Annual Technical Report 2005 on Patent Information Activities submitted by Egypt (SCIT/ATR/PI/2005/EG)
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
Changes experienced in terms of application filings and grants with respect to the previous year
Please see tables in document attached below.
Trends or areas experiencing rapid changes with respect to the previous year
In 2004 the patents from the IPC section A "human necessities" have been in the lead (32.7%), followed by these sections:
C "Chemistry; Metallurgy" 25.2%
B "Performing operations; transporting" 17%
G "Physics" 7.5%
H "Electricity" 6.8%
E "Fixed constructions" 4.8%
F "Mechanical Engineering, lighting; heating, weapons, blasting" 4.8%
D "Textiles; paper" 2%
II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, distribution and use of primary and secondary sources of patent information
Publishing, printing, copying (main types of publications of the office in the field of patent information, etc.)
The Egyptian Patent Office publishes three journals as follows :
1-The Egyptian Patent Gazette
2-The Patent Applications Bulletin
3-The Egyptian Patent Abstracts
These publications are published monthly, and we send them to universities, industrial companies and research institutes in Egypt as well as the foreign patent offices abroad .
Main types of announcements of the Office in the field of patent information
The Egyptian Patent Office web site (www.Egypo.gov.eg) plays an increasingly important role in the dissemination of information regarding patents.
Mass storage media used (paper, microforms, optical storage, etc.)
We used paper, microfilm , microfilm jackets , tapes , HD , and DVD as mass storage for our applications and patents.
The Egyptian Patent Office has a database containing the Egyptian applications and patents granted.
The Office has DVD and CD-ROM collections containing published/granted patents for US, WO, EP, GB, etc.
Word processing and office automation
All office action is done on the application or patent produced automatically from our data base as word processing.
III. Matters concerning abstracting, classifying, reclassifying and indexing of technical information contained in patent documents
Abstracting, reviewing, translating
Our staff can translate the abstract of the invention into the English language, and patent examiners check all patent abstracts provided by the applicant besides amending them when necessary to ensure that the abstract represents a useful search tool.
Classification and reclassification activities; Classification system used, e.g., International Patent Classification (IPC), other classification (please indicate whether or not patent documents are classified by your Office and, if so, which classification is used)
The Office classifies Egyptian patent applications according to the IPC (7th edition). The Office doesn't reclassify documents.
Bibliographic data and full-text processing for search purposes
Bibliographic data, abstracts (checked by examiners) of Egyptian documents can be searched from the Egyptian Patent Office database.
IV. Search file establishment and upkeep
V. Activities in the field of computerized and other mechanized search systems
The Egyptian Patent Office database is the only in-house system we have for searching.
In-house systems (online/offline)
Technical searching can be carried out on combination of terms from different headings. IPC terms can be searched too.
External databases
We have a list of some external databases that we use regularly, including Esp@cenet, JAPIO, USPTO, WIPO databases, and other databases. Our official policy is that a world-wide online search should be caried out as whole or part of every patent search done in this Office.
Administrative management systems (e.g., register, legal status, statistics, administrative support, etc.)
Registration and legal status information are stored in the Egyptian Patent Office database.
Equipment used (hardware, including the types of terminal and network used, and software), carriers used
A- Hardware:
We have two LANs as follows:
1-Internal LAN on which local applications are running
2-External LAN that supports Internet browsing and search.
Those LANs consist of 150/213 PC/ person (Dell, HP, IBM) and 5 servers specified in the table attached below.
B-Software:
We use Oracle and ASP in our database and web site.
Online services:
The Egyptian Patent Office provides online services including:
1-Online search on the Egyptian Patents Data base
2-Online filing for the bibilographic data
These services are available through:
A) Egyptian Patent Office website (www.Egypo.gov.eg)
B) Egyptian E-Government portal (soon at www.Egypt.gov.eg)
VI. Administration of the industrial property office library and services available to the public (relating to facilities, e.g., for lodging applications, for assisting clients on searching procedures, for obtaining official publications and registry extracts)
Planning, administration, automation, security, buildings
We have a big collection of patent documents from many countries in our library such as DE, US, FR, GB, EPO, etc.
The available collection includes also various pamphlets, manuals and other publications, some law reports, official journals of the EG Patent Office and of many different countries, magazines, etc. These collections are located in our main buildiing and are therefore secure.
Collecting, acquisitions, preparation
Please see Table I (attached below) concerning the acquisitions by the library in the Egyptian Patent Office in 2005.
Please see Table II (attached below) for total number of documents.
TableIofItemVIcollecting,acquisitions.doc TableIIofItemVIcollecting,acquisitions.doc
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)
The Patent Office searches and advisory services are continuous. We have a Web site for our Office which includes published patents and searchable database where we can find the bibliographic data for any granted patent. Also, it includes all information needed to register patents and others. The web site is: www.Egypo.gov.eg
We made 252 state of the art searches for users as can be seen from the table attached below.
VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of patent documentation and information
International or regional cooperation in the exchange of machine-readable information, e.g., bibliographic data, abstract and/or full text information
The Egyptian Patent Office signed two agreements, namely:
1-Bilateral agreement between the European Patent Office (EPO) and the Egyptian Patent Office, in order to establish a focal point in the library of Alexandria;
2-Trilateral agreement between the Egyptian Patent Office, the European Patent Office (EPO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), in order to establish a regional training center for patents in Egypt.
Medium used for exchange of priority documents
We can accept priority documents in paper form only.
Medium allowed for filing applications
Currently, filing is done in paper form but means of electronic filing are being developed.
Implementation of the Statement of Principles Concerning the Changeover to Electronic Data Carriers for the Exchange of Patent Documents (please provide a status report on the extent to which your Office has changed over to electronic data carriers for the exchange of patent documents)
We exchange our Egyptian Patent Gazette and Egyptian Patent Abstracts with most of the foreign patent offices in paper form.
We have patent documents in paper form, on microfilm, microfiche, CD-ROMs and DVD. We are preparing to exchange our patent documents on microfiche.
VIII. Other relevant matters concerning education and training in, and promotion of, the use of patent information, including technical assistance to developing countries
Training courses for national and foreign participants, use of audiovisual means
Please see Table I (training courses for national and foreign participants) and Table II (conferences abroad attended by our employees), attached below.
TableIofItemVIIItrainingcourses.doc TableIIofItemVIIItrainingcourses.doc
Assistance to developing countries (sending consultants and experts, receiving trainees from developing countries, etc.)
The EG Patent Office has an active program for cooperation with the Arab countries, including sending consultants and experts in the field of PCT to Oman and Syria, and receiving trainees from Arab countries such as Sudan, Jordan, Iraq, Yemen, Syria and Palestine.
We established 6 focal points for intellectual property in the Egyptian universities and reasearch centers.
Promotional activities (seminars, exhibitions, visits, advertising, etc.)
The Egyptian Patent Office held two conferences in Egypt, namely:
1-The importance of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)
2-The Scientific Conference for Implementing the Inventors and Innovators Youth Competition which is organized by National Democratic Party in cooperation the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology.
Furthermore, the Egyptian Patent Office has continued in participating in several exhibitions, to give seminars and to host visits.
IX. Other relevant matters
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |