Annual Technical Report 2007 on Trademark Information Activities submitted by Russian Federation (SCIT/ATR/TM/2007/RU)
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.
I. Evolution of registration activities
Changes experienced in terms of application filings and registrations with respect to the previous year
The Office procedures for filing and examining applications for the grant of Russian Federation patents for inventions, applications for the grant of Russian Federation patents for industrial designs and applications for the registration of trademarks did not change in 2007.
Trends or areas experiencing rapid changes with respect to the previous year
Table I attached shows that the number of trademark registration applications filed in the Russian Federation in 2007 increased by 8.07 per cent compared to 2006.
URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide statistics related to trademarks
Statistical information on trademarks is provided at the following Office site web page addresses – Statistics section, http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/regions/okrug2006.rtf and http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/regions/otrasl2006.rtf;
and the Provision of legal protection for intellectual property subject matter section of the Rospatent Annual Report http://www.fips.ru/rep2006/R1.htm.
II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, and distribution of secondary sources of trademark information, i.e., trademark gazettes
Publishing, printing, copying techniques
During the reporting period the following were published in the Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette on electronic CD-ROM carrier with search system:
- 22,302 announcements of trademark registration;
- 10 announcements of registration of appellations of origin;
- 24 announcements of the issue of a certificate for the right to use an appellation of origin.
Documents providing protection were prepared and sent to rights owners in relation to all forms of industrial and intellectual property subject matter.
All the information on trademarks, service marks, appellations of origin and certificates for the right to use an appellation of origin was published in the Rospatent Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette on electronic CD-ROM carrier with search system.
Main types of announcements of the Office in the field of trademark information
Rospatent trademark publications are cited in Table 2 attached.
In 2007, annual indexes were issued for the following gazettes from 2006:
• the Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette on paper – three parts.
The Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette on electronic CD-ROM carrier with search system and the corresponding paper gazette are distributed by subscription. The last two Gazettes are available on the Rospatent site.
Mass storage media and microforms used
Data are stored on paper, diskettes and optical disks, as well as in the form of databases or files. Below are given a list and short description of the means of storing data files:
- the Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette on CD-ROM, with 24 issues per year. Alongside the Official Gazette on CD-ROM, a paper edition of the Gazette is published;
- a set of information on trademarks for 2005 and 2006, each on one DVD;
- a retrospective file of trademark information for 1991 to 2004, on one DVD;
- the International Classification of Goods and Services (ninth edition) on CD-ROM and paper.
- annual index to the Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Gazette on paper.
In 2007, the Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette was published on the Rospatent Internet site and registers of Russian trademarks, service marks, appellations of origin, trademarks well known in Russia, applications for Russian trademarks and service marks and international trademarks with the indication Russia, including details of their legal status, continue to be kept.
Information on the FIPS database of trademarks, appellations of origin and well-known trademarks, as well as the number of documents contained therein, a retrospective collection and the frequency of updating is given in Table 3. The search system and open registers databases coincide fully (see Tables 3 and 4 attached).
Word processing and office automation
Paperless technology for preparing and transferring data for daily publication of information on registered trademarks on the Internet has been devised and introduced by the Office.
Techniques used for the generation of trademark information (printing, recording, photocomposing, etc.)
To generate information on trademarks the following technology is used:
PK HP P4-2.8 23 units
Fujitsu fi-4220-с scanner
2 units
book scanner
1 unit
Scamax 2600М scanner
2 units
HP LaserJet 4100n printer
2 units
HP LaserJet 4050n printer
1 unit
CD-ROM disks with the Official Gazette are printed by a firm specializing in the production of such products.
Paper editions are produced using an FGU FIPS polygraphic base:
- by polygraphic means on Romajor-314, GTO 52-2 and QM-46-1-1 printing machines (for the preparation of printed forms an Inter Plater 66 P developing machine - one unit, a Bacher Platemaker 3071 copying frame – one unit, a photo composition device for proof reading and editing originals – two units and one ITEK-617S processor for producing argentiferous offset printed forms are used);
- by electrographic means on a Docutech 6100 operational printing system.
All printing materials are transferred electronically in PDF format.
URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide access to online trademark gazettes and to other sources of trademark information, including download of bulk trademark data
Web page addresses on the Office site provide access to:
• online gazettes – Trademarks and Appellations of Origin subsection in the Electronic Gazettes section http://www.fips.ru/el_bl/default.htm
• other trademark information sources, including the downloading of the main trademark data file – in the Information Search System section of the Databases http://www.fips.ru/russite/dbs/dbs.htm;
Classificators http://www.fips.ru/russite/classificators/classificators.htm#tz;
Register of Russian Trademarks and Service Marks http://www.fips.ru/cdfi/reestr_rutm.htm;
Register of Russian Appellations of Origin http://www.fips.ru/cdfi/reestr_rugp.htm;
List of Trademarks Well Known in Russia http://www.fips.ru/cdfi/reestr_wktm.htm;
Register of International Trademarks with the Indication Russia http://www.fips.ru/cdfi/reestr_rom.htm;
Register of Russian Trademark and Service Mark Applications http://www.fips.ru/cdfi/reestr_rutmap.htm;
and the Daily Publication of Information on Registered Trademarks and Appellations of Origin http://www.fips.ru/el_bl/days_tm.htm. subsections.
III. Matters concerning classifying, reclassifying and indexing of trademark information
Classification and reclassification activities; Classification systems used, e.g., International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (Nice Classification), International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks (Vienna Classification), other classification (please indicate whether goods and services for the registration of marks and whether the figurative elements of marks are classified by your Office and, if so, which classification(s) is (are) used)
The function of examining and issuing Russian Federation trademark certificates is performed in accordance with the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks, established by the Nice Agreement (hereinafter ICGS). In 2007, the transition to the ninth edition of the ICGS took place.
The figurative elements of trademarks are classified by the Office in accordance with the Vienna Agreement Establishing an International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks.
WIPO Standard (ST60) is recommended for indexing blibliographical data.
Use of electronic classification systems to check the classification symbols furnished by an applicant and which are contained in the lists of goods and/or services
The accuracy of the classification symbols for the goods and services indicated in a trademark registration application is verified according to the electronic version of the Ninth Edition of the ICGS, using electronic classification systems which allow each term presented by the applicant to be verified for compliance with the ICGS and an examination opinion to be formed.
The electronic version of the LEXINTU classificator (an extension of the ICGS) is also used, which includes ICGS goods/services, grouped together in terms of similarity and originality, together with a large number of terms not contained in the ICGS but indicated in application materials.
Obligation for applicants to use pre-defined terms of the classification applied
For the unambiguous evaluation of the scope of rights of registered trademarks in descriptions of goods/services, applicants are recommended to avoid using undefined or general expressions and to use the terminology of the current edition of the ICGS.
For the correct classification of each specific good or service, applicants are recommended to use directly lists of goods and services, and the corresponding explanations for each class, since class headings indicate in general terms only the fields to which goods and services may in principle relate and do not contain the names of specific goods or services.
Applicants are not, however, obliged to use only the terms indicated in the ICGS or LEXINTU.
Bibliographic data and processing
Bibliographical data are processed for search purposes with the aid of a number of automated search systems (ASS) as part of the Russian Federation Trademarks Automated System.
IV. Trademark manual search file establishment and upkeep
When conducting an examination of a claimed designation, a search is performed relating to the identity and similarity with the use of automated search systems, therefore the collection is not kept or maintained on paper in the current form.
V. Activities in the field of computerized trademark search systems
In-house systems (online/offline)
For the purposes of searching verbal and figurative elements of trademarks, a search subsystem of the Russian Federation Trademarks Automated System is used. A search is conducted in three stages (offline): preparation of the search model of a trademark and search specification; launch of search specifications on the server; and review of search results by an examiner.
Rospatent uses a database of published trademarks on optical CD-ROMs entitled Trademarks of Russia, in which an enhanced version of the software MIMOSA 5.0 is used.
In 2007, work was completed to devise the new software for work with the trilingual version of ICGS-9, integrated with an automated search system for trademarks, TM-EXAM-SEARCH (TMES), which is part of the TM-ADMIN electronic trademark document exchange system. The software allows lists of goods and services to be processed in two ways: as a package or individually, the result of the work being the creation of a link between the goods and services in the trademark applications/registrations with ICGS terms, thereby allowing search results to be obtained in the future with pinpoint accuracy.
In 2007, the Rospatent Internet site provided access to:
• a register of trademark applications filed in 2005-2007, updated with information on prosecution of the applications filed in 2007;
• the Rospatent Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette.
Rospatent’s Internet resources include the following databases:
• a database of Russian trademarks from 1925 to 2007;
• a database of international trademarks with the indication Russian from 1980 to 2007;
• an Appellations of Origin Database;
• the Trademarks Well Known in Russia database;
• a database of trademark applications filed in 2005-2007;
• an ICGS database.
External databases
In 2007, internal and external users performed more than 3,473,000 enquiries through the information search system devised on the Rospatent site, and nine per cent of the total number of enquiries were enquiries to the trademarks and appellations of origin databases.
Examiners use external databases freely available on the Internet, through WIPO and INN.
Examiners also use the following external databases:
• Madrid Express (http://www.wipo.int/ipdl/en/search/madrid/search-struct.jsp)
• Romarin (http://www.wipo.int/romarin/)
Administrative management systems (e.g., register, legal status, statistics and administrative support)
The Office uses the following prosecution systems in the field of trademark information:
• The Russian Federation Trademarks Automated System for prosecuting applications for trademarks and appellations of origin;
• The unified Agreements Automated System for prosecuting agreements on industrial property subject matter, relating to the powers of the Office, including in relation to trademarks.
• The Amendments to Trademark Registrations Automated System for prosecuting applications received after trademark registration (for example extension, change of owner, termination of validity).
• The Prosecution of International Registrations Automated System.
• TM-ADMIN – electronic document–exchange system – registration and processing of documents, including scanning, recognition and data input procedures, and processes for examining documents, and preparing and dispatching outgoing correspondence.
• Madrid-2007 Automated System – prosecution of international trademark registrations.
Equipment used (hardware, including the types of terminal and network used, and software), carriers used
Сompaq DL380 Server – 20 units
(ОM – 2GB, processors - 2, external memory – 200GB)
Compaq DL580 Server – two units
(ОM – 8GB, processors - 4, external memory - 300GB)
Compaq Р3/P4, HP Р3/P4, Fujitsu-Siemens workstations - 640 units.
Software:
SINIX, Windows 2000, Windows XP and
Windows 2003 operating systems.
Media used:
SDLT and Ultrium magnetic tapes.
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)
Planning, administration, automation, security
The Central Patent Collection (TSPF) contains national and foreign patent documents on all forms of industrial property subject matter, including trademarks and abstract and bibliographical information, as well as search-reference and other information.
The FGU FIPS All-Russian Patent Technology Library (VPTB) provides free access to the TSPF without any restrictions and serves all categories of users in Russia and neighboring and other foreign countries (including examiners).
The Library’s premises are equipped with an alarm system and an automatic fire fighting system.
Collection management, preservation
The trademarks collection is held at the VPTB both on paper and optical disks, and includes:
- Rospatent Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazettes;
- patent gazettes from foreign countries and international organizations, both special gazettes and also general industrial property gazettes with sections devoted to trademarks;
- databases including trademark information from foreign countries and international organizations;
Collections, both on paper and electronic carriers, are organized along geographical, systematic and numerical lines.
Information services available to the public (including computerized services and search files contained in libraries remote from your Office and trademark information posted by your Office on the World Wide Web)
In 2007, the trademarks gazettes issued to all countries constituted about 29,000 storage units on paper and users consulted more than 20,300 optical disks.
In 2007, users were provided with the Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette on CD-ROM, of which 24 issues were published during the year. Alongside the Official Gazette on CD-ROM, a paper Gazette was published.
Also in 2007 users were supplied with a series of information on trademarks for 2005 and 2006, each on one DVD, and also a retrospective set of information on trademarks for 1991-2004 on one DVD.
In 2007, the ICGS (Ninth Edition) was published on CD-ROM and paper.
All products on optical disks are distributed together with the MIMOSA information search system software which provides searches of blibliographical data, ICGS indexes, verbal elements of a mark and also combinations thereof. Documents found during a search may be consulted and printed in full.
An annual index was issued on paper for the Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Gazette.
On the basis of official information on trademarks, thematic databases are produced in accordance with users’ special requests.
In 2007, the Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette was published on the Rospatent Internet site and registers of Russian trademarks, service marks and appellations of origin, trademarks well known in Russia, applications for Russian trademarks and service marks, and international trademarks with the indication Russia with details of their legal status continued to be kept.
Users’ work with the information search system
Examiners are given the opportunity to work with all databases on trademarks, appellations of origin, national trademarks, trademark applications and international trademarks with the indication Russia. Access for external users to databases, apart from the databases of applications and national trademarks, is provided by mutual agreement. Searches of the trademarks applications database for external users are currently unavailable.
External users are provided, free of charge, with access to:
- databases containing documents published in the last two Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Gazettes;
- the Trademarks Well Known in Russia database; and
- the ICGS database.
Table 5 (attached) contains data on the number of search system database enquiries. The search system provides the opportunity to carry out a search simultaneously of the trademarks, appellations of origin, national trademarks and trademarks applications databases (for examiners). Table 5 contains general information on the number of database enquiries made by internal and external users.
Table 6 (attached) contains data on the number of database enquiries for trademarks appellations of origin, national trademarks, international trademarks and trademarks applications registers.
URLs of web pages of the Office's website for electronic filing of trademark applications
• Application filing procedure – Rules for compiling, filing and examining an application subsection in the Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin section http://www.fips.ru/npdoc/VEDOM/PR_TZ00.HTM;
Forms subsection http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/trmark.htm;
Regulations on fees for the patenting of inventions, utility models, industrial designs, registration of trademarks, service marks and appellations of origin, and grant of the right to use an appellation of origin http://www.fips.ru/potrf/poshl.htm; http://www.fips.ru/potrf/poshl.htm#tz
URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide information on business procedures such as: filing, publication, examination and registration procedures related to trademarks; opposition and appeal procedures related to trademarks; etc.
• publication procedure – Regulations on official publications of the Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks in the Publications section http://www.fips.ru/izdan/pol.htm;
Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin subsection in the Electronic Gazettes section http://www.fips.ru/el_bl/default.htm; http://www.fips.ru/el_bl/tm.htm;
Databases section in the Information Search System section http://www.fips.ru/russite/dbs/dbs.htm;
Open Registers section http://www.fips.ru/cdfi/index.htm; http://www.fips.ru/cdfi/reestr_rutmap.htm;
Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin section in the Catalogue of Publications and Databases for 2008 in the Publications section http://www.fips.ru/izdan2008/tz_ofi.htm;
• Examination and grant of a document providing protection – in the Normative Documents section, Office Acts subsection http://www.fips.ru/npdoc/ved_doc.htm#3;
procedure for filing objections and appeals – Patent Disputes Chamber section http://www.fips.ru/npdoc/vedom/n22.htm
URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide a description of information products and services offered by the Office (e.g., trademark search service(s) and trademark databases), as well as information on how to access and utilize them
• conducting a search – in the Information Search System section: Services http://www.fips.ru/russite/uslugi/podp.htm, Databases http://www.fips.ru/russite/dbs/dbs.htm;
Open registers http://www.fips.ru/cdfi/index.htm subsections;
Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin subsection http://www.fips.ru/el_bl/default.htm; http://www.fips.ru/el_bl/tm.htm; Collections section http://www.fips.ru/vptb/inf.htm#pat;
• Trademarks Database – Databases http://www.fips.ru/russite/dbs/dbs.htm; http://www.fips.ru/russite/dbs/tm.htm subsection in the Information Search System section;
• information on access to resources and their use – in the Information Search System section Support http://www.fips.ru/russite/support/m4.html;
and Instructions http://www.fips.ru/russite/documents/m1dop.html subsections.
VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of trademark documentation and information
International or regional cooperation in the exchange of trademark information, e.g., in the form of official gazettes
Within the framework of international exchange in 2007, Rospatent sent its Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette to foreign countries on optical disks – 55 annual sets to 51 countries.
The VPTB Division receives trademark information both in the form of special gazettes and also sections of general industrial property gazettes from 49 countries and two international organizations.
In 2007, the following were received on all types of carriers from WIPO, Germany, Japan, Republic of Korea, United States of America and other countries: 1,807 copies of trademark gazettes (including: on paper – 460 copies; on optical disks – 518 copies; and 829 copies were downloaded from the Internet).
Exchange of machine-readable information
Data is exchanged electronically with WIPO on international trademark registrations using MECA technology. In 2007, decisions were sent to WIPO concerning preliminary and final refusal in electronic form.
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)
Promotional activities (seminars, exhibitions, visits, advertising, etc.)
In 2007, 13 seminars were devoted to the problems of trademark registration and held in different regions of the Russian Federation, as well as the First Specialized Exhibition of Trademarks and Industrial Designs – 2007, from December 11-14, 2007 in Moscow.
91 exhibitors from eight regions of the Russian Federation participated in the exhibition.
In addition, as part of the Seventh Moscow International Exhibition of Innovations and Investments the Best Trademark Competition was held; as part of the Tenth Moscow International Exhibition of Industrial Property, Archimedes – 2007, the Moscow International Exhibition – Presentation of Trademarks and Appellations of Origin, Trademark Leader – 2007, was held.
Rospatent holds annual conferences, seminars and round tables with the participation of representatives of international organizations and other States in Moscow. Brief information on the most important of those events is given below.
• On March 28, 2007, as part of the Tenth International Exhibition Archimedes – 2007 at Sokolniky’, a conference and round table were held, devoted to current aspects of the theory and practice of protection and use of intellectual property subject matter (http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/sins/arh2007.htm).
Representatives of many towns and cities in the Russian Federation took part in the work of the conference and round table, along with representatives from the Republic of Serbia, Republic of Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine and Romania. The conference participants included patent attorneys, representatives of industry, military education institutes, scientific organizations and the press, a total of about 130 people.
• On October 10 and 11, 2007, the Eleventh Scientific and Practical Conference on Legal Protection for Intellectual Property Subject Matter in Conditions of Administrative Reform and the Entry into Force of Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation was held on the premises of Rospatent and FGU FIPS (http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/sins/conf11.htm).
• On December 12, 2007 a scientific and practical conference was held as part of the First Specialized Exhibition of Trademarks and Industrial Design – 2007, organized by Rospatent, on the premises of the All-Russian Exhibition Center (http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/sins/inf_vystavka.htm).
As part of the conference, a round table on issues of registration, grant and provision of legal protection for trademarks and industrial designs and their use in civil circulation was held.
Training courses for national and foreign participants
In 2007, FGU FIPS held a training course on individual programs for nine specialists from the National Center of Intellectual Property of the Republic of Belarus.
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 trademarks
Trademarks, service marks and appellations of origin subsection in the Normative documents section http://www.fips.ru/npdoc/index.htm#3; Normative documents subsection in the Trademarks, service marks and appellations of origin section http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/trmark.htm;
contain the Annual Report of the Office
Reports, reviews, statistics section http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/reports.htm;
provide open source codes related to trademark information systems
References section http://www.fips.ru/russite/search/search.html;
contain trademark-related news regarding the Office
Main news section http://www.fips.ru/rospatent/index.htm, News section http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/news.htm