Annual Technical Report on Patent Information Activities in 2016 submitted by the State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania

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

 

The Patent Office of the Republic of Lithuania aims at development of patent information activities within cooperation with  European Patent Office , World Intellectual Property Organisation . Within the above mentioned cooperation the Office implements new services as well as adapts and improves the existing services and tools provided by national intellectual property offices.

Main policies and plans of the State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania  include  supporting and highlighting the value of intellectual property created by universities and SME's. Those activities are implemented by improving academia's and SME's skills in patent information usage, especially in creating strategies of intellectual property  while creating cooperation platform between scientific and business  environment as well as platform for exchanging experience and knowledge.

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

In 2016 lectures on patenting and inventions were organized by the State Patent Bureau of Lithuania with Lithuanian centre of non-formal youth education. Senior class pupils of the centre attending biophysics, astronomy and ship modeling clubs with the expert of the State Patent Bureau Inventions department, discussed the patent application process, explained the differences of concepts  "inventor" and "owner of invention” and actively discussed how to improve the previously patented invention  in order improvements can be patented.

in 2016  the SPB   assisted universities of Lithuania participating at  Baltic State Pilot Project which aim is   to asses   current situation of universities  regarding knowledge transfer and to identify their needs and potentials for promotion of IP.

On June, 2016, a three-day training for intellectual property experts of Baltic states universities "IP Marketing and Commercialization" organized by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in collaboration with the State Patent Bureau was opened in Vilnius.

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

Improvements made to the Espacenet database  allow performing searches in the national information collection using keywords from the invention name and description.  It will be possible to perform search in all patent documents in the Lithuanian language.The key new functionality is the opportunity to search information directly in the servers of the European Patent Office (EPO), ensuring relevance of the information, accuracy and completeness of the search.

 The new Espacenet database presents scanned documents of all patents valid in Lithuania forwarded to the EPO as part of the QualityatSource project.

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

In 2016 he State Patent Bureau (SPB) received 5,6 thousand requests for registering industrial property objects. This number of patent applications, designs and trademarks filings remains unchanged compared to 2014. However, in 2015, there was a consistent increase of European patents taking effect in Lithuania (11%).

In 2016  the SPB granted 10% more national patents than in 2014. Almost half of them were targeted at meeting human needs. This is almost twice as many national patents oriented towards the same field as in 2014. A significant number of patents granted in 2015 involved processes in the fields of chemistry, metallurgy, mechanics, physics and various other technological processes.

 

In 2015, the number of European patents taking effect in Lithuania reached the highest point in the past five years. Of 1390 European patents, the majority are applied in the fields of chemistry and metallurgy or are targeted at meeting human needs. Almost half of the owners of the European patents taking effect in Lithuania are from the USA and Germany. The number of patents issued to Lithuanian owners in 2015 made up 6.4% of all the patents that had taken effect in Lithuania (7.17% in 2014.

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

Statistics are accessed at the following URLs:

http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=en&n=321

Annual reports:

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

 

The  SPB  information and support options in 2016 included:

1) Via website: http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?n=592&l=lt ;

2) via telephone: (+370 5 2780290);

3) via e-mail: info@vpb.gov.lt

Availability of the application dossier in electronic form

In 2016 communication with the applicants is maintained via the Electronic Applicant Service System (EPAS), where the documents to SPB are filed in electronic form only.

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) twice per month: on the 10th and on the 25th of every month. 

In 2016 were announced the official statistics  and 24 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

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.

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

Electronic reference data transmission software  improved so as to ensure that EPO receives the most comprehensive data about Lithuanian patents.

Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office

Microsoft Windows XP Professional,

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional,

Microsoft Windows 10; multimedia tablets with Apple iOS, Google Android and Microsoft Windows 10 Pro;

physical and virtual servers with Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard & Enterprise, Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard & Enterprise, Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Standard & Enterprise, Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard & Enterprise, Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard, CentOS Linux 5/6/7, Debian GNU/Linux 6/7/8 and Ubuntu Server LTS; hypervisor servers with VMware vSphere and windows Server 2012 R2.

The web service  developed in  2015 , which allows presenting the data about the legal status of the European patents to the European Patent Federal Register, was maintained.

Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources

 

In 2016, SPB continued the maintenance of internal  information systems. The main task of the IT Division employees was to upgrade and maintain the systems and workstations and to ensure their operation.

 

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

 

The web service was developed, which allows presenting the data about the legal status of the European patents to the European Patent Federal Register. The online database of the European patents in the SPB website was supplemented by tax payment information and is automatically updated every day.

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.

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.

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).

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 2016 and 24 official bulletins of the SPB

Office's initiatives on providing foreign patent information in the local language(s) (e.g., machine translation tools, translation of abstracts)

 

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

 

The SPB collaborates with various institutions in the scope of promotion of knowledge on Intellectual Property (organisation of conferences, workshops, trainings,)

 

In 2016, the SPB collaborated with the following entities, to name a few:

- collaboration with universities (Vilnius University,  Kaunas University of Technology, Klaipėda's University and  etc.);

- collaboration with science and business related institutions, including:,Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology (MITA)

- collaboration with governmental administration institutions: Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Ministry of Culture

.

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

 

The SPB together with Vilnius University and Kaunas University of Technology organized a series of  seminars of the European Patent Academy dedicated to the issues of intellectual property.

  

Attendees of the seminars  received general information on intellectual property rights and their protection as well as specific features of the development of strategies on intellectual property.  Presentations and workshops were held by a representative of the European Patent Academy and patent attorney from Great Britain.

 

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 function of issuing PDF documents signed by e-signature PDF-LT was introduced in the EPAS e-service system.

Electronic reference data transmission software was improved.

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

 

In 2016 the SPB  in co-operation with the European Patent Office signed the "Bilateral Co-operation Plan” (BCP) which is a co-operation agreement covering a number of projects planned for the years 2016-2018. The co-operation activities concern areas such as training, patent-related IT services and tools, patent information services and awareness and strengthening of the European Patent Network (EPN). In the IT field the projects deal with  Espacenet New and Quality at Source.

Assistance to developing countries

N/A

Other activities

N/A

VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS

N/A

 

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.