Annual Technical Report on Industrial Design Information Activities in 2016 submitted by Rospatent

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

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

Development of information technology (hereinafter referred to as ‘IT’) has been carried out in five main areas in 2016:

- development of electronic interaction with applicants;

- electronic record keeping and optimization of record-keeping processes;

- Information support of users;

- inter-departmental electronic interaction;

- development of hardware and software infrastructure.

On the site of Rospatent, the goals, objectives and plans of the Federal Service for Intellectual Property are published in the section "Plans of Rospatent's activities":

http://www.rupto.ru/about/strategy.

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

In order to enable electronic record-keeping during the provision of State services, the following work was undertaken at FIPS in 2016:

- Operability and fitness for purpose of FIPS information systems and resources was ensured, including the Electronic State Registers for Industrial Designs (hereinafter referred to as ‘EGR PO’).

- A system for official Internet publication of information on IP subject matter from the EGR PO of the Russian Federation was installed and trialled.

In 2016, operation continued of the automated system of paperless document flow for reviewing industrial design applications (abbreviated to ‘ASBBD Industrial Design Applications’), as part of which electronic correspondence is provided, as well as signing by electronic signature.

- In 2016, modernized software was introduced for the prosecution of legal decisions of the Chamber of Patent Disputes (PPS)- ASBBD ‘PPS’. As a result of this, the department of legal representation was given the opportunity to conduct office work electronically, and the ability to make entries in all State Registers directly from the records management system.

In 2016, EGR PO records continued to be completed. As at the end of 2016, it contained 21,413 patents.

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

Electronic interaction with applicants.

In the year under review, in order to increase the number of applications submitted electronically, measures were taken to encourage electronic filing of applications.

At present, applicants and representatives thereof may interact with FIPS electronically using services provided on the State Services Portal. (www.gosuslugi.ru).

Descriptions of State services offered by Rospatent can be found on the Unified State and Municipal Services (Functions) Portal (hereinafter, ‘EPGU’). All services offer the required forms for applications, and information on how to access services. 

In 2016, 22 industrial design applications were filed electronically through EPGU1 services (0.4 per cent of the total number of industrial design applications). 

Much attention was paid to the participation of Rospatent in programs initiated by the government of the Russian Federation:

- Unified State and Municipal Services Portal (EPGU);

- Inter-Agency Electronic Interaction System (SMEV), including the transition to electronic interaction with the Treasury;

- Creation of basic State information resources (BGIR);

- Participation in the establishment of a unified e-government infrastructure by connecting Rospatent’s automated systems to the Unified Identification and Authentication System (ESIA).

In 2016, a Consolidated Plan for the transition to electronic provision of public services was developed and approved.

As part of the implementation of the Consolidated Plan, information on all Rospatent services has been updated in the Federal Register of Public Services (FRGU), and descriptions of 26 public services have been made available on EPGU.

Technical requirements for the development of interactive forms of filing applications for 20 services have also been sent to the Ministry of Communications. As of December 31, 2016, it has been possible to file applications for eight Rospatent services with EPGU, while a further 12 services are carrying out testing of interactive forms. The new forms are expected to be launched on EPGU during the first quarter of 2017.

Interaction with the federal executive authorities is provided using the inter-agency electronic interaction system (hereinafter, ‘SMEV’). Version 2.4.4 of the SMEV web-service was developed and registered in a production environment in compliance with methodological guidelines for the development of eleсtronic services and use of electronic signature technology in the course of inter-agency electronic interaction.

In 2016, the type of information on registered intellectual property subject matter was developed and registered in the production and test environment of SMEV 3.x.

SMEV 3.x was integrated in a test environment with types of information from the Federal Tax Service (FNS), ensuring the receipt of extracts from the Unified State Registers of Legal Entities (ЕGRUL) and Individual Entrepreneurs (EGRIP).

In 2016, work was carried out to modernize the ‘Personal Office’ service of the FIPS internet portal in respect of integration with the Unified System of Identification and Authentication System (hereinafter, ‘ESIA’) in order to comply with the Guidelines on the use of ESIA version 2.5.

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

Table 1 shows the trends in the filing of applications and grant of patents for industrial designs in 2015 and 2016.

Table 1

The total number of applications filed for industrial designs increased compared to 2015 by 10.85 per cent, mainly due to a decline in Russian applicants (by 18.66 per cent), but also in foreign applicants (by 5.46 per cent).

At the same time, the number of industrial design patents granted decreased by 18.39 per cent compared to 2015.

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

The following pages of the Office’s website contain:

• Legal information- Regulation section:

 http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/industrial_designs/norm_doc_pm;

• Office Annual Report- Rospatent Annual Reports section:

http://www.rupto.ru/about/reports;

• Information on open sources relating to industrial design information systems- Links section: http://www.rupto.ru/links;

http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/link_resources;

• Guide to the resources and Internet resources of the VPTB Division of FIPS:

http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/fonds/putevoditel;

• Information notices in the Industrial Designs section:

http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/industrial_designs/soob_pm.

II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN 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

The web page addresses of Office websites providing information on filing applications are as follows:

·         State registration of industrial designs, and grant of patents in respect of industrial designs, and duplicates thereof:

http://www.rupto.ru/activities/function/reg_po;

·         Access to documents for patent applications for inventions, utility models, and industrial designs, and issuance of copies of said documents:

http://www.rupto.ru/activities/function/oznakomlenie_iz_pm_po;

• Administrative regulations for the provision by the Federal Service for Intellectual Property of State functions relating to the State registration of industrial designs, and grant of patents in respect of industrial designs, and duplicates thereof:

http://www.rupto.ru/docs/regulations/pr_minek_696#Adm_reg_po;

• Rules for compiling, filing and reviewing documents which constitute the basis for performing legally significant acts concerning the State registration of industrial designs, and forms thereof:

http://www.rupto.ru/docs/regulations/pr_minek_695#I;

• Requirements relating to documents included in an industrial design patent application:

http://www.rupto.ru/docs/regulations/pr_minek_695#II;

• Information specified in an industrial design patent:

http://www.rupto.ru/docs/regulations/pr_minek_695#III;

• Information on the grant of an industrial design patent published in the Federal Intellectual Property Service’s Office Gazette:

http://www.rupto.ru/docs/regulations/pr_minek_695#IV;

• Administrative regulations for the provision by the Federal Intellectual Property Service of State functions relating to access to documents for patent applications for inventions, utility models, and industrial designs, and issuance of copies of said documents:

http://www.rupto.ru/docs/regulations/pr_minek_615#adm_regl_oz;

• Procedure for accessing documents for patent applications for inventions, utility models, and industrial designs, and issuance of copies of said documents:

http://www.rupto.ru/docs/regulations/pr_minek_614#poryadok;

• Guidelines on issues concerning examination of industrial design applications: 

http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/industrial_designs/metod_rek_pm;

• Specimen Applications and Requests, and Completed Examples section heading:

 http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/file_library/obr_zaya/#3;

• Fees section: http://www.rupto.ru/activities/dues;
• Fee calculator: http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/poshl_s/k_p;
• Patent Law subject matter section: http://www.rupto.ru/activities/objects;
• Frequently Asked Questions section: 

http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/about/right_vopr.

Details of seminars and other similar events held in 2016 can be found in Part 5(d).

Availability of the application dossier in electronic form

Access is provided on the Rospatent and FIPS websites to a database of industrial design applications filed between 2007 and 2016, which contains information on 47,000 applications, and is updated daily.

Classification and reclassification activities; classification system used, e.g., International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification), other classification

At Rospatent, the International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification) is used to classify industrial designs. In 2016 the 10th edition of Locarno classification was used for classification of the current patent applications. All patent documents were published with Locarno classification symbols of the its10th edition.

According to the WIPO program of the development of Locarno classification in 2016 Rospatent prepared a list of the names of new types of industrial design, which were discussed at the 12th session of the Committee of Experts on the Locarno Classification in order to include them in official edition of Locarno classification. For discussion of ROSPATENT proposals and proposals of

other patent offices in 2016 ROSPATENT took part in the work of Committee of Experts of WIPO on the revision of Locarno classification. The majority of new goods and other amendments were included in the new 11th edition of the Locarno Classification. After the linguistic treatment of the names of new goods and other amendments were included in a new 11-th edition of Locarno classification, i.e. Russian version of the International classification of Industrial designs (ICID) in machine-readable form. It was issued and entered into force on the1st of January 2017.

Since that time all current applications received by FIPS had been classified in accordance with the 11th edition of ICID.

III. SOURCES OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE

Main types of publications in the field of industrial design information, outline of the content (industrial design applications, design patents, registrations, etc.) and medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URLs)

Rospatent publications on industrial designs are presented in Table 2.

Тable 2

During 2016, the Industrial Designs Official Gazette has been posted on the website of the Federal State Budgetary Institution, the Federal Institute of Industrial Property (hereinafter, ‘FIPS’), which is subordinate to Rospatent, in the Official Publications section, and is freely available, constituting a functional and comprehensive information source. The ISSN number is 2313-7460.

Gazette documents are in PDF format. 

All Industrial Designs Official Gazette for 2014-2016 available at:

http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/ofic_pub/ofic_bul/prom_obr

The web page addresses of the Office’s websites providing information concerning Office publications are as follows:

• Regulations on the Rospatent Official Gazette, Industrial Designs:

http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/documents/russian_laws/order_rospatent/prik_rosp_148_27092016

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

The Official Gazette, Industrial Designs, is published once per month.

The forms of notifications on industrial designs published in the Rospatent Official Gazette, Industrial Designs, are presented in Table 3:

Table 3

 The web page addresses of the Office’s websites providing information relating to access to online publications:

• Industrial Designs in the Official Publications section

http://www1.fips.ru/wps/portal/ofic_pub_ru/#page=bulletin&type=PO;

• In the Information Resources section, subsections:

International Classification for Industrial Designs

http://www1.fips.ru/wps/portal/ofic_pub_ru/#page=classification&type=PO;

Open Registers of Russian Patent Documents subsection

http://www1.fips.ru/wps/portal/Registers/.

From the above page, a user may refer to the following resources by means of the appropriate link:

Register of Industrial Designs of the Russian Federation;

Register of Applications for the Grant of a Russian Federation Industrial Design Patent.

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

FIPS examiners can access all free available resources in the Internet, containing information about industrial designs.

The minimum scope of the search includes industrial design documentation from Russia, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, the United States, France, Japan and WIPO, dating back 15 years. Nevertheless the scope of the search may include any generally available documents regardless of the language, age and type.

The list of available databases is located in the internal network and is updated regularly. The list contains information about industrial design resources of countries and organizations included in the minimum scope of the search, as well as additional resources. Additional resources cover industrial designs information of about 30 countries and organizations, including the EUIPO. For each resource there is information about Internet address, retrospective, and a brief description of search and browsing options.

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

In 2016, subscribers were provided with the Industrial Designs Official Gazette, based on official Rospatent information, on CD/DVD with search system. They are distributed with a frequency of 12 issues (disks) per year. 

For new subscribers, and also for the purposes of keeping patent collections up to date, series of Industrial Designs Official Gazette published in previous years (2013-2015) were offered on CD/DVD.

In addition, users were offered sets of information on industrial designs for 2005 to 2015 on DVD ( 13 disks), as well as a retrospective set of an array of information on industrial designs for 1993 to 2004 on one DVD.

The Industrial Designs Official Gazette was published on the FIPS website, and upkeep of the registers of Russian industrial designs with an indication of legal status continued. 

In 2016, development of a continuous publication system from Rospatent’s Electronic State Registers (EGR) was completed. Since January, 2017, the system has been available to a wide range of users.

The main difference with the new publication system is the publication of patent information immediately after the information is entered into the EGR, thereby obviating the need to accumulate documents as content for the next Gazette.

The new patent information publication system enables immediate publication on the FIPS Internet portal of information on intellectual property subject matter entered into the EGR. This will make it possible to shorten the time for publication of intellectual property subject matter to several minutes after the information is entered into the EGR.

An advantage of the new publication system is also an increase in the efficiency of preparing the published materials by transferring the main preparatory work for the publication to the stage prior to entry into the EGR.

Advanced tools have been developed in the new system for ease of editing and providing effective monitoring.

Owing to the publication changes, amendments have been made to the Official Gazette- one Gazette will include a whole range of publication dates, and the Gazette will be a regular publication, updated on a daily basis.

Since information will be continuously entered into the EGR, Gazettes will be replenished, updated and posted in the ‘Official Publications’ section of the FIPS portal on a daily basis.At the same time, the Gazettes will be ‘closed’ in accordance with the current approved and customary issue dates thereof (once, twice, and three times per month). Gazettes thus issued will include documents with publication dates falling within the traditional interval between the Gazettes.

An ‘Official Publications’ section has been created on the FIPS website, where official publications will be posted, as well as publications based on official publications.

Official Rospatent communications, records of official publications containing information entered into the State Register, and lists of various types of intellectual property subject matter, Rospatent Official Gazettes, and official publications of international classifications, may be accessed in the ‘Official Publications’ section.

In the ‘Information Resources’ section, there are open registers and the information retrieval system of the FIPS Internet portal, which is updated on the basis of official publications.

In the ‘Official Publications’ section, searches are available by document number, type of intellectual property subject matter, type of document (application, registration information, re-issue, notices), classification, filing date, etc.

For ease of viewing documents, users are provided with the following options:

 - Displaying an abbreviated  (e.g. information on the author and right holder) or complete bibliography, with the option to reproduce/ hide it, as well as displaying all or selected parts of documents;

 - Displaying notification groups in the form of a list with a page view and the option to sort and filter notifications by date and type;

 - Download data for subsequent use: a document with complete information in PDF format and legally significant data with an electronic signature;

- Various navigational options will be available in the section, e.g. links to other related documents.

In addition, for the convenience of the user, it is possible to personalize the visualization of the documents according to the selected user profile or manually select the necessary parts of the document or notification groups.

As part of the development of a system of selective information dissemination, RSS feeds have also been added in the ‘Official Publications’ section of the FIPS Internet portal, by type of intellectual property subject matter, type of document and classifier for intellectual property subject matter where one exists.

Users are also provided with free access to information on applications for the grant of Russian Federation patents for industrial designs received after January 1, 2007.

In 2016, the Rospatent website provided online access to:

1) the information-search system (IPS) for domestic patent documentation;

2) the information resource, Open Registers, is a source of reference information which anyone can use to search for information on registered results of intellectual activity and means of individualization, as well as other information concerning the status of a granted patent or stage of prosecution for applications filed at Rospatent. Reference information is structured by patent number or application registration number by:

- registers of Russian patent documents for industrial designs;

- registers containing information on prosecution of applications filed between 2007 and 2016 in respect of industrial design patents;

- Rospatent Official Gazette, Industrial Designs.

Registers of Russian industrial designs contain the following databases:

- an industrial designs database (includes information on 65,000 patents from 1993 to 2016, updated monthly);

- a database of applications for industrial designs filed between 2007 and 2016 (includes information on the prosecution of 47,000 applications, updated daily).

The FIPS website provides users with access to:

- the information-search system for industrial designs;

- registers of Russian industrial designs;

- registers containing information on prosecution of applications filed between 2007 and 2016, in respect of industrial design patents;

- Rospatent Official Gazette, Industrial Designs ".

IPS users are given access to:

- a database of industrial designs containing information on 65,000 patents from 1993 to 2016, updated monthly;

- the ICID database.

Users’ work with the information-search system

Examiners are able to work with all industrial design databases. Access to the industrial design databases is provided to third-party users on a contractual basis.

In 2016, as part of the cooperation agreement between Rospatent and the appropriate organizations, the following had access to:

• full-text industrial design databases:
  - 129 Technology and Innovation Support Centers

 - Two organizations of Rostekhnologiya

• all FIPS databases:

• ­ 104 organizations of the Federal Service of      Court Bailiffs
• ­ 234 organizations of the Ministry of Internal      Affairs
• ­ 98 organizations of the Federal Anti-Monopoly      Service
• ­ 16 organizations of the Ministry of Defense
• ­ 95 organizations of the taxation service
• ­ 60 users of the Court for Intellectual Property      Rights
• ­ 2 users of the RosOboronPostavka
• ­ 2 organizations of the Federal Customs Service
• ­ 4 users of the Federal Agency of Scientific      Organizations
•  12 users      of the Roskhomnadzor.

Third-party users are granted free access to the following industrial design databases:

- A database containing information on RF industrial design patents No.87456, published in issues of the Industrial Designs Gazette.

- ICID database.

In 2016, internal and external users made more than 3,283,000 requests, of which:

• ­ Approximately 110,000 by internal database users;
• ­ more than 3,173,000 by external database users.

The web page addresses on the Office website which contain information relating to information products and services provided by the Office, are:

• Information on subscribing to patent information products – in the Patent Information Products section: Catalog of Publications and Databases:

http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/publishing_activities/;

How to purchase publications and databases subsection:

http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/publishing_activities/porayad_pr/;

• Carrying out searches – in the Information Resources subsection:

Information-Search System:

http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/inform_resources/inform_retrieval_system/;

Open Registers: http://www1.fips.ru/wps/portal/Registers/;

Industrial Designs Official Gazette in the Official Publications section:

http://www1.fips.ru/wps/portal/ofic_pub_ru/#page=bulletin&type=PO;

• Patent databases – Databases subsection of the Information-Search System section:

http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/inform_resources/inform_retrieval_system/article_2/;

• Information on accessing and using resources – in the Information-Search System section:

Services, http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/inform_resources/article_6/;

Support, http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/inform_resources/inform_retrieval_system/article_4/;

and instruction on work with Internet resources FIPS

http://www1.fips.ru/file_site/instr_search_2017.pdf; subsections.

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

All patent document databases contain information on legal status that is updated monthly.

Automated database subsystems for determining legal status use data from official publications that contain information on newly registered protection titles or amendments. Following publication of each Gazette, data on legal status are posted on the Rospatent website in the Information Resources section. The status of industrial design patents may be “valid”, “may terminate validity”, “validity terminated, but may be restored”, and “validity terminated”.

Information on the legal status of industrial designs is published in the Industrial Designs Official Gazette, posted on the FIPS and Rospatent websites, and also in the Industrial Designs FIPS Gazette on CD/DVD:

- information on the grant of RF patents for industrial designs;

- information on amendments to the entries of the State Register of Russian Federation Industrial Designs (Notifications section of the Gazette).

In the Information Resources section of the Office’s website, information is provided on registrations, with an indication of legal status or stage of prosecution of registered subject matter in the Open Registers: http://www1.fips.ru/wps/portal/Registers/.

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

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

In order to support the computer network’s system software at the required level, work was carried out in 2016 to transfer a number of domain controllers to the new versions of the server operating systems, thereby enhancing the level of IT security.

In 2016, work continued on developing hardware and software to ensure industry experts and employees of functional departments could work securely in a remote location. The number of FIPS employees working remotely increased from 178 in 2015, to 210 in 2016.

From January 15, 2016, in order to improve the accessibility of State services provided by Rospatent, a hardware and software system was put into commercial operation which enables remote examination of claims and objections in the Chamber for Patent Disputes for inhabitants of the regions. Participation in the hearing is provided through a browser, and no additional software installation is required for external participants. Implementation of the system received a favourable response among patent attorneys.

In 2016, the hardware platform of the FIPS Certification Centre underwent modernization. Work was also carried out on the specialized software of the Certification Centre, which, from December 1, 2016, enabled  the transition to the issue of certificates without binding to IP addresses,which increased the fault tolerance of technological processes  using electronic signatures.

In 2016, a duplicating channel for Rospatent’s Internet access was connected, which in 2017 will facilitate an improvement in the speed of access and reliability of systems connected to the Internet.

In 2016, all preparatory work in relation to connecting a segment of the computer network of the FIPS branch in Novosibirsk to a secure channel was completed.

Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office

Equipment used (industrial design search systems):

HP DL380 server – 7 units.

(RAM – 4GB, processors - 2, external memory – 200 GB)

Сервер HP DL580 – 5 units.

(RAM – 16GB, processors - 4, external memory - 600 GB)

HP workstations - 70 units.

 Software:

Windows 7, Windows XP,

Windows 2003 Server, Windows 2008 Server, Windows 2012 Server operating systems.

Carriers used:

Ultrium magnetic tapes

Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources

In 2016, work continued on populating the database of an automated paperless document flow system for examining industrial design applications (Industrial Design Applications), providing examiners with a wide range of features.

Industrial design software continued to be used, providing a review of trademark database search results on the basis of pre-prepared search instructions, in order to prevent unfair competition when using trademarks and industrial designs.

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

Examiners of applications for industrial designs are provided with the results of information searches in the automated system for verbal searches, RF Trademarks, and the system for formalized linguistic descriptions of trademark images, SILOIZ, for similarities between verbal or figurative elements of trademarks and verbal and figurative elements of industrial designs that have been the subject of applications.

Examiners from the industrial designs department analyze and use the results obtained in taking substantive decisions regarding elements similar to the trademarks found.

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

Industrial design applications are registered in the TM-ADMIN system, and procedures to export data to the automated database systems, and the Industrial Design Applications automated paperless prosecution system, have been developed and introduced.

Paper documents are transferred into electronic format and uploaded onto the Industrial Design Applications automated paperless prosecution system using Data Center software, and, in particular, primary industrial design application materials and additional documents relating to industrial design applications are transferred and uploaded to electronic applications.

The automated industrial designs database is used to generate various statistical reports.

The Industrial Design Applications automated paperless prosecution system registers incoming mail, prepares outgoing correspondence, and monitors all stages of an application’s life cycle, from filing of the application to the examination decision (grant, refusal, or withdrawal), monitoring deadlines for reviewing correspondence and conducting examinations.

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

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

The industrial designs collection is intended both for examiners and other categories of users. Information on industrial designs in the All-Russian Patent Technology Library (VPTB) is provided to all categories of users on a fee-free basis.

The industrial designs collection consists of two arrays of documents:

- national and foreign specialist and general Gazettes with sections on industrial designs on various carriers, arranged according to Gazette issue number;

- a specialized collection of a broad range of industrial design publications; the collection is arranged according to ICID indexes.

The collection is kept up to date by including current documentation on RF industrial designs and documentation from Rospatent’s foreign partners received under international exchange, as well as by acquiring literature through subscription from major foreign and Russian publishers.

The specialized collection on industrial designs includes:

- periodicals on industrial design and style;

- advertising brochures and catalogs associated with exhibitions, and adverts for new goods and products;

- thematic collections containing publications from the national Gazettes of a range of foreign countries with a translation into Russian of the name of the industrial design;

- methodology and reference literature.

As of January 1, 2017, the collection contained, in total, over 2.6 million publications, including:

- national and foreign journals on design and new production methods – over 19,500 copies;

- more than 960 books on design;

- advertising brochures and catalogs – over 48,100 copies;

- thematic collections of national Gazettes from a range of other countries – approximately 2.5 million publications.

A collection contains official publications on industrial designs produced by different countries for various retrospective periods.

A room has been specially equipped at VPTB for all categories of users working with industrial design information.

In 2016, 58,700 copies of publications were issued from the industrial design collection, including:

- 0,600 paper copies, and more than 3,000 electronic copies of Official Gazettes were issued;

- approximately 7,000 items from thematic sub-collections were issued;

- more than 7,900 copies of design magazines were issued;

- approximately 250 copies of books on design were published;

- approximately 40,000 advertising brochures and catalogs were issued.

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

The VPTB patent law collection includes books and periodicals on a broad range of issues of legal protection and use of industrial designs in Russia and overseas. The collection is available electronically and in hard-copy, and also includes publications found on the official Rospatent and FIPS websites, and contains different types of information sources: national and international law, commentaries and reviews, guidelines, training aids, standards, patent office reports, conference and seminar materials, compilations of court decisions and collections of statistics, etc. 

Internet publications from the All-Russian Patent Technology Library Division are available on the FIPS website in the State Patent Collection and VPTB Information Products sections at:

http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/fonds/; 

http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/fonds/bibl_uk

Reference information on the stages of prosecution when patenting patent law subject matter is published on the Rospatent website, in the Patent Law Subject Matter section:

 http://www.rupto.ru/activities/objects.

In the Information Resources section, information is provided on registrations, with an indication of legal status or stage of prosecution of applications in the Open Registers: http://www1.fips.ru/wps/portal/Registers/.

Brief information on legal protection of created designs:

 http://www.rupto.ru/about/consult/ks_design/sved.

For novice users of patent information, links can be found to WIPO publications in Russian under the What is Intellectual Property? heading in the For Beginners section:

 http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/about/ip.

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

In 2016, as part of the Program for Regional Information Support, Rospatent provided 7 new accesses to FIPS’ full-text databases (hereinafter, DB) to business entities in the Russian regions free of charge, including an additional opportunity for TISC to conduct industrial design searches.

The opportunity to access databases on the FIPS website free of charge via the Internet was provided to 259 organizations in 8 federal districts of the Russian Federation as at December 31, 2016. Access was provided to: 47 support organizations; eight science cities; 41 State scientific centers (SSC), 36 scientific centers of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SC RAS), 13 organizations within the framework of the Federal Target Program, Development of Nanotechnology Infrastructure in the Russian Federation for 2008–2011 (FTP), 140 TISC and 19 other organizations.

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

Organization of education and advanced training for FIPS specialists is carried out within the Unified Training System (UTS) under the principle of continuity with the use of internal and external forms of education starting from the date of hiring. Ensuring of conditions for continuous advanced training for employees is provided by the Statute of FIPS.

Major task in 2016 was to provide conditions for FIPS experts and researchers to learn new by-laws, first of all, rules and administrative provisions entered into force in the second half of 2015 and 2016. The task was completed by internal training that allows changing training programs promptly in accordance with amended laws and enforcement practice.

Organization of training for FIPS employees with the use of internal forms

According to the Consolidated plans of internal training of employees approved by Director of FIPS, the following activities were held in 2016:

• 12 centralized studies on application of provisions of new normative legal acts on rendering governmental services as per implementation schedules for corresponding normative legal acts. The studies were held by heads and members of working groups who participated in preparation of respective administrative procedures for 19 state services;

• 10 centralized studies for heads of departments, their deputies and leading employees of FIPS; the studies cover the issues of respective activity directions and are assigned for different categories of experts;

• 435 studies held directly in FIPS divisions in accordance with quarterly plans on internal training, dedicated to studies of newly adopted regulating documents, examination issues, as well as analysis of the results of internal and external quality control of examination in certain divisions.

In 2016, during training the main focus was made on studying new provisions of normative legal acts regulating rendering state services. Training of experts on use of computer databases selected for information search during examination and applied automated systems was continued.

Within the framework of expertise (experience) exchange with foreign patent authorities, trainings for experts of Japanese, SAR, Indian, Chinese, Brazilian, Kirgizia examiners were held in Rospatent. In the course of trainings, the examiners exchanged the experience in holding substantive examination.

Advanced training of FIPS novice experts

Advanced training of novice experts in the field of inventions and utility models examination is performed on a regular basis; corresponding certificates are granted. In 2016, civil contract was concluded with RGAIS by the results of open tender as per the established procedure; in compliance with this contract, training of the 14th group of FIPS novice experts (27 persons) was conducted.

Training was conducted in accordance with Educational topical plan of 214 teaching hours. Training program took into account new provisions of normative legal acts, regulations and administrative procedures that regulate rendering state services on the state registration of inventions and utility models.

FIPS employee training at RGAIS 

16 FIPS specialists successfully completed Master’s educational program and received a license on educational Master’s program 40.04.01 «Jurisprudence».

11 FIPS specialists continued their training program of higher education (entered the university on their own initiative and at their own expense).

1 FIPS specialist continued his training in postgraduate study.

In 2016, 6 intellectual-property conferences and seminars organized and held by Rospatent in 6 regions of the Russian Federation addressed issues relating to industrial design information.

The addresses of web pages of the Office’s site containing information about training, seminars and conferences:

- the "Training" section

http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/science/teach/;

 - the "Training seminars" section for TISCs of the RF:

http://www1.fips.ru/TISCs/teach_sem;

 - a plan of thematic meetings of the employees of Rospatent and FIPS with representatives of the business community:

http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/fonds/archiv_meetings;

 - conferences and seminars in the regions of the Russian Federation in 2016:

http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/fonds/archiv_meetings.

VI.INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION

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

In order to fulfill its obligations in relation to exchange of patent information, FIPS posts electronic Gazettes, including trademark information, on the Institute’s FTP server, and has granted log-in and password access to documentation to the offices of 47 foreign countries and two international organizations.

In 2016, 1,726 copies of industrial design gazettes were received from 42 countries and one international organization on all kinds of carriers: 24 paper copies; 242 copies on optical disks, and 1,460 copies downloaded from office websites or Internet resources.

Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to industrial design information

In 2016, Rospatent organized and held two national seminars in conjunction with WIPO on ‘Promoting Efficient Use of the Madrid System for the International Registration of Trademarks, and the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs’ in two regions of the Russian Federation, at which 4 FIPS employees delivered addresses:

• October 13-14, at the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education, Tomsk National Research Polytechnic University in Tomsk;

 • October 17-18, at the Orenburg Region Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Orenburg.

March 29 - April 1, 2016, at the 19th Moscow International Exhibition of Inventions and Innovation Technologies, Archimedes 2016, which was organized with Rospatent’s support, and attended by representatives of more than 300 organizations and participants from 18 countries and 38 regions of the Russian Federation, the traditional competition, ‘Best Industrial Design of the Archimedes Exhibition’, was included in the competition program.

Assistance to developing countries

Rospatent has no special programs to help developing countries. Assistance is provided in response to individual requests from the Offices of developing countries.

VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS

Section "International Cooperation" on the website of the Office:

http://www.rupto.ru/activities/inter.