Annual Technical Report 2013 on Industrial Design Information Activities submitted by ARIPO (CWS/ATR/ID/2013/AP)
Where URLs are requested below, it is preferred that either URLs which are likely to remain stable over time (three years or more) are provided, or home (main) page URLs are provided with a short explanation of how to access the corresponding information.
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. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
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-The ARIPO Office reviewed the Harare Protocol on Patents and Industrial Designs and its Implementing Regulations and made proposals for their amendment in order to improve and harmonize the Protocol with international treaties like the Paris Convention, Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) and the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) with the view to enable the ARIPO Office to better serve its users.
-There is also a process of having the Protocol linked to the Hague Agreement.
-During the year the ARIPO/WIPO/KOICA Project to Upgrade and Modernize the ICT Systems of the ARIPO Office and those of its Member States was launched on October 7 and the Project Implementation developed.
Main areas of industrial design information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year
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-Website: www.aripo.org
-E-Newsletter is available on the Website
-Facebook account under African Regional Intellectual Property Organization
II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
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ARIPO undertook technical missions aimed at conducting onsite practical training on processing of ARIPO applications to Officers and Agents in the member states, namely;
-Zambian examiners, Harare, Zimbabwe from April 15 to 19
-Botswana Registrar of Companies & Intellectual Property Office (ROCIP) from May 20 to 24.
-IPAS Java Training Programme, for the Malawian IP Officials, Harare, Zimbabwe from June 3 to 7
-Zimbabwe Intellectual Property Office (ZIPO), Harare Zimbabwe, June 17
-Ugandan parliamentarians and officials of the URSB, Harare, Zimbabwe from August 04 to 08
- United Republic of Tanzania’s Business Registration and Licensing Agency (BRELA) from August 12 to 16.
-During the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF 2013), Bulawayo, Zimbabwe from April 23 to 27
-During the 2013 edition of the Harare Agricultural Show, Harare, Zimbabwe from August 23 to 31
-National Intellectual Property Exhibition, Leribe, Lesotho on September 13
Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
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-Software to support ARIPO’s business procedures such as search, examination, registration, and trial is the POLITE Database and Internal webmail system
-The POLITE database is being upgraded through a project of Systems Upgrade being implemented in partnership with WIPO and KOICA. The project, on completion, will see the Office being connected with the Member States and also providing e-services to the public
-Maintenance for system software mentioned above is managed by ARIPO Secretariat.
Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office
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File building and updating
Search is done in the POLite system and other online services like espacenet. There is no single search file that is created for the purpose of search only. In the POLite system, data is updated regularly through normal system updates and also when new files are captured.
Foreign data included in the search system
- Publication data: China (2010-), Germany (1988-), Japan (1965-), OHIM (2003-),
US (1997- ), WIPO (1999- )
- Others: computer generated graphic designs (2003-), typeface (1999-), catalogues (1999-), two-dimensional designs (2013-)
V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION
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The Anderson Ray Zikonda Library is available and stocks patent and non-patent documentation by the Office and from cooperating partners like the WIPO, EPO, EAPO, UK-IPO, JPO, KIPO, ROSPATENT, SIPO
-ARIPO also purchased some non-patent titles for research work.
-Currently, officers can access the library’s online public access catalogue (OPAC) via the Office intranet
-The library management software is the Liberty3 software by Softlink Europe
Publications related to different business procedures and industrial design information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.
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VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS