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Annual Technical Report 2011 on Patent Information Activities submitted by Hungary (CWS/ATR/PI/2011/HU)

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 term "patent" covers utility models and Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs). Offices which issue design patents should report their design patent information activities in their Annual Technical Reports on Industrial Design Information Activities.

I. Evolution of patent activities

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Breakdown of the number of valid protections in Hungary by titles of protection

Patents: 13 853(2010), 15 390(2011)

Of them:
Patents granted following the national
way: 5 688(2010), 5 227(2011)

Valid European patents: 8 165(2010), 10 163(2011)
Plant varieties: 367(2010), 119(2011)
Community plant varieties: 17 610(2010), 18757(2011)
Supplementary protection certificates: 112(2011)
Utility models: 838(2010), 926(2011)


Hungarian patent filing activity abroad

PCT applications originating from Hungary: 172(2010), 142(2011)
- of them: by using receiving office services of the HIPO: 150(2010), 131(2011)
- and Euro-PCT applications originating from Hungary:
15(2010), 11(2011)
European applications originating from Hungary: 192(2010), 169(2011)
- of them: by using receiving
office services of the HIPO: 89(2010), 25(2011)
- and: filed directly at the EPO:103(2010), 144(2011)


Main figures of patent cases aimed at Hungary and filed following the national route - from Hungary and directly from abroad - under international cooperations


Cases filed under international cooperation
PCT designations: 164 303(2010), 181 900(2011)
Validations of European patents : 2635(2010), 3218(2011)
Filing of the translation of European claims (provisional protection): 8(2010), 11(2011)
Granted European patents designating HU: 32 803(2010), 40372(2011)
Cases filed following the national route
Domestic applications: 646(2010), 660(2011)
Foreign applications filed following the national route: 44(2010), 33(2011)
Requests for actual national procedure deriving from earlier PCT designations: 11(2010), 5(2011)

Figures of patent granting procedures

Granted and validated patents: 3 031(2010), 3 195(2011)
Of them:
Validation of European patents: 2 649(2010), 2 750(2011)
Patents granted following the national route: 382(2010), 445(2011)
Of them:
Granted domestic patents: 180(2010), 205(2011)
Refusals: 35(2010), 27(2011)
Lapse: 1 915(2010), 1 430
Terminations: 4 981(2010), 4 652(2011)
Pending patent cases: 7 067(2010), 5 976(2011)

Breakdown of utility model applications filed following the national route by the origin of applications

Domestic: 251(2010), 239(2011)
Foreign: 20(2010), 31(2011)
Utility model applications in total: 271(2010), 270(2011)


Figures of utility model granting procedures in Hungary

Granted utility models: 156(2010), 209(2011)
Refused applications: 5(2010), 9(2011)
Lapsed applications: 96(2010), 117(2011)
Completed applications: 257(2010), 335(2011)
Pending applications: 157(2010), 94(2011)

Trends or areas experiencing rapid changes with respect to the previous year

From the patent applications filed following the national route, the number of the applications filed directly with the Office by foreign applicants and the number of international (PCT) applications entered into the national phase were low as predicted since foreign applications had converted to the European route as result of Hungary’s accession to the EPC in 2003.

It is welcome that the number of patent applications of Hungarian origin a minimal 2% increase can be observed. Out of the 660 domestic applications 65 % were filed by individuals, 35% by institutions. The number of patent applications filed by domestic institutions increased significantly, by 30 % compared to the previous year, at the same time the share of the individual applications decreased by 8%.

During the year under review, patent granting and validations procedures before the Office were completed in 4652 cases (together with the European validations); at the end of 2011, 5976 patent cases were pending. The completed patent granting and validation procedures resulted in granting or validation in 3195 cases. The number of domestic patents from the granted protections amounted to 205; the proportion of grants in the national procedure was 25%.

URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide statistics related to patents

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Gazette for Patents and Trade Marks
In compliance with Article 13(1) of the Act XC of 2005 on the freedom of electronic information, the official journal of the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office, the Gazette for Patents and Trade Marks, is officially published online, free of charge, in PDF format on the website of the Office from January 2006.
From 1 January 2008 onward, the national and international trade mark columns of the Gazette for Patents and Trade Marks appear twice a month. Gazette is produced in electronic form by a new, automatic method. Thus, from July 2010, users can access the Gazette for Patents and Trade Marks in a renewed form on the website of the Office. As a result of the automatic generation of data, the time required for the production of the Gazette has significantly decreased, while the consistency of its data content has been considerably improved.
The data content of the Gazette for Patents and Trade Marks has not been changed, it is, however, displayed in a single column format to make it easy to use and to facilitate search in it. The Gazette continues to be published in PDF format and is certified by electronic signature. The frequency of its publication remains unchanged, thus the national and international trade mark columns of the Gazette continue to be published twice a month.

E-Register
The e-register is an electronic register of the industrial property applications filed with the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office (HIPO) and of the industrial property rights granted/registered by the HIPO, as well as a register of the licences granted for orphan works of copyright. It is available without charge or prior registration.
From 1 March 2011, the official industrial property and copyright registers are available on the website of the HIPO.
The authoritative electronic register with authentic records is only accessible in Hungarian. In order to carry out search in English - based on the records available in English - among the applications filed with the HIPO and the intellectual property rights granted/registered by the HIPO, as well as in the data of the international and EU/Community industrial property rights effective in the territory of Hungary, IP search service should be used.

IP search
IP search is a database of the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office (HIPO) available for the general public, which makes detailed search possible in the data of the electronic register of HIPO, as well as in the data of the international and Community industrial property titles of protection effective on the territory of Hungary.
The Hungarian Intellectual Property Office’s e-search database covering all industrial property titles of protection – as the only complete domestic source of industrial property information – replaces the Public Industrial Property Aggregate Collection for Search (PIPACS) from 1 June 2011. From this time on, we can offer access to a wider range of the public wealth of data, as compared to previously, with the help of the documents attached to the e-search database.
With the Simple search interface users may search all titles of protection in the database – with the help of this service one can map the entire industrial property portfolio of an institution.
Selecting Advanced search one can get answers to complex queries within each title of protection.


Public file inspection database (E-Dossier)
Public file inspection is a database of the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office (HIPO) available for the general public, which contains the electronic version of published documents.

Main types of announcements of the Office in the field of patent information

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IP-SEARCH: http://epub.hpo.hu/e-kutatas/?lang=EN
E-REGISTER: http://www.sztnh.gov.hu/English/e-register/index.html
E-DOSSIER: http://epub.hpo.hu/e-aktabetekintes/?lang=EN
GAZETTE: http://www.sztnh.gov.hu/English/kiadv/szkv/

III. Matters concerning abstracting, classifying, reclassifying and indexing of technical information contained in patent documents

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New forms of electronic administration – renewed, client-friendly official services
The efficient and fast navigation in the data assets of the HIPO is impossible today without wholly exploiting the possibilities offered by the IT improvements and technology developments. The HIPO – under the Electronic Government Operative Programme (EKOP) project supported by the State of Hungary and the European Union for the purpose of developing electronic information services – offers new electronic services for its clients as a result of many years’ intensive work of development. One of the main goals of the developments was to put the data asset of the HIPO into a unified data basis. Under the project the HIPO accomplished the following six developments till the end of May 2011: creating and sending E-gazette made automatically with short lead time; the electronic and certified E-register being accessible online; the search platform based on new technology and continuously updated (E-search); platform providing electronic document inspection; the electronic register extract to the customers, as well as creating the communication platform providing online administration.

V. Activities in the field of computerized and other mechanized search systems

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Integrated quality management system in the HIPO
The strategic objectives of the HIPO are to satisfy the different demands of the clients in high level, the client-friendly regulation, and the efficient operation offering quality services. Many years of efforts led to the implementation by the turn of the decade.
The implementation of the integrated management system, certified according to the ISO standards played a significant role in the establishment of the conditions needed for the high level official and service activities, as well as for the participation in international patent work sharing. As from 1 January 2011 the HIPO performs its duties in compliance with the requirements of ISO 9001:2008 quality management and ISO/IEC 27001:2005 information security management standards.
The certifying audit of the quality management and information security integrated system of the HIPO was carried out by SGS Hungary Ltd., member of the SGS (Société Générale de Surveillance) group established in Switzerland according to the British UKAS protocol. Last year mainly the measuring of client satisfaction was emphasized. Within the annual review the certifying company confirmed the quality acknowledgement of the HIPO.

New forms of electronic administration – renewed, client-friendly official services
The efficient and fast navigation in the data assets of the HIPO is impossible today without wholly exploiting the possibilities offered by the IT improvements and technology developments. The HIPO – under the Electronic Government Operative Programme (EKOP) project supported by the State of Hungary and the European Union for the purpose of developing electronic information services – offers new electronic services for its clients as a result of many years’ intensive work of development. One of the main goals of the developments was to put the data asset of the HIPO into a unified data basis. Under the project the HIPO accomplished the following six developments till the end of May 2011: creating and sending E-gazette made automatically with short lead time; the electronic and certified E-register being accessible online; the search platform based on new technology and continuously updated (E-search); platform providing electronic document inspection; the electronic register extract to the customers, as well as creating the communication platform providing online administration.
The organisation supervising the EKOP project accepted the application and qualified it successful both in financial and professional aspects. The project was formally closed in the second half of the year. Of the new services, E-register, E-administration and electronic document inspection have been operating since March 2011 and E-search has been operating since June 2011.
The whole content is 1 554 000 records. Of this number, the data of more than 450 000 cases are under direct national administration: 274 000 patents, 113 000 national and 46 000 international trade marks, 13 000 validated European patents, nearly 6 000 designs. On the website of the HIPO, during 9 months, the page containing the E-register application was viewed by 35 143 visitors, 8 489 visitors were interested in the electronic document inspection and 6 303 visitors in E-administration. The E-search data base was used by 50 366 visitors during only seven months of operation.

External databases

The office regularly uses Espacenet database and other web-based patent databases. Searches are performed in the EPOQUENET system both in the patent and NPL databases. Commercial databases are also used in special technical fields.

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The Patent Library adopted the name of its one-time filing director general, the editor-in-chief of the Gazette of Patents, and fulfilled its tasks as Frecskay János Library. Its activites focus on informing the public and supporting the official patent activities by documentation and information technology.

In the HunTéka online integrated system for libraries, continuous work was performed by disclosing the content and form of books on industrial property and copyright, by entering into the catalogue of the Hungarian and foreign documents or periodicals on intellectual property as well as by providing patent search and scientific sources related to the official procedures.

Information services available to the public (including computerized services and search files contained in libraries remote from your Office and patent information posted by your Office on the World Wide Web)

Customer service and services against payment
The activities of the Office’s customer service were followed by high interest, similarly to the previous years. Most of the enquiries, as many as 11 500 were received by telephone, which means 5.6 % increase on the previous year. The Office’s customer service received 6 372 customers in person, the number of online enquiries demanding substantive replies was 817. In a further 3768 cases the enquiries aimed at acquirng information from a database. The online enquiries continue to be more and more specialised and complex.

Similarly to the tendency of previous years, requests for information mainly aimed at the field of trade marks: a 16% increase was seen, with 7 679 enquiries. The other two important fields of the customer service activities were the patent field and general information provision, with 2729 and 1748 enquiries, respectively. Simultaneously with the introduction of the new electronic services, the number of enquiries related to databases significantly increased. In line with the new official tasks of the Office, customers requested information on an ever wider spectrum of intellectual property issues. There is a growing interest in the orphan works, the activities of the collective rights management organisations in copyright, and most recently in the qualification for R&D, as well as in the relevant international agreements or in the possibilities of obtaining rights abroad. Related to the calls for applications in the framework of the New Széchenyi Plan, the patent searches also came to the forefront; approaching the end of the year there was lively interest in this field.

URLs of web pages of the Office's website for electronic filing of patent applications

https://ugyintezes.hipo.gov.hu/eBej2/app

URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide information on business procedures such as: filing, publication, examination and grant procedures related to patents; opposition and appeal procedures related to patents; etc.

http://www.sztnh.gov.hu/English/szabadalom/

URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide a description of information products and services offered by the Office (e.g., patent search service(s) and patent databases), as well as information on how to access and utilize them

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IP PANPRAMA in Hungarian language
http://www.sztnh.gov.hu/ippanorama/

Promotional activities (seminars, exhibitions, visits, advertising, etc.)

New ways of education and providing information
In order to disseminate intellectual property culture and to widen the awareness of those being active in higher education, in the academic sphere, in R&D and SME sectors the HIPO supports awareness rising and education on intellectual property with a well-elaborated education portfolio.
The HIPO organises intellectual property courses in three levels in Budapest and countrywide. The courses organised by or with the assistance of the HIPO have been attended by 1 650 persons, in more than 1 000 lessons in total. The surveys on the students' satisfaction, prepared according to the quality management system, gave positive feedbacks. The basic level industrial property course book was published, the renewed intermediate and advanced level course books will be published this year. As a part of the education portfolio, the course book on copyright is expected to be published this spring. In autumn the patent attorney exam of the year 2011 was successfully passed by five candidates.

For Entrepreneurs: http://www.sztnh.gov.hu/kinek/
The HIPO, in cooperation with institutions of higher education, took part in the organisation of education on intellectual property in 2011. In order to disseminate intellectual property culture and to widen the knowledge of students studying and researching in institutions of higher education the HIPO, since 2000, has been inviting applications for graduating students to support their thesis/dissertation. In 2011, 108 applications were received. In addition, the HIPO also cooperates with other professional and social organisations to hold courses on industrial property protection and trainings (mainly for heads of academic research institutions, judges, prosecutors, police and customs experts, and others).
Parallel to the publication of printed course materials, a new module of the distance learning package "Intellectual Property Protection" of the HIPO was prepared in 2011, which was first used in the last semester by the institutions of higher education in Budapest, Gödöllő and Szolnok. The course material - covering the whole semester and dealing exclusively with intellectual property protection - of this distance learning package is available on the website of the HIPO, after registration, for the public.
The VIVACE+ programme improving the awareness on industrial property protection of enterprises was continued in 2011. Within the frameworks of the programme the HIPO cooperated with 14 partners. On the basis of the signed cooperation agreements the contracted regional chambers of commerce and industry and university PATLIB centres offer consultation on intellectual property protection, and - in cooperation with the HIPO - they wish to demonstrate the issues of this special field in different events. Under the programme the contracted partners performed mainly client service information activities, and they organised events on industrial property protection in cooperation with the HIPO. In addition to the topics on intellectual property, in these events the participants, in total 1 100 persons, could receive also other information which can be useful for enterprises.

IX. Other general information related to the Office that is available on the Internet -- URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that:

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Patent search services:
http://www.sztnh.gov.hu/English/szolgaltatasok/szab_kutatasi_szolg.html

X. Other relevant matters

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