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PREPARATION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LEGISLATION
The Hungarian Patent Office (HPO) performed its duties related to the preparation of legislation with a comprehensive approach in an efficient and proactive manner. The majority of the tasks focused on the preparation and management of amendments to legislation concerning industrial property and copyright. An important part of the work was connected with the legal drafting and other duties related to Hungary’s membership of the European Union, the European Patent Organisation and the World Intellectual Property Organization. Preparation for the Hungarian EU presidency in 2011 intensified, which, as a new challenge, imposed numerous tasks on the HPO.
On 15 December 2008 the Parliament adopted an amendment aimed at the legal harmonisation of Act LXXVI of 1999 on copyright (Copyright Act). In line with the HPO’s mid-term strategy, the amendment brought a change in the provisions on public lending rights, a new system for the authorisation of orphan works was developed, and the order of approval of the fee schedule of collective rights management organisations was also modified.
After taking over certain tasks from the Ministry for National Development and Economy, the minister without portfolio responsible for research and development issued Decree 2/2008. (VIII. 22.) TNM on industrial property qualification, replacing the former legislation, i.e. Decree 78/1995. (XII. 29.) IKM on industrial property qualification. The new decree entered into force on 30 August 2008.
The HPO prepared a study and model regulations for the Hungarian Academy of Sciences for the preparation of the regulations on the management of intellectual property. A survey was carried out on the situation of book publishing and book commerce including the current issues of intellectual property protection.
The HPO is also making preparations for the fulfilment of the obligation of submitting to the Commission a national report by the deadline of 29 April 2009 prescribed by Article 18 of Directive 2004/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the enforcement of industrial property rights. In order to structure the implementation of the data collection necessary for the report, the president of the HPO and the state secretary of the Ministry of Justice and Law Enforcement have sent out a questionnaire on two occasions to the stakeholders concerned as well as to the most important state agencies responsible for enforcing intellectual property rights.
The HPO participated in the preparation of the government decree on the assessment procedure of grant applications in the field of R&D and innovation, and in the preparation of certain legislative amendments on the exploitation of innovative results.
Hungarian Council for the Protection of Intellectual Property
During the seven years since its establishment, the Hungarian Council for the Protection of Intellectual Property (hereinafter referred to as the “Council”) has grown into a body playing an orientating role in the intellectual property profession. Its activities have helped the work of central public administration and commanded keen international interest. The activities of the Council are regulated by Article 115/F of Act XXXIII of 1995 on the protection of inventions by patents.
In March 2008 the third volume of an intellectual property protection series, co-edited by the HPO and the Council, entitled White Paper on Intellectual Property Protection was launched in the framework of a press conference. The volume devoted to the current issues of intellectual property protection gives an insight into the strategic ideas of domestic and international intellectual property protection in a knowledge-based economy of the 21st century. It also contains the HPO’s mid-term strategy for institution development, offers an overview of the new Hungarian body, the National Board Against Counterfeiting facilitating the enforcement of IP rights; and it elaborates on the most important issues concerning the “hot topics” in copyright and their backgrounds.
It is the fifth year that the quarterly “Newsletter on intellectual property protection”, a joint publication of the HPO and the Council, is published. It summarises news and current information in the fields of industrial property and copyright. The aim of the publication is to acquaint responsible political and professional decision-makers and figures in the economic and cultural spherese with current national and international issues of intellectual property protection in a concise form.
Upon the agreement concluded with the professional and financial support of the Council, the Hungarian Central Statistical Office made available for the HPO data on gross added value, gross emission, employment and income from 2006 for the purposes of an analysis on the economic contribution of copyright-based industries in Hungary, in line with the methodological guide laid down by the WIPO.
Hungarian Design Council
The Hungarian Design Council (hereinafter referred to as “HDC”), as an advisory body for the coordination of interests and opinions, contributes to the improvement of Hungary’s competitiveness by promoting design culture. The HDC, with a renewed membership, manages the Hungarian Design Award and the Moholy-Nagy design grants. In 2008 203 applications were submitted for the Hungarian Design Award competition. Works competed in four categories: product, visual communication, concept and student work. On the basis of the decision of the selection committee, 6 works were granted the Hungarian Design Award, 5 works were granted special prizes. Fifteen early career designers can receive the Moholy-Nagy design grant, which supports the career start of young designers.
In order to promote up-to-date information about the application of design, the HDC signed a three year cooperation agreement with the three largest Hungarian institutions training design professionals, namely the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, the University of West Hungary, and the Budapest University of Technology and Economics.
The Hungarian Design Award travelling exhibition, entitled FormaTúra displayed the outstanding creations of the past five years in the regional centres of Hungary (Sopron, Győr, Debrecen, Kecskemét, Miskolc, Budapest and Szeged). The fifth annual Design Week series of events, entitled Dialogue was organised by the Design Terminal non-profit organisation under the patronage of the HDC from 3 to 12 October. These series of programmes offering 70 events attracted more than 60 000 visitors. In order to provide a uniform management of professional direction and proprietary rights over the Design Terminal non-profit organisation, the Hungarian State Holding Company conferred the exercise of proprietary rights on the HPO, while retaining the trust management rights.
OFFICIAL ACTIVITY
The number of international design applications, and that of designs included in the applications, filed under the Hague Agreement and designating Hungary, also decreased significantly.
However, there was a favourable upward trend in the volume of design applications filed following the national route, where both the number of applications and that of the designs included in the applications increased, due mainly to the activity of domestic applicants.
Despite the economic recession the number of domestic design applications rose by 48%.
The HPO has performed the tasks of a receiving office deriving from the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), from the accession to the European Patent Convention on 1 January 2003 (including euro-PCT applications) and from the accession to the European Union on 1 May 2004. Hungarian applicants have been filing their foreign applications increasingly with the HPO as a receiving office. Domestic applicants filed 5 Community design applications in 2008 via the HPO.
DESIGNS
Both the number of international design applications under the Hague Agreement and that of the included designs decreased by 52% and 57%, respectively compared with the previous year. The HPO received 144 international applications, which included 547 designs. Although the amount of Community design applications with an effect extending also to Hungary remained on the level of the previous year, that of the included designs rose by 4%: 72 750 designs were included in 18 751 Community applications.
The HPO received 299 new design applications filed following the national route, which included 899 designs. The sharp upturn in the domestic applicants’ activity is shown by the fact that the number of domestic applications increased by 48%, that of the designs increased by more than 7% compared with the previous year. Applicants availed themselves of the possibility of applications containing more designs: the average number of designs included in the applications was 3. Of the domestic applications 68% came from individual applicants.
In national granting procedures 311 cases were completed, which concerned 1089 designs; the number of registrations was 242, which concerned 951 designs. The procedure ended in withdrawal in 3 cases and 66 cases were considered withdrawn. In 2008, the HPO received 6 requests for invalidity and 2 for declaration on non-infringement. The procedure was completed concerning 7 requests for invalidity and 1 request for declaration on non-infringement. At the end of the year 8 cases were pending before a board.
COURT REVIEW OF THE DECISIONS OF THE HUNGARIAN PATENT OFFICE
In the case of designs, a continuous decrease has been experienced in the requests for review since the peak in 2001.
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