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From Table 1, below, it is clear that the overall number of trademark registration applications filed in the Russian Federation in 2011 rose in comparison to 2010. The overall increase in application numbers was 5.04 per cent, mainly due to a 9.75 per cent rise in applications received from foreign applicants, while the number of applications filed under the procedures of the Madrid Agreement or Protocol thereto also rose, by 12.55 per cent.
Regarding the registration of trademarks, an increase of 2.2 per cent has been observed. This is negligible given the trend noted with regard to applications from foreign applicants, which have increased by 30.41 per cent, with a particularly significant increase regarding applications under the procedures of the Madrid Agreement or Protocol thereto (which have more than doubled), whereas there has been a noticeable drop of 18.92 per cent in applications from Russian applicants.
RU_TM_Table1.doc
URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide statistics related to trademarks
The following pages of the Office’s websites contain:
• the Office Annual Report – Rospatent Annual Reports section:
http://www.rupto.ru/about/sod/otchety.html;
• Links section:
http://www.rupto.ru/ssilki/ssilki.htm;
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/link_resources/;
• Rospatent News: http://www.rupto.ru/news/news.htm;
FIPS News: http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/news/;
• Information notices in the Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin section:
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/brands_and_points/.
II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, and distribution of secondary sources of trademark information, i.e., trademark gazettes
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All information on trademarks, service marks, appellations of origin and certificates for the right to use an appellation of origin were published in the Rospatent Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette on electronic carrier with search system.
Rospatent publications on trademarks are presented in Table 2.
The Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette on electronic carrier with search system and corresponding paper Gazette are distributed on subscription. The two most recent Gazettes are available on the Rospatent website.
The International Classification of Goods and Services (Nice Classification) (ICGS) in Russian, English and French, tenth edition, on paper.
The International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks (Vienna Classification) in Russian, sixth edition, on paper.
The Lexical and Semantic Identifier of Goods and Services (LEXINTU) in Russian, third edition, on paper.
The Lexicographical Information Gazette of Goods and Services, LEXINFORM, in Russian, on paper (two issues per year).
The publication LEXINFORM contains new names for goods and services, as well as names that are not included in ICGS, but are recommended by WIPO for information. The LEXINFORM information block is arranged in tables according to ICGS classes with an indication of the subgroup of the good or service.
In 2011, LEXINFORM Gazettes No. 5 and No. 6 were published.
RU_TM_Table2.doc
Main types of announcements of the Office in the field of trademark information
The forms of notifications on trademarks published in the Rospatent Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazettes are listed below:
- extension of the term of validity of a trademark registration;
- change in the denomination, first name, surname or patronymic of a rights owner and/or place of business or residence;
- change of correspondence address;
- reduction of the list of goods and/or services for which a trademark is registered, for the information of the rights owner;
- change to the individual elements of a trademark, which do not alter its essential features;
- State registration of an agreement on alienation of the exclusive right in a trademark for all goods and/or services;
- State registration of an agreement on alienation of the exclusive right in a trademark for part of the goods and/or services;
- registration of a licensing agreement;
- changes (additions) to a licensing agreement;
- termination (premature) of a licensing agreement;
- registration of a sub-licensing agreement;
- changes (additions) to a sub-licensing agreement;
- termination (premature) of a sub-licensing agreement;
- registration of a commercial concession agreement;
- changes (additions) to a commercial concession agreement;
- termination (premature) of a commercial concession agreement;
- registration of a commercial sub-concession agreement;
- termination (premature) of a commercial sub-concession agreement;
- changes (additions) to a commercial sub-concession agreement;
- replacement of a national registration with an international registration;
- replacement of a national registration with an international registration for individual classes;
- recognition as completely invalid of the grant of legal protection for a trademark;
- recognition as partially invalid of the grant of legal protection for a trademark;
- premature termination of legal protection of a trademark, partially;
- premature termination of legal protection of a trademark, fully;
- cancellation of a decision to terminate legal protection of a trademark;
- recognition as invalid of a registration number;
- issue of a duplicate trademark certificate;
- division of an individual trademark registration;
- change to the list of persons having the right to use a collective mark;
- State registration of the transfer of the exclusive right in a trademark without agreement;
- State registration of a pledge (subsequent pledge) agreement;
- State registration of changes entered into a registered agreement;
- State registration of termination of a registered agreement;
- other changes relating to a trademark registration;
- correction of obvious and technical errors in Gazette publications.
URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide access to online trademark gazettes and to other sources of trademark information, including download of bulk trademark data
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External databases are also used during examination:
• Madrid Express (http://www.wipo.int/ipdl/en/search/madrid/search-struct.jsp);
• Romarin (http://www.wipo.int/romarin/).
Administrative management systems (e.g., register, legal status, statistics and administrative support)
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The Central Patent Collection (TSPF) contains national and foreign patent documents on all forms of intellectual property subject matter, including trademarks, and provides abstract, bibliographic, reference, search and other information.
The All-Russian Patent Technology Library of the Federal Institute for Industrial Property (FIPS VPTB) provides open, unlimited access to TSPF and serves all categories of users, including examiners, from Russia and from neighboring and other foreign countries.
The Library premises are equipped with an alarm system and an automatic fire-fighting system.
Collection management, preservation
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In 2011, users were presented with the Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette on CD/DVD on subscription, with a frequency of 24 issues per year. Alongside the Official Gazette on disks, the paper Gazette was published.
For new subscribers, and also for the purposes of keeping patent collections up to date, the series of the Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette published in previous years (2008-2010) were offered on CD/DVD.
In addition, in 2011 users were offered sets of information on trademarks for 2005 to 2010 on one DVD for each year, as well as a retrospective array of information on trademarks for 1991 to 2004 on one DVD.
Users were also offered the publication International Classification of Goods and Services (ninth edition) (ICGS-9) on CD and paper carrier, and the International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks (Vienna Classification, sixth edition) on paper.
In 2011, the third edition of reference publication the Lexical and Semantic Identifier of Goods and Services (LEXINTU) was distributed in Russian on paper. It supplements the periodical Lexicographical Information Gazette of Goods and Services.
All products on optical disks were distributed along with MIMOSA information-search system software, which provides searching of bibliographic data, ICGS indexes, the verbal elements of marks and also combinations thereof.
An analog of the Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette was published on the FIPS Internet site, and registers continued to be kept of Russian trademarks and service marks, appellations of origin, trademarks well known in Russia, applications for Russian trademarks and service marks, and international trademarks with the indication Russia and an indication of their legal status.
Aside from that, users are provided with free access to information on applications to register Russian Federation trademarks and service marks received after January 1, 2005.
On the basis of official information relating to trademarks, thematic databases are prepared for users on special request.
Third party users are given the possibility of ordering searches for trademark similarities in the automated verbal search system RF TZ if they provide verbal designations, while searches for similarities in the figurative elements of trademarks, using the SILOIZ system of linguistic descriptions of figurative elements, can be ordered on provision by users of figurative elements.
In 2011, third party users carried out searches:
of the verbal elements of marks 9,879 searches
of figurative elements 1,169 searches.
In accordance with existing standards, such work is performed for a range of organizations free of charge.
In 2011 the Rospatent website provided online access to:
- registers of Russian trademarks;
- registers of appellations of origin;
- registers of trademarks well known in Russia;
- registers of trademark applications filed from 2005 to 2011;
- registers of applications to register appellations of origin filed from 2005 to 2011;
- registers of international trademarks with the indication Russia from 1980 to 2011;
- the Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazettes published in the last month.
Rospatent registers of Russian patent documents contain the following databases:
- a database of Russian trademarks (contains information on 375,000 Russian trademark certificates from 1925 to 2011 inclusive, updated daily);
- a database of appellations of origin (contains information on 122 appellations of origin and 267 certificates for the right to use them from 1992 to 2011 inclusive, updated daily);
- a database of trademarks well known in Russia (contains information on 109 marks from 2001 to 2011, updated daily);
- a database of international trademarks with the indication Russia (contains information on 224,000 international trademarks with the indication Russia from 1980 to 2011, updated daily);
- a database of trademark applications (contains information on 277,000 applications from 2005 to 2011, updated daily);
- a database of applications to register appellations of origin (contains information on 214 marks from 2005 to 2011, updated daily).
On the FIPS website users are provided with access to:
- the information-search system;
- registers of Russian trademarks;
- registers of appellations of origin;
- registers of trademarks well known in Russia;
- registers of applications for trademarks filed from 2005 to 2011;
- registers of applications to register appellations of origin;
- registers of international trademarks with the indication Russia from 1980 to 2011;
- Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazettes published in the last month.
On the Rospatent and FIPS website access is provided to:
- a database of trademark applications filed from 2005 to 2011 containing information on the prosecution of applications filed from 2008 to 2011, updated daily;
- a database of applications to register appellations of origin filed from 2005 to 2011 containing information on the prosecution of applications filed from 2008 to 2011, updated daily.
Users’ work with the information-search system
Examiners are able to work with all databases: trademarks, appellations of origin, trademarks well known in Russia, trademark applications, and international trademarks with the indication Russia.
Third party users are provided free of charge with:
- a database containing documents published in the two most recent Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Gazettes;
- the ICGS database.
Third party users’ access to all databases, aside from the applications database, is on a contractual basis.
A number of organizations are provided with free access to the trademarks, appellations of origin, trademarks well known in Russia, and international trademarks databases, specifically:
- 20 organizations of the Federal Customs Service;
- 84 organizations of the Federal Service of Court Bailiffs;
- 169 organizations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs;
- 10 organizations of the Federal Anti-monopoly Service.
On the FIPS website, users can access information about the legal status of trademarks that is updated daily.
Moreover, in the open registers of trademark registration applications, information on the stage of prosecution of applications is provided, which is updated daily. Data on statuses are mainly created on the basis of the RF TZ automated prosecution system data.
Information on the legal status of trademarks is published in the Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette (on CD/DVD), in the paper Gazette, and on the Rospatent website:
- information on the State registration of trademarks;
- information on amendments introduced into the entries of the State Register of Russian Federation Trademarks (Notifications section of the Gazette).
Internet publications of the All-Russian Patent Technology Library Division are presented on the FIPS website in the State Patent Collection and VPTB Information Products sections: http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/fonds/.
In the Rospatent and Regions section of the Rospatent site the following Internet publications are published:
• method-related materials and reviews on protection and enforcement of the results of intellectual activity to assist small and medium-sized enterprises:
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/regions/mp;
• recommendations on the list of essential methodology, legal and patent literature and documentation for the provision of documents for the patent subdivisions and services of the State science and education sector and organizations forming the national nanotechnology network:
http://www.rupto.ru/rosp_reg/sod/Pat_podrazd_i_sluzhbam/links/Rekomendacii/Rekomendacii.html.
In the Normative Documents section, method-related recommendations are posted on various examination and prosecution issues:
• Recommendations for the implementation of provisions of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, relating to a patent owner’s consent to registration of a similar trademark, approved by Rospatent Decree No. 190 of December 30, 2009:
http://www.rupto.ru/norm_doc/sod/metod_rek/rec_gk4.pdf;
• Method-related recommendations on determining the similarity of goods and services when examining applications for the State registration of trademarks and service marks, approved by Rospatent Decree No. 198 of December 31, 2009:
http://www.rupto.ru/norm_doc/sod/metod_rek/met_rec_tm.pdf;
• Recommendations on individual matters concerning examination of designations representing labels and polygraphic packaging, approved by Rospatent Decree No. 170 of November 30, 2009: http://www.rupto.ru/norm_doc/sod/metod_rek/rec_poligraf.pdf;
• Method-related recommendations on verification of claimed designations for identity and similarity, approved by Rospatent Decree No. 197 of December 31, 2009:
http://www.rupto.ru/norm_doc/sod/metod_rek/metod_rec_tojd.pdf.
URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide information on business procedures such as: filing, publication, examination and registration procedures related to trademarks; opposition and appeal procedures related to trademarks; etc.
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Throughout the Russian Federation in 2011, employees of the trademarks and registration division took part in a range of seminars and conferences at work that involved reports concerning trademarks, including those organized and/or held with the support of WIPO.
The modern possibilities offered by automated information technologies, accessible to all categories of users, place new tasks before information centers throughout the world – not simply to provide a user with primary initial information, but also to carry out particularly comprehensive processing of this information beforehand and, consequently, to provide users with a more “intelligent” service.
This idea was discussed, not for the first time, at the annual PATLIB international conference, and has already been implemented in practice in the majority of sufficiently large information centers that possess patent collections.
Since 2008, representatives of FIPS VPTB have participated in the work of PATLIB, and have analyzed their capabilities to provide “intelligent services” to different categories of users, taking into account the experience of foreign colleagues.
In 2011, trademark issues were considered at two international regional seminars organized and hosted jointly by Rospatent and WIPO in the towns of Kaliningrad and Sochi. The seminars focused on providing legal protection for trademarks, and the effective use of the Madrid system for the international registration of marks. Reports were presented by four FIPS employees and two WIPO employees.
The problems of protecting trademarks were also discussed at two international regional seminars organized and hosted jointly by Rospatent and USPTO in the towns of Nizhniy Novgorod and Tver’. One FIPS employee and one employee from USPTO presented corresponding reports.
At Rospatent, on December 7, 2011, a roundtable – “Well-known Trademarks: problems, trends and decisions” – at which one Rospatent employee spoke, was held jointly with the International Trademark Association (INTA), the Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights (CIPR) and international legal firm Baker & McKenzie.
Rospatent participated as an observer in the sixth session of the Committee of Experts of the Vienna Union, held in Geneva, from October 19 to 21, 2011. At the time of writing, the seventh edition of the Vienna Classification – adopted during the sixth session – is being translated into Russian, and its publication in Russian is planned for 2012.
In 2011, under a number of Agreements, work began on the analysis and comparison of Rospatent databases of trade names and services, with the following databases of trade names and services:
- ICGS-10 in English, French, Spanish and Russian (partial);
- the USPTO database, in English;
- the database of the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) of the European Union, in all the languages of the European Union;
- the Trilateral database of the Trilateral Offices in English, French and Spanish;
- the GS Manager database (Goods and Services Manager), in English, French, Spanish and Russian (partial).
Assistance to developing countries (sending consultants and experts, receiving trainees from developing countries, etc.)
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X. Other relevant matters