Annual Technical Report 2007 on Trademark Information Activities submitted by Georgia (SCIT/ATR/TM/2007/GE)
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I. Evolution of registration activities
In 2007 SAKPATENTI received 1160 applications under the national procedure, which exceed by 50 the amount received in 2006 (1110). Increase in the number equals to 4.5 percent. 940 trademarks were registered under the national procedure which exceed by 145 the amount registered in 2006, percentage being +18 percent.
3785 notifications were received on extension the trademarks to Georgia according to the Madrid Protocol of International Registration of Trademarks, which exceed by 422 the amount received in 2006 (3363). Increase in the number equals to 12.5 percent.
3209 International marks were protected in 2007.
By December 31, 2007, 15410 national and 18316 International Marks were in force.
19 International Applications were submitted to the International Bureau in 2007 under the Madrid Protocol of International Registration of Trademarks. Totally, 62 applications were submitted to the International Bureau by December 31, 2007.
The statistics related to trademarks is provided in annual reports which are published on the Office website: www.sakpatenti.org.ge
II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, and distribution of secondary sources of trademark information, i.e., trademark gazettes
All trademark documents are published in the Official Bulletin of Industrial Property, which is issued twice a month. Documents are prepared in the personal workstations whereafter they are forwarded via Local Area Network to the Publication division where they are printed and copied using a Rhysograph and Xerox copiers.
There are available web pages of the Office’s website that provide access to online publication of trademark documents and gazettes, and other primary and secondary sources of trademark information:
http://www.sakpatenti.org.ge
III. Matters concerning classifying, reclassifying and indexing of trademark information
Since the 1st of January of 2007 “SAKPATENTI” uses 9th edition of Nice Classification and 5th edition of the Vienna classification for trademark registration purpose. The applicant is not required to use exact terms of the Nice Classification. Classification of figurative elements is done by the special examiner.
Identification of bibliographic data of trademarks are done with the use of three digit codes in accordance with the WIPO standard 60.
Other classification systems such as electronic classification system are not used so far.
Bibliographic data elements are searchable on paper files, which are regularly updated.
IV. Trademark manual search file establishment and upkeep
All documents are also manually searchable on paper files, which are regularly updated.
V. Activities in the field of computerized trademark search systems
-In-house system
The flexible search system is available for retrieving all kinds of information from the Trademark Database, e.g. capability of searching by different fields (registration number, registration date, owner, legal status, applicant, etc.)
Examination of trademark applications on similarity and identity are performed via the LAN. The database contains data of both national trademarks and trademarks extended to Georgia under international procedures.
-External databases
In the course of trademark examination the following databases are used also: the Madrid System databases for international registration – ROMARIN and Express; Express base for symbols protected under Article 6-ter of The Paris Convention on Protection of the Industrial Property Rights; International non-proprietary names database for pharmaceutical substances-INN (Mednet); Lisbon Express base on International Registration of Appellations of Origin.
VI. Administration of trademark information products and services available to the public (relating to facilities, e.g., for lodging applications, registering trademarks, assisting clients with search procedures, obtaining official publications and registry extracts)
SAKPATENTI provides consultation services to all persons interested in legal matters and matters concerning the trademark application drafting and registration. Upon demand, it conducts searches in the in-house trademarks database and search results are prepared in written form.
There is available web pages of the Office’s website that provide information on business procedures such as: filing, publication, examination and registration procedures related to trademarks; as well as URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide a description of information products and services offered by the Office as well as information on how to access and utilize them:
http://www.sakpatenti.org.ge
VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of trademark documentation and information
Sakpatenti continues to exchange trademark information in the form of Official Gazettes stored on CD discs with various intellectual Property Offices worldwide. The information is stored in MS Word format and are published on the Office Website in PDF format.
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)
Education and training activities were continued in 2007 too. The Office is well equipped with audiovisual means for conducting seminars and training courses. Power Point presentations were mainly used as visual means for training purposes.
Some examiners and staff members from the trademarks department attended some seminars and events, organized by WIPO and EPO.
The Office continues to publish journal "Intellectual Property" containing papers on all spheres of intellectual property. It is published on paper and on the Website in PDF format (full texts). The authors of the papers are mainly the Office staff members. The journal provides great aid both to patent professionals and the public in increasing of awareness in IP sphere.
Apart from publishing, the Office permanently provides consultations to applicants as concerns applications drafting, novelty searches, etc.
IX. Other general information related to the Office that is available on the Internet -- URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that:
URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that:
• provide information on legislation related to trademarks
• contain the Annual Report of the Office
• contain trademark-related news regarding the Office
are as follows:
http://www.sakpatenti.org.ge ; http://www.sakpatenti.org.ge/Legal_Materials/ ; http://www.sakpatenti.org.ge/news/