Annual Technical Report on Patent Information Activities in 2014 submitted by LT
I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN PATENT INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of patent information activities and expected time frames for their realization
Patent protection for inventions is granted under the Patent Law of the Republic of Lithuania, which
has come into effect on 3 February 2012.
There are three ways to obtain patent protection in the Republic of Lithuania:
• The national way – by filing applications directly with the SPB;
• The regional way – European Patent Convention (Euro and Euro-PCT applications);
• The international way – under Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).
152 national patent applications and 13 applications in the national phase of the Patent Cooperation
Treaty have been filed with the State Patent Bureau in 2014. That’s a total of 165 applications
– the highest number in the recent decade. 120 applications were filed by Lithuanian
applicants. Conventional priority was requested in 5 patent applications. 13 international applications
switched to the national level, including 7 with the priority of the applications previously
filed.
In its capacity of the receiving office, the SPB received 17 international applications in 2014.
Also, 45 applications for additional protection certification have been received
Patent protection for inventions is granted under the Patent Law of the Republic of Lithuania, which
has come into effect on 3 February 2012.
There are three ways to obtain patent protection in the Republic of Lithuania:
• The national way – by filing applications directly with the SPB;
• The regional way – European Patent Convention (Euro and Euro-PCT applications);
• The international way – under Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).
152 national patent applications and 13 applications in the national phase of the Patent Cooperation
Treaty have been filed with the State Patent Bureau in 2014. That’s a total of 165 applications
– the highest number in the recent decade. 120 applications were filed by Lithuanian
applicants. Conventional priority was requested in 5 patent applications. 13 international applications
switched to the national level, including 7 with the priority of the applications previously
filed.
In its capacity of the receiving office, the SPB received 17 international applications in 2014.
Also, 45 applications for additional protection certification have been received
New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies and plans mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks
In 2014 the focus of law-making activity was on the improvement administrative services of the
SPB and preparation for the introduction of the Euro in Lithuania.
Patent applicants were offered the possibility to use a new service of the SPB: they can file an
application to run a technical level European Patent Office search for an invention which is the
object of a national patent. The service was made available to the public in the framework of the
Procedure for the Filing and Execution of Applications to Run European Patent Office Search
approved by Order No 3R-25 of the SPB Director dated 19 May 2014. The Bilateral Cooperation Plan between the SPB and the EP office for 2014 – 2016 was signed on 25 June 2014.
The State Patent Bureau has successfully continued the improvement of its operational efficiency.
For example, in 2014 the conditions for Lithuanian applicants to run the search of a technical
invention in the European Patent Office in order to make sure of the uniqueness of their
inventions have been improved. The possibility ensures a higher level of service to Lithuanian
inventors and presents the State Patent Bureau as a reliable partner at the entire European
Patent Organization.
Main areas of patent information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year
In the process of expanding the range of e-services, the online database of inventions on the
SPB website was supplemented with a functionality of running a word search in an invention
description. Besides, the option of publishing search reports on the SPB website is available
since 2014.
Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and grants with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes
In 2014 State Patent Bureau of Lithuania received 5892 applications for registration of industrial property objects, increased 1,5 percent over 2013, and 27 percent increased over 2012.
Last year 165 national patent (invention) applications were filed. A gradual but consistent increase in the number of application has been observed since the year 2007 which saw only 85 application filling. In 2014, the State Patent Bureau issued national patents for 120 inventions, a 30.4 percent increase as compared to 2013, and approved the validity of 1,247 European patents. An increase in application fillings in the Republic of Lithuania is also observed in applications for trademarks. In 2014, national trademark applications filed in the Republic of Lithuania went up by 7.9 percent. The total application number in 2014 was 2,457. Meanwhile, this figure was 2,277 for 2013, and 2,270 for 2012. The number of national trademark applications under the Madrid Protocol grew from 97 (in 2012) to 107 (in 2014). Last year saw a marked increase in the number of Lithuanian businesses that registered their industrial designs outside Lithuania under The Hague Agreement and the EU Regulation, i. e. by filling international design or Community design applications. In 2014, a total of 94 applications were filed, whereas in 2013 this figure was 52.
Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
Statistics: http://www.vpb.gov.lt/docs/20150206_1.pdf
Annual review: http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=en&n=318
II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Information and support provided by the Office to applicants regarding filing on paper and/or e-filing (instructions, seminars, etc.) - URLs
Information for applicants regarding filing is only in the Lithuanian language:http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?n=592&l=lt
Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
The dossiers of the patent applications are kept on paper in numerical order under the application number.
Classification1, preclassification2 (if applicable), reclassification3 activities; classification systems used (e.g., International Patent Classification (IPC)); matters concerning indexing of patent information
Applications are classified in accordance with the International Patent Classification, core level.
Abstracting, reviewing, and translation of the information contained in patent documents
Lithuanian language invention abstracts of patent applications and patents have been published as presented by applicants.
Other activities
N/A
III. SOURCES OF PATENT INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE
Main types of publications of the Office (patent applications, full text, first pages, abstracts, bibliographic data, granted patents, etc.), medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URLs)
In the Official Gazette of the SPB there are published the most important bibliographic data (including patent classifications, excluding abstracts and figurative accessories) of the patent applications laid open to public inspection after the lapse of 18 months from the filing date and bibliographic data (including patent classification, abstracts and figurative accessories) of the grated patents.
Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URL), etc.
SPB publish on its homepage Official Gazette (http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=en&n=245) on the 25th of every month.The official place for publication of the SPB Official Bulletin electronic version in PDF format as from 1 July 2009 ─ the SPB web site (www.vpb.gov.lt).
In 2014 were announced the official statistics and 12 official bulletins (gazettes) of the SPB.
Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external collections and databases
The website for the State Patent Bureau of Lithuania is available in English or Lithuanian (via the language options accessible in the upper right corner of the webpage). Through the English-language version of the homepage, users can access the following collections by selecting the "Databases" link below the menu option for each intellectual property type (except "Topographies," which does not have an accessible database):
- Inventions
- Database of the Patents of the Republic of Lithuania
- Database of the European Patents entered into force in the Republic of Lithuania
- Design
- Database of the Design of the Republic of Lithuania
- Trademarks
- Database of the Trademarks of 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.)
The SPB homepage with Rss-reader at http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=EN. The homepage enables access to patent, design, trademark registration information both in English and Lithuanian. It also contains all legal acts (all Lithuanian legal acts are in Lithuanian) and other legislation as well as material on legal protection of industrial property, relevant links, current news and the public databases of subjects for legal protection of the Lithuanian Patent Office, EPO, WIPO, OHIM..
Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)
Bibliographic, legal status data, abstracts in Lithuanian and English of Lithuanian patent applications and patents, extracted from SPB Common Software Database have been posted on EPO FTP sites prior to the actual publications date. Scanned Patent Specifications (B documents) SPB sent to Espacenet database. The bibliographic, legal status data on Lithuanian Patent Applications, PCT Applications, Lithuanian Patents and European Patents have been supplied to EPO to be included into INPADOC PFS, INPADOC PRS and Espacenet.
Other sources
N/A
IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements
In 2014, the Information Technology (IT) Division of the Sate patent Bureau of Lithuania has continued with the development of the
SPB information systems. Employees performed e-service upgrading and maintenance works,
improved database infrastructure and contributed to the preparation of different information
publications. Legislation works of SPB Registers were in progress: patent and design register
specifications have been developed. Besides, all information systems have been adapted to
work with the Euro.
Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office
Workstations connected to the Office network are of the Office staff direct services. The computers run WINDOWS (HP, VISTA,7) and MS OFFICE -2003/2007/2010 software.
Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
The capacity of Netapp data storage facility has been expanded in the process of increasing
database security. Register databases have been migrated from the old Sun SPARC architecture
servers into new x86 architecture servers operating in the virtual environment.
Physical security of the databases has also been increased: blinds have been installed on windows,
surveillance cameras have been installed, a new cooling system has been deployed. New
data security regulations have been approved with the Ministry of Interior.
Computer workstation maintenance and upgrading also takes place on a regular basis. Currently
there are 60 computer workstations at the SPB
Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file
N/A
Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)
The SPB published on its homepage (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 Databases. Common Software Databases 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..
Other matters
N/A
V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF PATENT INFORMATION
Patent library: equipment, collection management, network of patent libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign patent libraries
Lithuanian Technical Library (LTL) is a library of national significance, which accumulates the collection maintenance of books, technical and economy periodic, documents on industrial property, company catalogues, normative and other documents.
The collection maintenance of printings is accumulated in accordance with the developing trends of economy, agriculture, industry and science.
State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania is a founder of Lithuanian Technical Library (since 1998). The Library is funded from the State budget. On 1 February 1999 the Library established a Patent Information Center, which is a deposit library of patent documents of Lithuania, foreign countries and international organizations.
LTL is a public library, available for all the citizens and legal entities of Lithuania and foreign countries. The Library performs the functions of the methodology center of technical libraries network, Interlibrary Exchange System (ILL) and International Interlibrary Exchange System (IILL).
The Library participates in the project of Integral Information System of the Libraries (LIBIS).
LTL is a member of Lithuanian Librarians’ Association (LLA) and Lithuanian Research Library Consortium (LRLC).
There are a center, 17 departments and 10 reading-rooms in the Library. The Library numbers 113 employees (85 of them are the professional librarians). We have branches in Kaunas, Klaipėda and Panevėžys.
The Library provides fee-paying services for contracted legal entities (organizations).
Since January 2013 WIPO will supply LTL with one copy of all unrestricted WIPO publications issued, including books, reports and periodicals, in addition to electronic materials (CDs, DVDs, etc), hereinafter referred to as “WIPO Publications”, as they are published and made available to the public. The LTL agrees to maintain all books, reports, series received from WIPO in good condition and to catalog and include all books, reference materials and periodicals in the library catalog (www.tb.lt ). They will be available and easily accessed to by all users of the library free of charge during library opening hours.
New publications received by the LTL from WIPO will be exhibited on the “New Arrival” counters in timely manner.
Publications related to different business procedures and patent information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.
As every year, the SPB prepared an annual review publication containing statistics for
2014. The publication “How to Protect Industrial Property in Lithuania” in Lithuanian and
English, the memo “Patent Search: What Should Inventors Know?” and 12 official bulletins of the
SPB have been published in 2014
Office's initiatives on providing foreign patent information in the local language(s) (e.g., machine translation tools, translation of abstracts)
The SPB was also involved in the project of the EP Office and Google for the creation of an automatic
patent documentation translation system. The main goal of the automatic translation
technology project has been achieved: automatic translation pairs of the three official EP Office
languages and all EU languages have been created. Four years since the start of the project, the
Patent Translate service is now in operation, thanks to the joint effort of the European Patent
Office (EP Office) and national patent offices. The tool covers all languages of the EP Office,
including Lithuanian and Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Russian. Since the end of 2014 the
main focus is on translation quality of each language.
Cooperation with universities, research centers, technology and innovation support centers, etc.
Workshops on intellectual property assessment and technology transfer in universities were
held at Kaunas University of Technology and Klaipėda University in December 2014; the workshops
were organized at the initiative of the World Intellectual Property Organization and the
State Patent Bureau.
Lecturers, scientific employees and students of Kaunas and Klaipėda Universities as well as representatives
of businesses attended the workshops. The Ten Questions Method was presented
during the workshops, followed by practical training.
Education and training: training courses, e-learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.
In 2014, the SPB organized various events on the topic of protection of the EU and Lithuanian industrial property rights, developed and delivered a variety of themes on the subject, organized and participated in national and international exhibitions, developed and distributed more than one hundred of information reports, articles and publications on intellectual property issues. A lot of attention was devoted to the
regional conference, which took place in Vilnius
on 9 October 2014. The conference was
held to commemorate the 10th anniversary
since Lithuania’s accession to the European
Patent Convention (EPC) and the 20th anniversary
of signature of the first cooperation agreement
between the Republic of Lithuania and
the European Patent Organization.
In 2014, the SPB in cooperation with WIPO held
the best inventor’s competition; the competition
for a WIPO prize was held for the fourth
time.
The 25-year old biochemistry graduate of Vilnius
University is a co-author of two inventions
related to the highly promising CRISPR/Cas
technology. In the future it is planned to use
the technology for eukaryotic organism cell
genome editing, which would make it possible
to create valuable new lines of cells for the
treatment of genetic diseases or the development
of valuable plant and animal species.
Other activities
N/A
VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF PATENT INFORMATION
International exchange and sharing of patent information in machine-readable form, e.g., priority documents, bibliographic data, abstracts, search reports, full text information
The distribution of official patent publications of the SPB in foreign states and intergovernmental organizations on the basis of mutual exchange has been effected by Lithuanian Technical Library.Bibliographic, legal status data, abstracts in Lithuanian and English of Lithuanian patent applications and patents, extracted from SPB Common Software Database have been posted on EPO FTP sites prior to the actual publications date. Scanned Patent Specifications (B documents) SPB sent to Espacenet database. The bibliographic, legal status data on Lithuanian Patent Applications, PCT Applications, Lithuanian Patents and European Patents have been supplied to EPO to be included into INPADOC PFS, INPADOC PRS and Espacenet.
Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to patent information
In 2014 the employees of the SPB attended annual cooperation summits and expert-level meetings
of Nordic and Baltic patent offices, participated in the activities of the Preparatory Committee
of the Unified Patent Court and events organized by patent offices of other countries.
Assistance to developing countries
N/A
Other activities
N/A
VII. OTHER RELATED 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.