Annual Technical Report on Patent Information Activities in 2020 submitted by The Estonian Patent Office

I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN PATENT INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of patent information activities and expected time frames for their realization

In 2020, 23 patent applications, 43 utility models applications and 44 applications for supplementary protection of medicinal products and plant protection products were filed (see statistics). Estonian applicants filed 21 patent applications and 37 utility model applications. Estonian applicants filed 2 international patent application for forwarding to WIPO. The Patent Office made 75 examination decisions (including 36 for supplementary protection of medicinal products and plant protection products) on patent applications and granted 12 patents. 59 examination decisions on utility model registration applications were made and 44 utility models were registered. The Office made 36 decisions on applications for supplementary protection of medicinal products and plant protection products, and 22 supplementary protection certificates were granted.

New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies and plans mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks

https://aastaraamat.epa.ee/en/yearbook-2020/inventions

Main areas of patent information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year

https://aastaraamat.epa.ee/en/yearbook-2020/inventions

Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and grants with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes

https://www.epa.ee/en/statistics/statistics-2020

Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.

https://aastaraamat.epa.ee/en/yearbook-2020/inventions

II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Information and support provided by the Office to applicants regarding filing on paper and/or e-filing (instructions, seminars, etc.) - URLs

https://www.epa.ee/et/seminarid

Availability of the application dossier in electronic form

https://www.epa.ee/et/leiutised-patendid-kasulikud-mudelid/leiutise-patenditaotluse-naide

https://www.epa.ee/en/protection-inventions/what-invention

Classification¹, preclassification² (if applicable), reclassification³ activities; classification systems used (e.g., International Patent Classification (IPC)); matters concerning indexing of patent information

https://www.epa.ee/et/leiutised-patendid-kasulikud-mudelid/juhendid

Abstracting, reviewing, and translation of the information contained in patent documents

Other activities

III. SOURCES OF PATENT INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE

Main types of publications of the Office (patent applications, full text, first pages, abstracts, bibliographic data, granted patents, etc.), medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URLs)

https://www.epa.ee/en/patent-information-and-services/patent-information

Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URL), etc.

The Estonian Patent Gazette is a periodical official gazette of the Estonian Patent Office. It was published 6 times a year from December 1995 until November 2014. Since December 2014 it is published 12 times a year only digitally (in PDF format). 

https://www.epa.ee/en/official-gazettes/estonian-patent-gazette

Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external collections and databases

https://www.epa.ee/en/databases/inventions-databases

Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to external users, conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)

Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)

Other sources

The Estonian Patent Office transmits data on industrial property objects in Estonia to the following international databases.

Espacenet – a global patent database

Federated European Patent Register – European patent database

IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements

https://aastaraamat.epa.ee/en/annual-report-2020/information-system

Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office

Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources

Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file

Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)

Other matters

V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF PATENT INFORMATION

Patent library: equipment, collection management, network of patent libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign patent libraries

https://www.epa.ee/en/patent-information-and-services/patent-searches

Publications related to different business procedures and patent information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.

Office's initiatives on providing foreign patent information in the local language(s) (e.g., machine translation tools, translation of abstracts)

Cooperation with universities, research centers, technology and innovation support centers, etc.

Work has continued with the patent offices and universities of the Baltic States to establish a regional knowledge transfer network and steps have been taken to strengthen cooperation between the Patent Office and Estonian universities. https://aastaraamat.epa.ee/en/annual-report-2020/information-events

Education and training: training courses, e-learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.

https://aastaraamat.epa.ee/en/annual-report-2020/information-events

https://www.epa.ee/et/seminarid

Other activities

VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF PATENT INFORMATION

International exchange and sharing of patent information in machine-readable form, e.g., priority documents, bibliographic data, abstracts, search reports, full text information

https://aastaraamat.epa.ee/en/yearbook-2020/international-cooperation

Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to patent information

Assistance to developing countries

Other activities

VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS

https://ajaveeb.epa.ee/

https://aastaraamat.epa.ee/en

Anchor
f1 f1

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.

Anchor
f2 f2

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.

Anchor
f3 f3

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.