Annual Technical Report on Trademark Information Activities in 2015 submitted by Croatia

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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.

I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN TRADEMARK INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of trademark information activities and expected time frames for their realization

The main policies and plans of the Croatian State Intellectual Property Office given in the Annual Work Plan for 2015 were focused on: the cooperation activities with the Office for Harmonization on the Internal Mark of the European Union (hereinafter referred to as: OHIM; from March 2016 OHIM was renamed as European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO)) and the EU national offices with regard the Convergence Programs and Common Tools aiming to facilitate the harmonisation of the trademark practices and to improve the common tools for the benefit of the end users; the revision of the Trademark Examination Guidelines with the Office practice in proceedings related to the registration and maintenance of trademarks rights; the update of the Office's web site content with the explanations of the Convergence Programs and Common Tools implemented by the Office through the European Trade Mark and Design Network (ETMDN); the raising awareness of the importance of the trademark protection through the on-line courses, lectures, seminars and courses to the academic community and the SME's.

Migration of data and functionality from the existing system to a new, open-source platform with the significant improvements made related to the work in the Internet environment which will improve a number of services of the Office.

New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies and plans mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks

The Office has continued with the implementation of the major project started in 2014 of migrating data and functionality from the existing system to a new, open-source platform which encompassed the addition of new functionalities, reports and the improvements of the trademark registry and search tool content through the collaboration of the in-house IT and trademark specialists.

The Office participated in convergence programmes concerning the practice of national offices and OHIM in 2014 and 2015 in certain areas of trademark registration within the activities of the ETMDN. The programme resulted in 2015 with the publication of the Joint Communications of national intellectual property offices of the EU member states and OHIM on the harmonized substantial principals regarding the absolute grounds examination of figurative marks. The Office's web pages were extended to the new content with the detailed information of the Office's participation in the ETMDN. Furthermore, from the beginning of 2015 the updated version of the Trademark Examination Guidelines was published on the web pages in Croatian language equally accessible in the English version from July 2016. Detailed information on the raising awareness activities of the Office is contained in Chapter V of this report.

Main areas of trademark information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year

The Office joined the platform of the EU national offices and OHIM called the Maintenance of Cooperation Fund Tools aiming to improve the quality of a significant number of the implemented common databases namely: TMview – a trademark search tool, Seniority – the data on the Community trademarks claiming seniority of the previously registered national trademark, CESTO – a common support tool for examiners,  Quality Standards – a quarterly statistics on  the average duration of the proceedings phases related to the registration and maintenance of trademark rights, Forecasting – generating trade mark and design filing forecasts for the Office. Through the joined platform the changes and improvements proposed are examined and voted for the implementation. The mentioned common tools represent the important support to the end-users and the Office in a trademark registration process and in the follow up of the results of the Office activities related to the trademark protection.

Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and registrations with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes

Total number of active national registrations:                   28948

(Residents: 13647, Non/Residents:15301)

Total number of active international registrations:             97926

The number of trademark applications filed by national route shows the decrease of 12.7%. The number of trademark national registration shows the decrease of 14.0% in comparison with the previous year as the total number of applications for the examination decreased. 

In 2015 the majority of national applications were filed in class 35 and 41 followed by the classes 16, 05 and 42.

The number of international applications (designations HR) and the number of international registrations (designations HR) continues to fall as a consequence of the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union. In comparison to the previous year the number of international applications decreased 11.0 % while the number of international registration shows the noticeable decrease of 42.2 %.

Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.

Annual report:

http://www.dziv.hr/hr/o-zavodu/godisnje-izvjesce/arhiva-g-i (HR)

http://www.dziv.hr/en/about-sipo/annual-report/archive  (EN)

Statistics:

http://www.dziv.hr/hr/o-zavodu/statistika-ind-vlasnistva (HR)

http://www.dziv.hr/en/about-sipo/ip-statistics  (EN)

Official gazette:

http://www.dziv.hr/hr/glasnik-hgiv (HR)

http://www.dziv.hr/en/the-croatian-intellectual-property-gazette  (EN)

News:

http://www.dziv.hr/hr/novosti  (HR)

http://www.dziv.hr/en/news (EN)

II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO TRADEMARK 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

Filing on paper (instructions, Trademark Examination Guidelines):

http://www.dziv.hr/files/File/obrasci/zig/Uputa_zig.pdf

E-filing:

http://www.dziv.hr/hr/e-usluge/e-prijava/

Classification – list of goods and services (instructions and proprietary application):

http://www.dziv.hr/hr/intelektualno-vlasnistvo/zigovi/medjunarodna-klasifikacija-proizvoda-i-usluga/pretrazivanje-tmclass/

Trademark Examination Guidelines:

http://www.dziv.hr/hr/prirucnik-za-ispitivanje-zigova/ (HR)

http://www.dziv.hr/en/e-services/guidelines-for-search/ (EN)

Instructions for registration of trademark:

http://www.dziv.hr/files/File/obrasci/zig/Uputa_zig.pdf

Frequently asked questions:

http://www.dziv.hr/hr/intelektualno-vlasnistvo/zigovi/najcesca-pitanja/

Availability of the application dossier in electronic form

Official Gazette:
http://www.dziv.hr/hr/glasnik-hgiv (HR)

http://www.dziv.hr/en/the-croatian-intellectual-property-gazette (EN)

Trademark search:
http://www.dziv.hr/hr/e-usluge/pretrazivanje-baza-podataka/zig/ (HR) http://www.dziv.hr/en/e-services/on-line-database-search/trademarks/ (EN)

The information regarding published trademark applications and registrations is also available in the Office database containing public data from the Trademarks register, accessible through the Office website, free of charge. A range of search options is available including: Application Date, Registration Data, Proprietor, Attorney, Mark, Nice Class, Vienna class, Appearance, Register number.
The Office maintains a complete history of its trademark files in paper form (except files that are filed electronically/through e-filling) and all information for trademarks applied from the year 2000 to date in electronic form

With the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union the same trade mark information is available in the TMview database (common search tool for trademarks of participating trade mark offices, at national, international and EU level).

Matters concerning classifying
(i) Classification and reclassification activities; classification systems used, e.g., International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (Nice Classification), International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks (Vienna Classification), other classification
(ii) Use of electronic classification systems and pre-defined terms of the classification applied

• Classification and reclassification activities; classification systems used, e.g., International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (Nice Classification), International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks (Vienna Classification), other classification

The Nice Classification Systems of Goods and Services 10th edition, is used for the registration of marks. Harmonised Database (HDB) as a common tool of the Office for Harmonization at the Internal Market of the European Union and the participating national offices containing pre-defined terms of the classification is at the disposal that helps applicants with the classification of goods and services. The version 10-2015 of the Nice Classification was published in Croatian language at the beginning of 2015. For figurative marks Vienna classification (7th edition) is applied. The mark is classified in Vienna classification by the Office as a part of formality examination of the application.

• Use of electronic classification systems and pre-defined terms of the classification applied

The Nice Classification Systems of Goods and Services, the version 10-2015, is used for the registration of marks. Harmonised Database (HDB) as a common tool of the Office for Harmonization at the Internal Market of the European Union and the participating national offices containing pre-defined terms of the classification is at the disposal that helps applicants with the classification of goods and services. The Office is supplying data to HDB among other participating Offices. The continuous verification of terms and changes in the HDB was made during the year. The database of pre-defined terms is available in Croatian language. The Office developed proprietary database assisting applicants to generate list of goods and services from the HDB in the proper format: http://www.dziv.hr/hr/intelektualno-vlasnistvo/zigovi/medjunarodna-klasifikacija-proizvoda-i-usluga/

The revision of translated terms in Croatian language from the WIPO's database – Madrid Goods and Service was finalized in the second half of the year.

The classification specialist of the Office checks if the correct classification and wording is used in line with the common set of principles of the HDB.

Matters concerning processing of different types of non-traditional marks (e.g., three-dimensional, motion, hologram, color mark, etc.)

For the three-dimensional marks a photograph or a drawing of a representation of a sign is required; the application may be accompanied by not more than six different views of a representation of a sign from different perspectives, the representations being of the same sign

For the color marks the colors shall be listed and described in the application along with the relevant color mark from the internationally recognized system of color identification.

For the sound marks a representation of musical notation is required. Applications for sound marks submitted via e-filing may be accompanied by a corresponding sound file.

Other activities

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III. SOURCES OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE

Main types of publications in the field of trademark information, outline of the content and medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URLs)

Trademarks registers search:

http://www.dziv.hr/hr/e-usluge/pretrazivanje-baza-podataka/zig/ (HR) http://www.dziv.hr/en/e-services/on-line-database-search/trademarks/ (EN),

Official Gazette :

http://www.dziv.hr/en/the-croatian-intellectual-property-gazette/

Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online, URL), etc.

Since 2006 Official Gazette of the SIPO is published monthly, and starting with the issue No. 05/2009 of May 2009 the Office discontinued publishing the Gazette in printed version and publishes it since only as an electronic publication. From October 2013 the frequency of Gazette’s publication has increased to every two weeks publication. The Gazette is fully available free of charge in the PDF-format at the official Office's web site http://www.dziv.hr/en/the-croatian-intellectual-property-gazette/, including the archive of the earlier editions (issued from 1994 onwards). The gazette is also published on CD-ROM as an individual publication on the request of a user (against the payment).The Official Gazette contains the published data on trademarks: Publication of Trademark Applications, Trademark application Indexes by Numbers, Classification Symbols and Applicants, Publication of Record of Changes to the Register of Trademark Applications, Publication of Information on International Registration so f Marks for which Protection has been requested in the Republic of Croatia, Publication of Trademarks, Trademark Indexes by Numbers, Classification Symbols and Owners, Publication of Changes Entered into the Trademark Register, Publication of Trademark Extensions and Publication of Trademarks Expirations.

Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external documentation and databases

The application “Trademarks Register” is used for filing all bibliographic data concerning the particular trademark. All trademark changes (change of ownership, change of name, address, license, etc.) are recorded and are maintained by Trademark Register user interface. Since year 2000 the Office has developed its own document management system in electronic form, which covers office needs (all incoming and outgoing documents have been scanned in Adobe Acrobat).International trademark data in XML format are weekly downloaded from the WIPO’s ftp site. After processing data are available through the application “MECA”. Those data are used for examination and publication purposes and serve as a basis for the proprietary web application for substantive examination of the international trademarks. The common tool of the OHIM and  the EU national offices „CESTO“ is used as a support to the examiners with the harmonized search of several data sources with the useful information when examining trade mark applications under absolute grounds.

Published trademark data (applications/grants) can be searched at the Office’s web site http://www.dziv.hr/en/e-services/on-line-database-search/trademarks/

Access to the following databases from the relevant web pages are also available and also used for information services: ROMARIN, TMclass, TMview, International Non-proprietary Names (INNs) for Pharmaceutical Substances, Geographical Indications protected in the EU, Geographical Indications protected in Croatia.

Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) and services available to external users; conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)

Trademark Examination Guidelines:

http://www.dziv.hr/hr/prirucnik-za-ispitivanje-zigova/ (HR)

http://www.dziv.hr/en/e-services/guidelines-for-search/ (EN)

General information on trademarks and trademark registration procedures is provided free of charge. It can be obtained face-to-face at the Office’s Information Centre (acronym INCENTIV, http://www.dziv.hr/hr/informacije-usluge/incentiv/ & http://www.dziv.hr/en/sipo-information-services/information-centre/), by phone, via fax, e-mail or posted letter, and is also available at the Office’s web site (http://www.dziv.hr/hr/intelektualno-vlasnistvo/zigovi/ & http://www.dziv.hr/en/intellectual-property-protection/trademarks/the-registration-process/).

Trademark’s databases professional search services and registry extracts are available upon user’s request and payment. Standard trademark search services include similarity search, search by owner and listing of bibliographic data. Trademark monitoring and competition watch services are also offered to the users as well as tailor–made search services. The Office is partner in the CETMOS service which offers, upon single request and at favorable fees, trademark search services in the national and international registers of nine Central European Countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia). Several hundred of trademark’s databases searches are performed every year.

On-line search services (e-services) of national register are available to users at http://www.dziv.hr/hr/e-usluge/pretrazivanje-baza-podataka/zig/ & http://www.dziv.hr/en/e-services/on-line-database-search/trademarks/ and http://www.dziv.hr/hr/e-usluge/pretrazivanje-baza-podataka/medjunarodni-zig/ & http://www.dziv.hr/en/e-services/on-line-database-search/international-trademarks-hr/ as well as
links to the e-search-services of other institutions  at http://www.dziv.hr/hr/informacije-usluge/usluge-pretrazivanja/bp-iv-bez-naknade/ & http://www.dziv.hr/en/sipo-information-services/non-commercial-ip-db.

Public computers in the INCENTIV premises are available to users free-of-charge for on-line database searches and web browsing.

The detailed information of the Office's participation in the ETMDN  is available at http://www.dziv.hr/hr/europska-mreza-zigova-i-dizajna/

Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)

Detailed legal status information are available in the Trademarks Register, accessible only to the Office staff, while the basic information on the legal status are available for public on the Office's web site : http://www.dziv.hr/en/e-services/on-line-database-search/trademarks/

Other sources

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IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO TRADEMARK INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements

A wide set of software tools has been developed in-house to support business procedures of the Office, providing a range of tools for efficient processing of the applications and other documents.

Office's software system is in the process of migration to a new (open-source platform).

Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office

- 20Mbit/s leased line used for Internet connection,
- CISCO Network Equipment (LAN based on Fast Ethernet - 1000/100/10 Mbit/s).

SERVERS:

All servers are virtualized under VMware (except mail server)
- VMware vSphere 5.5 Essentials Plus Kit for 3 hosts, 192 GB RAM
- Physical Servers:

- Dell PowerEdge R610 64GRAM; 12 x CPU Intel Xeon E5645

- Dell PowerEdge R620 64GRAM; 8 x CPU Intel Xeon E5645
- Dell PowerEdge R620 64GRAM; 8 x CPU Intel Xeon E5645

Virtualized servers are on the following operating systems:
- Win SERVER 2008 R2 Enterprise
- Win SERVER 2003 St. Ed.
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
- SUSE Linux Enterprise 10
- Debian GNU/Linux 6

Mail Server:

- MS Exchange 2010 Server Enterprise,
- Physical Server: Fujitsu RX300 S5
- OS Win SERVER 2008 R2 Enterprise

Workstations:

- Desktop - PC Pentium IV with WIN XP PROF or WIN 7

- Notebooks - OS - MS WIN 7 or WIN 8

Storage

- NAS:

- NetApp DATA ONTAP Release 8.0.2P4

- IBM N3400, 12x600GB SAS, 24x 1TB SATA disks

Backup software

- SYMC BACKUP EXEC 2012 Server Win Per Server Bndl
- SYMC BACKUP EXEC 2012 Option Ndmp Win Per Server

Backup tape device

- Dell PowerVault TL2000

Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources

The bibliographic data are stored in trademark database and trademark images are stored in a network file directory. They are interlinked by different software tools. Data coverage is a complete set of trademark data since year 2000 and partial data since 1991 (when the office was established).

Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file

The Office does not carry out examination of the relative grounds as a part of the granting procedure so no search file is built in the processing of application. Published trademark data (applications/grants) can be searched at the Office's web site through the web-server application (MS Windows 2003 server and mySQL database).

Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)

From September 2014 SIPO’s used an open source database postgreSQL (before that an ingres database was used). An Electronic Trademark Register is used for filing all bibliographic data concerning the particular trademark. All trademark changes (change of ownership, change of name, address, licence, etc.) are recorded and are maintained by Trademark Register user interface.

Since year 2000 SIPO has developed its own document management system in electronic form that covers office needs (all incoming and outgoing documents have been scanned in Adobe Acrobat).

International trademark data in XML format are weekly loaded from the WIPO’s ftp site. After processing data are available through the application “MECA”. Those data are used for examination and publication purposes.

The Office proprietary web application assists applicants to generate in the proper format a list of goods and services from the TMclass pre-defined classification terms database, and helps examiners to check the regularity of the list of goods and services submitted by applicants:http://www.dziv.hr/hr/intelektualno-vlasnistvo/zigovi/medjunarodna-klasifikacija-proizvoda-i-usluga/.

The Office proprietary web application for substantial examination of the international trademark registrations (designations HR) using data from MECA (Madrid Electronic Communications System) and enables rendering XML and PDF files that are uploaded to the WIPO ftp site through the MECA input system. Also, the same system enables rendering and uploading Grant of Protection data in XML format.

MS Word is used for automatic generation of output documents. MS Excel is used for (automatic) generation of specific reports, which are used, for annual SIPO’s report, WIPO statistics and for other purposes (improving trademark processes).

Published trademark data (applications/grants) can be searched at the SIPO’s Internet site
http://www.dziv.hr/en/e-services/on-line-database-search/trademarks/ through the SIPO's web-server application (MS Windows 2003 server and mySQL database).

Other matters

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V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION

Office's library (if deals with trademark information): equipment, collection management, network of libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign libraries

The Office's Library (http://www.dziv.hr/hr/informacije-usluge/knjiznica & http://www.dziv.hr/en/sipo-information-services/library/) operates within the Office's Information Centre (acronym INCENTIV, http://www.dziv.hr/hr/informacije-usluge/incentiv/ & http://www.dziv.hr/en/sipo-information-services/information-centre/). Library public services include access to the collections and the reading room, available to public during the working hours of INCENTIV. Library collections are available at the Library premises and on-line at the Office's web page (http://knjiznica.dziv.hr/). User inquiries and reservation requests can also be made via e-mail (knjiznica@dziv.hr). The collections contain numerous books and periodicals, primarily in the field of IP or related fields, and are catalogued in the regularly maintained database. 

Publications related to different business procedures and trademark information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.

Trademark leaflets and publications:

http://www.dziv.hr/files/File/pristojbe/zahtjev_oslob_plac_up.pdf

http://www.dziv.hr/files/File/pristojbe/Letak_uplatnica_1.pdf

http://www.dziv.hr/files/File/pristojbe/Letak_uplatnica_2.pdf

http://it-app.dziv.hr/Uplatnice/

http://www.dziv.hr/files/File/pristojbe/zigovi.pdf

http://www.dziv.hr/files/File/pristojbe/prist_trosk_pregled_ZIG.htm

http://www.dziv.hr/files/File/obrasci/zig/brosura_zig.pdf

http://www.dziv.hr/files/File/obrasci/zig/Letak_ZIG_web.pdf

http://www.dziv.hr/files/File/obrasci/zig/Letak_CETMOS.pdf

http://www.dziv.hr/files/File/eng/Pat_pub/Trademark/Letak_zig_EN.pdf (trademark search services)

http://dziv.hr/files/File/obrasci/zig/Z-1_ispunjeni_verbalni.pdf

http://dziv.hr/files/File/obrasci/zig/Z-1_ispunjeni_figurativni.pdf

http://dziv.hr/files/File/zastita/Nica_10_2016.pdf

http://dziv.hr/files/File/pdf/PRIRUCNIK-ZA-ISPITIVANJE-ZIGOVA.pdf

The Office's Library:

http://www.dziv.hr/hr/informacije-usluge/knjiznica & http://www.dziv.hr/en/sipo-information-services/library/

Cooperation with universities, technology and innovation support centers, etc.

Permanent cooperation in education of undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers has been established with the Faculty of Law of the University of Rijeka, Faculty of Economics and Tourism of the University of Pula, Faculty of Architecture (Design study) of the University of Zagreb and the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology of the University of Zagreb.

Education and training: training courses, e-learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.

Other activities

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VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION

International exchange of trademark information in machine-readable form (e.g., Official Gazettes)

In the framework of Croatia’s accession to the European Union, in 2013 the Office commenced exchange of the trademark information in machine-readable form with OHIM, supplying the data to the common public database TMview that includes trademark data from the OHIM, national offices of EU member states and other participating offices.

Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to trademark information

The Office participates  in Convergence programs, Cooperation Fund projects and Liaison meetings with other national trademark offices of the European Union member states and the OHIM.

In 2015, the impact of the cooperation on convergence programmes was discussed through the exchange of the experience of the OHIM, the EU national offices in the implementation of harmonized principles related  to the absolute and relative grounds examinations. During the year the cooperation continued with regard to the improvements of the HDB (Harmonised Database) of the acceptable terms  of goods and services. The regular communication with the OHIM and other EU national offices was established through the joined the platform of the EU national offices and OHIM called the Maintenance of Cooperation Fund Tools thus improving the implemented common tools: TMview – a trademark search tool, Seniority – the data on the Community trademarks claiming seniority of the previously registered national trademark, CESTO – a common support tool for examiners,  Quality Standards – a quarterly statistics on  the average duration of the proceedings phases related to the registration and maintenance of trademark rights, Forecasting – generating trade mark and design filing forecasts for the Office.

Assistance to developing countries

Study visits organized in SIPO

Study visits organized in other countries    

Other activities

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VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS

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