SCIT.ATR.PI.2007.FI

Annual Technical Report 2007 on Patent Information Activities submitted by Finland (SCIT/ATR/PI/2007/FI)

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

National:
Patent applications filed: change 0 % (2015 in 2007, 2018 in 2006)
Utility model applications filed: 3 % decrease (506 in 2007, 520 in 2006)

Patents granted: 13 % decrease (921 in 2007, 1059 in 2006)
Utility models registered: 5 % decrease (392 in 2007, 414 in 2006)

PCT:
RO: 1 % increase in filings with the Office as a RO (1029 in 2007, 1015 in 2006)
ISA: 12 % increase in searches made by the Office (721 in 2007, 643 in 2006)
IPEA: 22 % increase in examinations made by the Office (149 in 2007, 122 in 2006)

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

Amount of electronic filings continued to grow, from 28% to 49%.

URLs of web pages of the Office's website that provide statistics related to patents

http://www.prh.fi/en/patentit/Tilastoja.html

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.)

Official Gazette published twice a month
Weekly lists of patent applications
Utility Model Gazette
Available at http://patent.prh.fi/julkaisut/

Finnish Publication Server available at http://patent.prh.fi/pubserver/
EP validations since May 2007 available

Esp@cenet and FI-Esp@cenet http://fi.espacenet.com

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

Official Gazette

Current Affairs in English
http://www.prh.fi/en/uutiset.html

Notices concerning e-services
http://patent.prh.fi/ajankohtaista.asp?tyyppi=vanhat&id_tiedote=&kieli=246

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

Paper, CD-Rom, hard disk and microfilms.

Word processing and office automation

Most common office programs available for everybody, other tools according to the tasks to be performed, e.g. scanners. Office automation developed in the office and with the EPO (Common Software, Epoline Online Filing, Phoenix) or with the help of outside contractors.

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

Printing, scanning, electronic publication desktop tool to publish granted EP patents in Finland, other types of publications under developement.

URLs of web pages of the Office's website that provide access to online publication of patent documents and gazettes, and to other primary and secondary sources of patent information, including patent publication servers and download of bulk patent data

Databases:
http://patent.prh.fi/default.asp?sivu=960&alasivu=960&kieli=246

Finnish Publication Server
http://patent.prh.fi/pubserver/

Publications (Gazettes, Weekly lists)
http://patent.prh.fi/julkaisut/

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

Abstracting, reviewing, translating

The titles of the inventions, abstracts and claims are translated into both official languages (Finnish and Swedish) as required by the Finnish law.

Classification¹, preclassification² (if applicable), and reclassification³ 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)

Published patent applications and granted patents and registered utility models are classified by the Office according to the latest version of IPC advanced level. The indexing system of IPC advanced level is used by the examiners when classifying patent publications. For internal purposes all applications are also classified according to ECLA.

Coordinate indexing (domestic deep indexing systems, keyword indexing)

N/A

Hybrid system indexing

N/A

Bibliographic data and full-text processing

Finnish patents and utility models are searchable electronically using bibliographic data.

IV. Search file establishment and upkeep

File building

Finnish search documents are sent to the EPO to be included into the EPO data systems. Examiners use Epoque tool to search Finnish documentation. Outside customers can use Esp@cenet.

Updating

Updates are sent monthly to the EPO.

Storage, including mass storage media

EPO databases

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

EPO’s Epoque-system is the main source of foreign documentation. The Office has still the Nordic collection (patent publications from Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway) on paper. The Office has also a vast CD- and DVD-collection of documents from several countries

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

In-house systems (online/offline)

National patent register: PatInfo
Utility model register: Hymanetti
Granted EP patents: FI-EP
Patent register from the year 1842 to 1970: PATE
Internal electronic application archive: Phoenix

External databases

See File Building in section IV

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

Common Software

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

PCs
Ethernet network
PRH EPTOS sets installed 5 / 2005 and 4 /2008
PRH EPTOS 2008: Bladeservers, SAN, Vmware ESX
IBM Director for hardware monitoring
Nagios for system monitoring
IBM TSM backup

Existing online thesauri; their structure, presentation and usefulness for computerized searches

N/A

VI. Administration of the industrial property office library, and information products 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

The library is in the same building as the Office itself and is run by the unit called Patent library and advisory services. The collections contain over 25 000 books, 250 printed and 5000 electronic journals. Every year approximately 800 new books are added to the collection. The library maintains a book collection database Kitinet which is available also on the web and an article database on the inner website available for the staff only.

The library is open during office hours from 8 am to 4.15 pm Monday to Friday.

Collecting, acquisitions, preparation

The common book and periodical collection is only concentrated in intellectual and industrial property law, history of inventions and technique, and in the publications for inventors in the field of research and development.

We welcome book proposals from outside customers especially students studying industrial property and doing their dissertation. Many publishers in the field of intellectual property send their catalogues and also colleagues from the patent libraries in other offices give ideas in acquisition policy.

Library staff also gathers proposals from the patent examiners of the office. The idea of keeping up the technical knowledge of the examiners is one of the main duties of the library.

Collection management, preservation

The unit called Patent library and advisory services is charged with the task of maintaining the library. The unit also takes care of the paper collection still left in the Office (Nordic patent documents) and of digitising of all application and publication documents.

The books and periodicals are catalogued in the book database called PrettyLib and the collection information is open for the public on the Internet.

The electronic journals are listed in the intranet of the Office. These electronic services are available for the staff only.

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

Interlibrary lending is a very important tool for us. We order about 1000 article copies and books per year from university libraries in Finland and from abroad. There is only one patent library (ours) in Finland but the cooperation between the different special libraries and university libraries of the country is very lively.

The library network is well organized in Finland. There is for instance one common depository library for all the libraries in Finland. This library operates under the Ministry of Education. The task of this library in Kuopio City is to store books and periodicals of other libraries that have not enough room for their older collections. The article copies and loans are given free of charge from this library.

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 services available to the public are twofold: free of charge databases and personal help and search services.
Free of charge databases contain
· esp@cenet (a databank of databases from different of EPC-countries, containing also FI-esp@cenet with all Finnish patent publications from number 1 and year 1842 onwards)
· PatInfo-database: contains bibliographic, legal status, processing and payment information of national patent and utility model applications, patents and registered utility models. It is updated daily.
· FI-EP-database: contains bibliographic, legal status, processing and payment information of European patents validated in Finland. The database is updated twice a month.
· Hymanetti-database: contains bibliographic information, the first claim and a figure of registered Finnish utility models.
· Publication server: contains at the moment translations into Finnish of granted European patents since May 2007, but will be extended to contain also national patents and utility models in the future.

Customers can get personal help from the advisory service (two full time advicing engineers). There is also a network of personal advisors around Finland in 15 Employment and Economic Development Centres and in 12 universities. The network is maintained in cooperation with the Office and the Foundation of Finnish Inventions. It is possible to get help either by phone, e-mail or personal visit.

Patent library and advisory services provides priced non-statutory patent searches to customers.

URLs of web pages of the Office's website for electronic filing of patent applications

Instructions for downloading Epoline Online Filing software:

http://patent.prh.fi

URLs of web pages of the Office's website that provide information on business procedures such as: filing, publication, examination and grant procedures related to patents; opposition and appeal procedures related to patents; etc.

http://www.prh.fi/en/patentit.html

URLs of web pages of the Office's website that provide a description of information products and services offered by the Office (e.g., patent search service(s) and patent databases), as well as information on how to access and utilize them

URLs of web pages

· patent and utility model databases: http://www.prh.fi/en/tietokannat.html
· library collection database Kitinet: http://www.prh.fi/en/kirjasto/tietokannat/kitinet.html
· advisory services: http://www.prh.fi/en/patentit/neuvonta.html
· innovation advisors in Employment and Economic Development Centres + Universities: http://www.prh.fi/en/patentit/alueelliset.html

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

The Office sends monthly bibliographic and legal status information of patent applications and patents to EPO.

The Office also sends monthly to WIPO bibliographic data of PCT-applications continued in Finland.

Medium used for exchange of priority documents

The medium for exchange of priority documents is CD-Rom and paper.

Medium allowed for filing applications

Online-filing started in 2001 and in 2007 majority of all filings (national patent applications, PCT-applications, European validations) were made online. Epoline is the programme which can be used for all applications. PCT Safe can be used for filing PCT-applications.

It is also possible to file on paper and for filing of utility model applications paper is so far the only possible media.

VIII. Other relevant matters concerning education and training in, and promotion of, the use of patent information, including technical assistance to developing countries (please indicate URLs of web pages of the Office’s website wherever appropriate)

Training courses for national and foreign participants, use of audiovisual means

The Office continues to arrange a variety of training courses for the public, both basic courses and specialised courses in all fields of the functions of the Office. Together with the network of advisors in Employment and Economic Development Centres and universities several seminars around Finland have been arranged during 2007.

Assistance to developing countries (sending consultants and experts, receiving trainees from developing countries, etc.)

N/A

Promotional activities (seminars, exhibitions, visits, advertising, etc.)

As in the past the Office has participated in several trade fairs in Finland, hosted visits to the office, published articles in newspapers etc.

The President of the Republic of Finland Tarja Halonen is the patron of InnoFinland contest, which is part of a project including each year the following forms of activity:
· arranging of the InnoFinland Contest,
· regional InnoFinland events,
· the Innoschool Innovation Event for school pupils and
· the Innoint Invention Contest for Conscripts.

The aim of InnoFinland is to highlight how the intellectual resources of SME entrepreneurs and the system to control intellectual property rights (IPR) can be used to promote innovative activities, business and employment. The theme of the contest in 2007 was ‘Innovations and age’ (see http://www.innosuomi.fi/en/main.html).

Studies to identify trends in new technology, e.g., by the use of patent statistics and preparation of monographs

N/A

Assistance furnished by offices to facilitate the changing over of receiving offices to electronic data carriers for the exchange of patent documents (see also fourth sub-item of item VI, above)

N/A

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 patents

http://www.prh.fi/en/patentit/lainsaadantoa.html

contain the Annual Report of the Office

http://www.prh.fi/en/tietoaprhsta.html

if necessary, provide further information related to the topics referred to in the current ATR

N/A

provide open source codes related to patent information systems

N/A

contain patent-related news regarding the Office

http://www.prh.fi/en/uutiset.html
http://patent.prh.fi/ajankohtaista.asp?tyyppi=vanhat&id_tiedote=&kieli=246

X. Other relevant matters