual exchange of patent documentation and official gazettes between the IPO SR and other offices also international organizations, including the EPO and the WIPO.

Medium used for exchange of priority documents

Priority documents have been supplied to applicants on request in paper form.

Medium allowed for filing applications

Patent and utility model applications are filled in paper, fax or electronic form. The last two are to be added by original filing during the determined period.

Implementation of the Statement of Principles Concerning the Changeover to Electronic Data Carriers for the Exchange of Patent Documents (please provide a status report on the extent to which your Office has changed over to electronic data carriers for the exchange of patent documents)

The IPO SR fully accepted change-over to electronic data carriers. The exchange of the patent documents in paper form was terminated by the end of 2000. Beginning from 2001 the IPO has been realizing the exchange of patent documents only on electronic data carriers.

VIII. Other relevant matters concerning education and training in, and promotion of, the use of patent information, including technical assistance to developing countries

Four Module Accredited COURSE ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY conducted by the Intellectual Property Institute of the Industrial Property Office for office employees and professional public continued in 2004 with 17 participants, out of which 7 employees of IPO SR. An excursion to M.O.C Stará Turá – a factory manufacturing dental and medical machinery – was introduced for the first time in order to become acquainted with IP processes in SMEs conditions. Course continues in 2005/06 with module D. Final exams for students participating in modules form 2004, are planned in october 2005 and may 2006.

Supporting activities:

CONFERENCE

Almost 70 participants took part in the fourth year of the Conference “Intellectual Property in Slovakia IV” held on the occasion of the World Intellectual Property Day, the main topic of which was the entry of the SR into the EU in relation to the intellectual property right. On this occasion, an open door day of the IPO was held on April 27, during which the Office opened its non-public premises to people. Excursion was connected with presentation of the Office and provision of information and consultancy services.

LECTURES AND SEMINARS

In April 2004, a series of three two-day seminars on enforcement of the intellectual property rights dedicated for the Slovak regional judges and especially for the employees of customs administration, culminated. It was organised with the help of the EPO in cooperation with WIPO. The Office collected contributions by 14 authors plus selection of decisions by the Supreme Court of the SR on customs issues and has published it as a manual “Intellectual Property and Customs Duties”.

The Office and the European Patent Office cooperated with the UMB Centre for lifelong education on three seminars on protection of intellectual property dedicated for the wide public and on the conference “Development of Technical Creativity and Industrial Protection of the Small and Medium-sized Companies”.

Lectures for students of economic, technical, pedagogical, environmental and law faculties of universities in Slovakia.

Special lectures in cooperation with the Slovak Association of Inventors and Innovators, Chamber of Patent Attorneys aimed at ministries and branches of economy and defense.

JOURNAL

Awareness of the public in the field of intellectual property is increased also by the professional magazine INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY magazine (“Duševné vlastníctvo”) issued quarterly by the Office. In the year 2004, the magazine became more varied in terms of genres, new columns were added and the Office activities started to be presented more expressively. Style of writing of individual articles has been partly changed; the articles are written in a more popular style to appeal to wider public. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY magazine was issued 4 times in 2004 covering all relevant fields in IP rights, copyright, trade names, domain names, logos, licenses, creativity and management with 44 original extensive papers and a number of translations, news, decisions of Industrial Property Office and Supreme Court etc.

IPO SR issued its electronic magazine on IP “ E-zine” by 7 issues also in 2004.

EXHIBITIONS

The IPO SR endeavours to increase the awareness of the public in the field of industrial property by means of presentations in fairs and exhibitions. During the previous year, the Office exhibited and provided free information and consultations at the 25th International Building Fair CONECO in Bratislava, at the 35th International Chemical Fair INCHEBA in Bratislava and at the 11th International Engineering Fair in Nitra.

Possibilities of the IP rights protection in Slovakia were presented at three international events abroad—at the 5th International Exhibition of Inventions, Works of Fine and Applied Arts GENIUS–EUROPE, at the Exhibitions of Ideas and Innovations, IENA 2004, in Nuremberg where we shared the stand, called the “Internationales Patent-Informationszentrum”, together with the European patent offices and in our own stand at the 53rd Exhibition of Innovation, Research and New Technology, EUREKA, in Brussels. For the first time, the Office enabled three Slovak protected products of extraordinary technical and designer value to present at the exhibition EUREKA.

PUBLICATIONS
During the year 2004, the Office has published seven professional publications. Except for two miscellanies from conferences and the updated collection of industrial regulations of the Slovak Republic, the Office has published author publications by Ing. Ľ. Dibdiak “International Trademarks According to the Madrid System” and re-edition of the “Marketing of Thoughts” by prof. M. Tuma. At the end of the year, we managed to publish a work by a reputable publicist Dr. Ján Barica “Small Slovak Pantheon of Science and Technology”, in which the author presents 115 of the most significant Slovak scientists and technicians. Publication of this work corresponds with ambitions of the Office to get into awareness of the public, especially the youth, for which the encyclopaedia is dedicated.

Awareness of the public in the field of intellectual property is increased also by the professional magazine Intellectual Property, issued quarterly by the Office. In the year 2004, the magazine became more varied in terms of genres, new columns were added and the Office activities started to be presented more expressively. Style of writing of individual articles has been partly changed; the articles are written in a more popular style to appeal to wider public.

OTHER

The OPEN DOOR DAY celebrating the World Intellectual Property Day was held on April 25, 2003 in IPO SR premises.

IPO SR created a new platform for dissemination of information on IP importance among SMEs and technical universities students by establishment of Information and Advisory Points for Innovation – INNOINFO. In mentioned year IPO SR started operations with INNOINFO in Banská Bystrica, Čadca, Martin and Žilina, more are planned for 2005. INNOINFO were established in business incubators, universities and regional development agencies.

In the framework of newly launched cooperation with media, IPO SR provided series of radio broadcasted advisory sessions in Slovak Radio, TV reports and spots in TV Markiza and Slovak Television STV as well as poplularization of IP field and IPO SR activities in print media.

IX. Other relevant matters