Annual Technical Report 2005 on Industrial Design Information Activities submitted by Republic of Moldova (SCIT/ATR/ID/2005/MD)
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The expression "industrial designs" covers industrial designs and models. Offices which issue design patents should report their design patent information activities in this series of Annual Technical Reports.
I. Evolution of registration activities
In 2005, the AGEPI received 464 applications for the registration of 1499 industrial designs.
As compared with the previous year both indexes recognized a considerable diminution – by 145 (31,2%) the number of applications and by 473 (31,6%) the number of industrial designs designated in the applications.
Parallel to the applications for the registration, 393 applications for the renewal of the registration of 1356 industrial designs were filed in 2005, or with 16 (4,2%) and, respectively, 137 (11,2%) more than in 2004.
The national applicants filed 141 (30,4%) applications for 459 (30,6%) industrial designs, while the foreign ones proceeded with 323 (69,6%) applications for 1040 (69,4%) industrial designs.
The national applicants filed 51 (13%) requests for renewal for 158 (11,7%) industrial designs, while the foreign ones proceeded with 342 (87%) requests for renewal for 1198 (88,3%) industrial designs.
According to the requested procedures of protection, the applications filed by foreign applicants are divided as follow: national procedure – 17 (5,2 %) applications for 54 (5,2%) industrial designs; procedure under the Hague Agreement - 306 (94,8%) applications for 986 (94,8%) industrial designs and 342 (100%) requests for renewal for 1198 (100%) industrial designs.
The weight of the applications filed by the national applicants (natural persons) increased as compared with the year 2004 from 17,1% to 23,0%.
Under the Hague Agreement of the foreign applicants the most active were from Switzerland (211 applications, 528 industrial designs), Germany (73 - 378), France (12 - 43), Italy (7 - 23), being kept the tendency established in the previous years. Primarily requested fields of protection were: watches and watches accessories (168 applications - 375 industrial designs); articles of adornment (17 - 118); transport facilities and accessories (40 – 183), tissues (6 – 106),
In 2005, 135 certificates for the registration of 448 industrial designs were issued, or with 25 (22,7%) and, respectively, 38 (9,3%) more than in 2004. The absolute majority of the issued certificates hold the national owners – 123 (91,1%).
The analysis of the registered industrial designs highlights the constant interest of the national applicants for the protection of bottles (64 certificates – 156 industrial designs), labels (22 certificates – 84 industrial designs), boxes and containers (15 certificates – 49 industrial designs).
In 2005, 42 certificates for the renewal of 103 industrial designs were issued, or with 17 (68%) and, respectively, 18 (21,1%) more than in 2004.
II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, and distribution of industrial design documents and of secondary sources of industrial design information, i.e., official gazettes
The most important publications in the field of industrial design documentation are the following:
- The Official Bulletin of Industrial Property Protection (BOPI);
- The National Industrial Designs Register;
- The National Industrial Designs Applications Register.
BOPI includes Sections VI with information on industrial designs and models, from January 2000 onwards are available online via our AGEPI web site at www.agepi.md in portable document format (PDF).
Section VI contains:
- FF4L Registered industrial designs (bibliographic data and graphic reproduction);
- FG4L List of industrial design certificates issued in …(date of issuing);
- FG4L List of renewal industrial designs;
- FG4L Numerical Index of industrial designs registered in the Republic of Moldova according to the Hague Agreement;
- FG4L Subject Index of industrial designs registered in the Republic of Moldova according to the Hague Agreement;
- NZ4L List of industrial designs renewed in the Republic of Moldova according to the Hague Agreement.
Section VII contains various types of notices referring to all amendments occurred to the legal status of the protected industrial property objects (List of amendments, List of assignment agreements, Errata, etc), etc.
As from 2002, searches related to industrial designs, registered in the Republic of Moldova and published in BOPI, can be performed on line via our web site www.agepi.md . The Collection contains graphic reproductions of the industrial designs and bibliographic data of the products.
III. Matters concerning classifying, reclassifying and indexing of industrial design information according to the classification systems applied
Republic of Moldova became a state party to the Locarno Agreement Establishing an International Classification for Industrial Designs (1968) on December 1, 1997.
The Agency uses the International Classification for Industrial Designs since 1994. All the documents are classified according to the Locarno Classification. The full texts (Romanian and Russian) of the Locarno Classification were published in BOPI.
The classification symbols (the 8th edition of the Classification) of an application are allotted by the applicant. It is up to the Agency to afterwards check, and eventually to correct, the classification symbols.
The classification is used for the novelty examination, for search purposes and for statistics.
IV. Search file establishment and upkeep
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In 2002 the interface for on-line searches in Data Base “Industrial Design” available in Romanian, English and Russian, was put into operation. At present, the “Industrial designs” Data Base contains information on the applications filed from 1993 up to date and on the registered objects. The users have access to the bibliographic data, images of industrial designs, for which the decision to register the industrial design has been taken. From 2003 in the procedure of examination it is used also CD-ROM BOPI_RO (before 2003 it was used the paper version of BOPI of Romania). From 2004 in the procedure of examination it is used also Data Base of Russian Federation, containing the applications published in the period 1993 -2004. From 2005 in the procedure of examination it is used CD-ROM BOPI_UA and CD-ROM BOPI_FI (before 2005 it was used the paper version of BOPI of Ukraine and Finland).
Several work stations were modernized, offering thus, from the technical point of view, sufficient possibilities of homogenizing the working environment, the operation and application soft used within the Agency, namely the installation of the Microsoft Windows 2000/XP and the Microsoft Office 2000/XP. All examiners have access to the Internet at their desks.
In 2004 a Data Base, including the international applications filled under the Hague system and designating the Republic of Moldova was elaborated. At present, this data base does not contain images, thus it is used as a register without being used for examination procedure.
The hardware used by Industrial Design Department:
- Workstation - 9 computers, P III-IV, 256-512 Ram, min. 40 Gb HDD;
- Network type - 100 Mbps;
- 1 network printer
- 1 scanner
VI. Administration of industrial design services available to the public (relating to facilities, e.g., for lodging applications, registering designs, assisting clients with search procedures, obtaining official publications and registry extracts)
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The office library functions simultaneously as an in-house and public library.
The AGEPI Library is open to the public during 5 days (except Saturday and Sunday) from 9:00 to 16:00.
The Library Soft “IRBIS”, for acquisition processes automation, formation of electronic catalogue “Books” and library administration, is implemented in the AGEPI Library.
Collection management, preservation
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IX. Other relevant matters