Annual Technical Report 2013 on Patent Information Activities submitted by Lithuania (CWS/ATR/PI/2013/LT)
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. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN PATENT INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
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Patent protection for inventions is granted according to the Law on Patents of the Republic of Lithuania (Official Gazette, 2011, No. 4-127), which entered into force on 3 February 2012.
There are three ways to obtain patent protection in the Republic of Lithuania: filing an application directly with the SPB (national way), under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) (international way) and under the European Patent Convention (Euro and Euro-PCT applications) (regional way).
The patent application, which makes a set of documents, is directly filed with the State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania, by direct mail, and since 2013 - also electronically.Online services EPAS has been introduced. This online service is free of charge.
In 2013, 127 applications have been filed with the SPB, 117 of those were filed by the Lithuanian applicants. Conventional priority was requested for 7 patent applications. In comparison with the year 2012 the number of domestic patent applications under the national procedure increased by 7.6 %.
In 2013, 10 international applications entered the national level, all of them had priority (or priorities) of earlier application (or applications).
In 2013, 18 international applications were filed with SPB as receiving office. In comparison with the year 2012 the number of patent applications under the PCT received by SPB from domestic applicants increased by 80 % (from 10 to 18).
In 2013, 28 applications for supplementary protection certificates were filed.In comparison with the year 2012 the number of applications for SPC increased 27.3 %.
The number of European patents to be validated in Lithuania shows a constant rise.
European patents validated in Lithuania in 2012 year were 1176, in 2013 - 1309 (increasing in 11.3 %)
On 31 December 2013, 7264 patents remained in force: 6745 were European patents and 510 national patents.
New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies and plans mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks
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Traditionally in 2013 most national patent applications were filed by Lithuanian science institutions and research centers. Last year leaders' positions were held by Kaunas University of Technology and Center for Physical Sciences and Technology - each submitted 8 national applications, followed by Vilnius Gediminas Technical University with 7 applications.
In 2013 most of the filings received by the SPB were submitted by applicants from Lithuania, which comprised 85.40 % of all national filings that year. Taking into account applications received by the SPB from foreign countries, 4 applications were submitted by applicants from China and Russia, 3 applications from Japan, Estonia, and Taiwan. According to the data received in 2013, 93 national patents were granted by the State of Patent Bureau of Lithuania, and in addition to that 1309 European patents entered into force last year.
The number of Lithuanian applicants filed abroad according to PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) and EPC (European Patent Convention) has increased. The number of European patent filings increased by 57% and reached 74.
Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
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SPB published on its website (http://www.vpb.lt/en/)on the 25th of every month the Official Bulletin "Inventions, Designs, Trademarks" (12 publications per year), #2 of Bulletin has annex "Statistics of the year 2012 on the legal protection of industrial property in the Republic of Lithuania" and databases of Lithuanian Patents and European Patents entered into force in the Republic of Lithuania.
Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external collections and databases
The SPB published on its website (http://www.vpb.lt/en/) the Official Bulletin "Inventions, Designs, Trademarks" and databases of Lithuanian Patents and European Patents entered into force in the Republic of Lithuania.
SPB website Databases have been an exact copy of the data stored in the Common Software Database. Common Software Database contained bibliographic, legal status data, abstract data, national patent applications (A documents) and national patent specifications (B documents), translated claims of European Patents entered into force in the Republic of Lithuania
Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to external users, conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)
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During the development of electronic services, “Online Filing” software and its portlet were installed with the help of the European Patent Office, which allows applicants to submit their national patent applications electronically.
Another project was developed at the same time as the “Online Filing” project: "Designview” Web service was installed in cooperation with the Office of Harmonization for the Internal Market (OHIM) for the access to the information on the registered designs of national services that use this service. The data of “Designview”, like the ones introduced earlier for the trademarks of “TMView” systems, are updated every day.
In 2013, SPB installed the software that enables to get data on existing European patents in XML format, and then save them to the database of SPB. The system that allows the transfer of national patent data and legal status and bibliographic data of the European Patent Office valid in Lithuania to the European Patent Office in XML format was previously installed. Thus, two-way SPB and the European Patent Office data flows are ensured.
Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office
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In 2013 there were issued several information leaflets: “Trademarks”, “Design”, as well as a portfolio of legal regulations "Legislation regulating prevention of inventions, designs, trademarks and topography of semiconductor products in the Republic of Lithuania”, also there were participated in two exhibitions. In 2013 there were prepared 95 press releases and news.
In 2013 there was prepared an e-publication “The State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania Annual Review of Year 2012”, also announced the official statistics of 2012 and 12 official bulletins (gazettes) of the SPB
Office’s initiatives on providing foreign patent information in the local language(s) (e.g., machine translation tools, translation of abstracts)
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VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS
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| 1. | Classification is allotting one or more classification symbols (e.g., IPC symbols) to a patent application, either before or during search and examination, which symbols are then published with the patent application.
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| 2. | Preclassification is allotting an initial broad classification symbol (e.g., IPC class or subclass, or administrative unit) to a patent application, using human or automated means for internal administrative purposes (e.g., routing an application to the appropriate examiner). Usually preclassification is applied by the administration of an office.
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| 3. | Reclassification is the reconsideration and usually the replacement of one or more previously allotted classification symbols to a patent document, following a revision and the entry into force of a new version of the Classification system (e.g., the IPC). The new symbols are available on patent databases.
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