Page History

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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 2024, the PPO continued to maintain the electronic services platform (PUEUP).The whole system includes the following modules that were fully implemented from the design phase to production and delivered with the infrastructure:

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In 2024, the PPO prepared separated endpoint serving Authority File data. It allows to fetch the data by the EPO in on-line form.

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

The new Polish Industrial Property Law is expected to be published, so the PPO will have to prepare BackOffice and other systems for the new law. The purpose of the PPO is to adapt BackOffice to changes in procedures regarding trademarks and industrial models and to include inventions, utility models, EP and SPC which will have to be migrated to BackOffice from Soprano system.

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In 2024, ANSERA based SEARCH (AbS) replaced Epoquenet. The opinions of experts from the Polish Patent Office regarding AbS are very positive and the tool itself in its production version is very much needed. From the point of view of its administration, PPO noticed a significant level of ease in its maintenance.

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

Autopatent, which aims to fully replace the experts in the IPC classification for new patent and utility models applications, achieved 92% of accuracy in 2024.

The PPO is continuously developing the functionalities of the above-mentioned PUEUP modules in accordance with the needs and expectations of customers and users of the platform.

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

In 2024, the PPO received 3421 patent applications under the national procedure (of which 3361 by national and 60 by foreign entities). A decrease of 15% was recorded in comparison with 2023 when 4022 patent applications were filed, out of which 3942 by national and 80 by foreign entities.

In 2024, the PPO received 618 utility model applications under the national procedure (of which 580 by national and 38 by foreign entities). This marks a decrease of 15% in comparison with 2023 when 727 utility model applications were filed, of which 668 by national and 59 by foreign entities. 

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

Statistics are accessed at the following URLs: https://uprp.gov.pl/pl/o-urzedzie/statystyki

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• Information about inventions and utility models application procedure https://uprp.gov.pl/pl/przedmioty-ochrony/wynalazki-i-wzory-uzytkowe/wynalazki-i-wzory-uzytkowe-procedura-krajowa
• Paper forms https://uprp.gov.pl/pl/przedmioty-ochrony/wynalazki-i-wzory-uzytkowe/wynalazki-i-wzory-uzytkowe-procedura-krajowa/pobierz-formularz

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

In January 2024, a new electronic version (2024.01 ) of the International Patent Classification   (IPC) was uploaded to Soprano.

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

The Digitisation Department prepares and makes available the translations of European patents in an electronic version which are entered into the PPO databases and the e-Search engine. In 2024, the Department prepared 12 731 translations of European patents into Polish.

The Digitisation Department of the PPO has been preparing and making available the application descriptions of inventions as of the date of filing, in an electronic version, which are then entered into the PPO databases and the e-Search engine. In 2024 the Department prepared 3594 application descriptions of inventions as of the date of filing.

Other activities

In 2024, the PPO started to publish, in the e-Search engine, the sequence listings of amino acids or nucleotides in the form of .xml files (in line with WIPO ST.26) or in the form of .txt files for national patent applications and translation of European patents prepared starting from 1 July 2022. The listings are disclosed in the e-Search engine on the day when “Bulletin of the Patent Office. Inventions and utility models” and “Communications of the Patent Office” are published. The first page of the published application descriptions of inventions, patent descriptions and translations of European patents into Polish includes the information about the publication of the sequence listings in an electronic form at the PPO website.

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)

Information on patents is available on the website of the Office:

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- Protection Specifications of Utility Models – 474 titles.

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

Announcements on patents and utility models are published in the official gazettes available online: "Biuletyn Urzędu Patentowego. Wynalazki i wzory użytkowe" - Bulletin of the Patent Office. Inventions and Utility Models (weekly, information on patent and utility model applications) and in "Wiadomości Urzędu Patentowego" - Communications of the Patent Office (weekly, information on granted patents and granted protection rights for utility models). They are available free of charge in PDF format at: https://uprp.gov.pl/pl/publikacje/biuletyn-i-wiadomosci-uprp.

Announcements containing ordinances of the President of the Polish Patent Office, official announcements and communications are published in the Official Journal of the Patent Office (https://uprp.gov.pl/pl/publikacje/dziennik-urzedowy-uprp ). Announcements regarding non-procedural matters, but connected to the Office's activity like: general information on the PPO's tasks, references, organizational structure, HR matters are published on the Internet version of "Biuletyn Informacji Publicznej" (Public Information Bulletin: https://uprp.gov.pl/pl/bip ) on the official PPO's website.  Many non-regular, important announcements are immediately published on the website.

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

In 2024, the following information products were available to examiners:

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• Patent data are stored in specialized internal databases of the PPO called Soprano in which bibliographic data details are stored.
• Espacenet – Worldwide database of patents and utility models containing collections of PL (bibliographic data in English): Polish interface available at https://pl.espacenet.com;
• Ansera Based Search

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

Online sources of patent information and collections include:

• e-Search provides simple (full-text) search, advanced(deterministic) search and searching in collections of documents (PDF):https://ewyszukiwarka.pue.uprp.gov.pl/search/simple-search,
• Espacenet – Worldwide database of patents and utility models containing collections of PL (bibliographic data in English): Polish interface available at https://pl.espacenet.com/

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

In order to make entries on the legal status of exclusive rights protected on the territory of Poland, the patent register and the utility model register are kept.  Registers include information necessary to establish the subject and scope of protection (e.g. date of filing, title), entity (or entities) entitled to rights concerning a given subject of protection (e.g. holders, licensees, securities, seizure) and other useful information (e.g. applications for revocation). Everyone who submits a relevant application and pays a fee to the account of the Office can obtain excerpts from the register.

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Information on the legal status is available in the e-Search at: https://ewyszukiwarka.pue.uprp.gov.pl/search/simple-search

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

Ansera Based Search is a professional patent information retrieval tool which supports the processes of searching and granting patents. The tool uses artificial intelligence to generate search results that are ranked by similarity and, what is new, by relevance. This makes it easier for experts to analyze and adjust searches as they go. Along with other improvements to Ansera, it will help ensure that the most relevant information about similar inventions that existed before the filing date (prior art) is included in the evaluation process..

Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office

The PPO uses workstations and notebooks with Microsoft Windows 10/11 Pro, MacOS; multimedia tablets with Apple iPadOS system; physical servers with Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Standard and virtual servers using Microsoft Windows Server 2025 Datacenter with Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server 2025 installed, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10/11/12, CentOS Linux 5/6/7/8, Oracle Linux 5/6/7, Debian GNU/Linux 6/7/8 and Ubuntu Server LTS, RedHat Enterprise Linux 7.x/9.x; hypervisor servers with VMware vSphere.

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The server infrastructure is supported by local UPSs and secured by the main power supply unit for the PPO. The main IT infrastructure units are located in a secure server room equipped with a fire alarm, CCTV system, redundant air-conditioning and a technical floor.

Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources

Patent data are stored in specialized, regularly updated internal databases in which image information and bibliographic details are stored, for example:

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Most of the production databases are hosted by Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Enterprise, Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Enterprise and MySQL Server 4/5, PostgreSQL 9.

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

EP data are stored and accessed via the Soprano system.

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

The main electronic administrative system Soprano (work-flow) supports the process of granting protection rights to patents and utility models (national procedure, SPC and the European patent validation procedure). The system is adopted to work together with ePhoenix which stores electronic files and Electronic Document Management System (EZD), which facilitates the processing of incoming and outgoing correspondence. External users have access to registry information and legal status via e-Search module. The Settlement Module (MR) is used as a supplementary system for managing fees and payments.

Other matters

The PPO maintained a professional call centre service based on Unify OpenScape Contact Centre Enterprise software and a new system of customer relationship management based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server 365 software.

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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 Polish Patent Office cooperates with the PATLIB information centres, most of them located within libraries of schools of higher education in different regions of Poland.  The centres provide patent information and consultancy, and some of them employ patent attorneys.  They also conduct free of charge seminars and trainings for those interested in patent information. The PPO supplies the centres with patent literature and informational materials for further dissemination and organises trainings and informational meetings for the centres’ staff. As of the beginning of 2025 the network of the Polish PATLIB centres has been reorganised and now it comprises of 14 centres in total (until the end of 2024 we have had 25 centres).

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

As part of promotion of knowledge on industrial property, the Patent Office issues various publications such as guides, information and promotion brochures addressed to wide audience, among others to entrepreneurs, start-ups, IP professionals, students, school youth.  Those publications are available free of charge in an electronic version and PDF format at:https://uprp.gov.pl/pl/publikacje/pozostale-publikacje-uprp. The printed versions of some of them are available at the premises of the Office and distributed during various events organised by the PPO or in which the PPO participates.

The publications include the following titles: Protection of Inventions in Poland, Protection of Utility Models in Poland, Protect Your Intellectual Property with the Polish Patent Office, Get Familiar with Intellectual Property, Intellectual Property for Entrepreneurs, Inventor’s Guide: Application Procedures in the National, European and International System, Industrial Property Protection in a Nutshell, Visegrad Patent Institute, Patents (comic book), 3,2,1…Startup!.

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

 The Polish Patent Office collaborates with various institutions in promoting knowledge on intellectual property (organisation of conferences, workshops, trainings, patronage of the PPO President over numerous initiatives etc.).

In 2024, the Office collaborated with the following entities, to name a few:

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- collaboration with governmental administration institutions, including Ministry of Economic Development and Technology, Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, as well as local government authorities.

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

In 2024 the PPO organised and co-organised, among others, the following events:

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The Patent Information Centre Forum was prepared, a platform for the exchange of experience, knowledge, comments and opinions between the Patent Information Centres and the Office.

Other activities

In 2024, the PPO maintained a special Seventica service for non-verbal communication (using the service, the sounds of human language are immediately translated into sign language on a computer or a tablet). The aim of the project was to remove communication barriers among people with hearing deficiency.

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VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF PATENT INFORMATION

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

 In 2024, the PPO continued cooperation in areas such as training, patent-related services and IT tools, patent information services and awareness and strengthening of the European Patent Network (EPN).

The PPO continued cooperation with the Visegrad Patent Institute (VPI), expanded the website and developed the necessary functionalities of the application to handle the Institute's affairs.

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WIPO Standard ST.36: Processing of patent information using XML

Implemented

WIPO Standard ST.37: Recommendation for an Authority File of Published Patent Documents

Implemented

WIPO Standard ST.92: Recommendations on the Data Package Format for the Electronic Exchange of Priority Documents

Planning to implement