Annual Technical Report 2004 on Industrial Design Information Activities submitted by Georgia (SCIT/ATR/ID/2004/GE)
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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 2004 271 applications for industrial designs were filed in total, of which:
- 32 applications were filed by domestic applicants,
- 239 applications were filed by foreign applicants.
As compared with the previous year, the number of applications filed by foreign applicants dramatically increased. Most of them were filed under the Hague Agreement, which equals 226.
II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, and distribution of industrial design documents and of secondary sources of industrial design information, i.e., official gazettes
All design documents are published in the Official Bulletin of Industrial Property which is issued monthly. Documents are initially prepared in personal workstations of examiners in the Designs division, where after they are forwarded via Local Area Network to the Publication division for final processing and printing. Official Bulletins are printed and copied using Rhysograph and powerful Xerox copiers.
Every Official Bulletin contains colored images of published designs as well as bibliographic data of the international applications extended to the territory of Georgia.
The Bulletins are published also on CD disks and on the Office Website.
Design documents are prepared with MS Office software products and the Office Patent Database management system. All workstations are equipped with Pentium III or Pentium IV PC computers, personal scanners and printers.
III. Matters concerning classifying, reclassifying and indexing of industrial design information according to the classification systems applied
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It is possible to conduct searches in design bibliographic data with the Office patent database.
All documents are maintained in the Office library on paper. They are kept as numerical and classified collections which are regularly updated.
Various Official Bulletins from other Intellectual Property Offices of the world are also kept in the library.
The library is also equipped with two workstations having access to the Office patent database and the Internet.
V. Activities in the field of computerized search systems for industrial designs
It is possible to conduct searches in design bibliographic data with the Office patent database.
The library is equipped with two workstations having access to the Office patent database.
Almost every workstation has access to the Internet through which external Designs databases are accessible. In special instances access to some commercial databases, such as Quested Orbit and micropat is also available.
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 is well equipped with audiovisual means for conducting seminars and training courses. Power Point presentations were mainly used as visual means for training purposes.
Several members of the examination staff members attended seminars abroad.
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 new journal provides great aid to the public, among which are patent professionals, in obtaining useful educational materials.
Apart from publishing, the Office permanently provides consultations to applicants as concerns applications drafting, novelty searches, etc.
IX. Other relevant matters