Page History

...

Table 5 contains data on the main types of Office publications in the field of patent information, carriers and also the frequency of publications.

                            Тable 5

...

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

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

In 2014, automated systems were put into operation for keeping the State Register of Russian Federation Inventions (EGR) and the State Register of Russian Federation Utility Models (EGR) on electronic carrier.

In 2014, an automated paperless prosecution system was introduced for examining applications for registration of industrial property agreements (Agreements), offering paperless prosecution, electronic State services (integrated into the State Services Portal), as well as integration into the Electronic State Registers (EGR).

In 2014, an automated paperless prosecution system was put into operation for reviewing applications to introduce amendments to the registers of inventions, utility models, and industrial designs (including extending the term of and restoring patents) (Patent Prosecution).

In 2014, Rospatent examiners used the Information-Search System, PatSearch, for invention and utility model examinations. The PatSearch system is a professional search system for patent office examiners to perform searches when examining inventions and utility models. As a result, a wide range of functions and services has been introduced into the system.

Below is a list of the main functions of the system:

- Search in selected arrays

- Index browsing when preparing a request

- Sample analysis (statistics on search results)

- Document viewer (with highlighting of search terms)

- Two-window document viewing

- Print documents

- Export documents

- Consideration of IPC reform and subsequent reclassification

- Search based on the American patent classification, USPC, as well as the Thomson Reuters (Derwent) classification.

- Multilingual machine translation (including translation of a selection of the document or the whole document, and separate translation of query)

- Analysis of search results (including cluster analysis and construction of semantic networks)

- Espacenet search

- E-Library search

- Scopus search

- Amino acid and nucleotide sequence search in the European data bank, EMBL.

Extensive use has been made of the opportunity to document search histories, including an indication of search arrays, search query transcripts, and the number of documents located and viewed, as well as a list of documents included in the examiner’s final selection.

Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office

Equipment used:

PrimePower 1500 server

(RAM – 32 GB, processors – 14, external memory – 24 TB)

HPDL380 server – 42units

(RAM – 4 GB, processors - 2, external memory – 200 GB)

HPDL580 server – 18 units

(RAM – 16 GB, processors - 4, external memory - 600 GB)

HP, Fujitsu-Siemens workstations – 1,160 units.

Switching equipment:

Cisco 6503, Cisco 4507

Software:

Solaris, Windows XP, Windows 7,

Windows 2003 Server, Windows 2008 Server operating systems.

Carriers used:

Ultrium magnetic tapes.

Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources

In 2014, the main search tool was Rospatent’s in-house search system, PatSearch, which is available at each examiner’s workstation.  The search array of PatSearch includes patent documentation from Russia, the USSR, and CIS countries, and countries included in PCT minimum documentation, as well as the WPI database. The PatSearch system supports searches of non-patent literature in external sources: searches of genetic sequences on the European Bioinformatics Institute website. In addition to PatSearch, all examiners enjoy free access to all foreign patent office search databases, and to several databases of non-patent literature.

Rospatent’s in-house search system, PatSearch, enables examiners to perform searches for non-patent scientific and technical literature on the Russian Foundation of Basic Research (RFFI) Electronic Scientific Library website and in the SCOPUS abstracts database at their work stations. Library websites and websites of specialized databases, both national and foreign, in the fields of medicine, biology, biotechnology, chemistry, pharmaceuticals and technology, access to which is provided free of charge, may also be used by examiners from work stations, as well as Internet search engines Google, Rambler and Yandex.

In addition, examiners are provided with access in special search rooms to subject-specific databases on optical disks, national and foreign non-patent databases on the Internet that are freely accessible, as well as the commercial abstract database, VINITI. 

Examiners conduct basic searches at their workstations, and no statistics of examiners’ usage of non-patent databases are kept. When searching for non-patent literature in the Training and Computer Search room (i.e., in addition to work station access), the most popular database among examiners has traditionally been VINITI. This contains arrays of Russian-language abstracts from sources of national and foreign scientific and technical literature (material from periodical and serial publications, books, dissertations, conference materials, theses, patents, regulatory documents and deposited scientific work), 30 per cent of which is from Russian sources.

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

The main source of information for the principal functions of Rospatent is the State Patent Collection (GPF).

At present, the modern automated patent information system, PatSearch, is in full operation at FIPS, and is the most important and rapidly developing part of the GPF.  The creation and development of this system, while maintaining the existing parts of the GPF on physical media (collections on paper, microcarrier, and optical disks), was determined by objective changes brought about by transferring the official publications of the leading patent offices onto websites or specialized resources instead of using a physical carrier (optical disks) in the international exchange of patent documentation.

The main source for establishing the State Patent Collection (GPF), including its electronic PatSearch system content, is the international exchange of patent documentation. Regardless of the transformation of the traditional system of data exchange, international exchange continues to exist and evolve in a new format using new information technology based on PatSearch requirements, and ensures the GPF is updated free of charge in accordance with the latest global trends. 

Foreign patent documentation obtained using FTP may be loaded onto the PatSearch system from the websites or specialist Internet resources of foreign patent offices or organizations.

The functionality of this system is mainly intended for organizing examiners’ work.  However, the system is available to VPTB Division users (with certain limitations) for work in the display class.

In 2014, information was uploaded onto the PatSearch system from all arrays of patent documentation from PCT minimum countries, as well as an array of extended abstracts and bibliographies from Thomson Reuters DWPI, containing English-language abstracts of patent documents from over 50 countries. This array is the main source of the search index. Arrays of patent documentation have been uploaded onto the system from the USSR and Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), PCT, the European Patent Office (EPO), the United States of America, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Austria, Australia, ARIPO, OAPI, and the Republic of Korea, and English-language abstracts and facsimiles of documents from Japan, China and other countries. The system is provided with a view of the full description of patent documents that have not yet been loaded onto the system but are found in DWPI through integrated online access to EPO arrays. Searches for non-patent literature are made through integrated access to the external digital library, E-Library, and the SCOPUS database of non-patent literature. The majority of the arrays were provided as facsimiles of patent descriptions and required huge amounts of memory to be accommodated – several tens of TB.

System search arrays

• DWPI array
• Descriptions of USSR inventions from 1924 to 1993
• Descriptions of RF inventions from 1994 to date
• Claims of RF utility models from No. 1 to date
• Claims of Russian invention applications
• Unpublished Russian invention applications
• Abstracts of patent documents from the world’s leading countries in English (DWPI)
• Descriptions of inventions from PCT minimum countries, including:
• PCT applications
• EPO
• United States of America
• Japan
• Germany
• United Kingdom
• Canada
• France
• Austria
• Australia
• Switzerland
• Republic of Korea
• China
• ARIPO
• OAPI
• Descriptions of inventions from CIS countries with abstracts in Russian (CISPATENT)

A total of approximately 93 million patent documents.

In addition, Office examiners have been provided with the opportunity to work with the STN and EPOGUE systems, as well as the EPO’s GPI, on a commercial basis. VPTB users also enjoy access to electronic non-patent literature resources: Kluwer IP Law, Swets&Zeitlinger BV’s electronic resources portal, SwetsWise, Elsevier, etc.

The GPF is one of the most accessible and highest-quality patent collections in the world.  The patent documentation of GPF is provided on all carrier types – optical disks, microcarriers, optical disks, and local networks.

A significant part of the GPF is available on optical disks (56,700 optical disks as at January 1, 2015) and the collection is formed, mainly, from traditional international exchange with foreign patent offices. The patent collection on optical disks contains patent documentation from Russia, the PCT minimum countries, CIS, the international organizations, WIPO, EPO, and EAPO, as well as Denmark, Spain, Serbia, Slovenia, and Finland, etc.; patent documentation is made available to all categories of users in the VPTB display class.

The collection of optical disks is stored in metal cupboards.  Information on disk locations (cupboard number, shelf number, etc.), their usage history, possible exchanges and so on are available in a special technology database.  Work with this collection is free of charge for all categories of users in the VPTB display class.

Information downloaded from the FTP servers is temporarily stored on the local network before being subsequently uploaded onto PatSearch.

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

The Automated Databank (ABD), designed to prosecute applications and protection titles for inventions and utility models, has subsystems that manage the work of examiners and support staff, as well as capturing statistical information on various aspects of the activities of Rospatent subdivisions.

The subsystems for statistics allow the creation of over 300 different forms of reports on the activities of the Office’s subdivisions.

The electronic prosecution system for inventions and utility models (AS EA) supports functions to load and download electronic documents to Applications e-Work, plan examiners’ work, draft master plans and portfolios of examiners’ applications, list applications by applicant, capture statistics, provide access to Applications e-Work and application components, review bibliographical information, prepare outgoing correspondence, sign decisions on issuance of patents by electronic signature, introduce revisers’ corrections to the electronic packet of elements of an application for publication and has an application search function and a developed user administration system.  The AS EA system is integrated into ABD.

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

The main functions of the All-Russian Patent Technology Library (VPTB) is the establishment of the State Patent Collection (GPF), including patent documentation on all industrial property subject matter, scientific and technical and legal and patent literature on all carrier types, and also providing them to all categories of users. In so doing, VPTB fulfills the functions of a public library and the library of the Office at the same time. The main source for the GPF is international exchange, which ensures updating of patent documentation and Official Gazettes of foreign offices, while national and foreign scientific and technical, and legal and patent, literature is updated through subscription and obtaining books and periodicals.

As at January 1, 2015, the GPF comprised 120,629,700 documents overall. 

In order to assist VPTB readers, both general and specialized reading rooms are provided:

- computer room (for optical disks and remote databases);

- paper and microform patent documentation;

- information and bibliography services;

- etc.

VPTB provides free access to patent collections that are targeted at all categories of RF users, as well as those in neighboring and other foreign countries without any restrictions. Visits and services are free of charge for all categories of library users.

The VPTB patent collection is managed according to type of industrial property and information carrier.

The Library premises are equipped with an alarm system and an automatic fire-fighting system.

A total of 85,200 persons consulted GPF in 2014.

In 2014, users (including examiners) were issued with over 32.8 million copies of patent documents: approximately 2.5 million copies on paper; 3,800 copies on micro-carrier, and over 30.3 million copies on optical disks and from remote databases.

The patent information services of VPTB are provided to remote users on request, including performing patent information searches and factual references, and providing certified copies of documents of title. In 2014, most user requests involved searches for title documents of specific natural persons and legal entities.

Overall, during the course of the year, over 3,100 patent information services were provided at the request of remote users. 

The Russian patent office does not have a regional network of patent libraries, yet, through international exchange, it cooperates with a number of foreign patent libraries, including the Latvian Patent Technology Library, the Library of the Patent Office of Austria, the Central Patent Library of the Office of Bulgaria, the State Patent Technology Library of the Republic of Tajikistan, and other libraries.Patent library: equipment, collection management, network of patent libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign patent libraries

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

...