Annual Technical Report on Industrial Design Information Activities in 2016 submitted by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine

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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.

The expression "industrial designs" covers industrial designs and models.

Offices which issue design patents should report their design patent information activities in this series of Annual Technical Reports.

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

The main documents that determined the directions for the development of industrial design information activities in 2016 were the annual plans of activities of the State Intellectual Property Service of Ukraine[1] (SIPS) and the State Enterprise "Ukrainian Intellectual Property Institute" (Ukrpatent) taking into account the Priorities of the State Intellectual Property Service of Ukraine for 2015-2017. The mentioned plans contain strategic directions "Patent information support in the sphere of intellectual property and provision of wide public with access to the information related to intellectual property rights acquisition" and "Implementation of modern information technology" which in particular include:

- comprehensive development of the main directions of information support in the sphere of intellectual property;

- introduction of new editions of the International Classification of Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification) translated into Ukrainian, creation of information and reference systems freely accessible to the public through the SIPS[2] and Ukrpatent web-resources;

- implementation of series of actions aimed at ensuring the continued acquisition of patent information resources of Ukraine with the Official Bulletin "Industrial Property" on CD-ROM;

- elaboration and implementation of series of actions aimed at the development of the digital patent library;

- participation in the activities on unification and harmonization of the patent documentation of Ukraine, with due account of the world experience and in accordance with the international standards of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the current legislation of Ukraine.

The main actions in 2016 were aimed at:

- development of the technological automated system of processing of applications for industrial designs insofar as it concerns the provision of integrated electronic information processing;

- development and implementation of publicly available information resources for a wide range of users; 

- development of the IT infrastructure.

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

In accordance with the planned tasks, in 2016 a project on creating a system of electronic interoperation of the institutions of the state system of intellectual property legal protection was launched. Within the framework of this project a technical design document was developed, a project "Provision on the system of electronic interoperation" and the "Order of the work with electronic documents through the system of electronic interoperation". The anticipated term of delivering the system is October 2017.

In 2016, the development of the program modules of the second version of the system of electronic filing of applications aimed at performing an extended procedure of drafting, filing and examination of electronic applications for industrial designs was completed.

Also, pursuant to the government initiatives, the software and hardware complex for formation, publication and regular updating of information on industrial property rights (IPRs) in the form of open data was developed and implemented in 2016. The service is created for carrying out search in the sets of open data of the state registers of IPRs and the State Register of Intellectual Property Representatives (Patent Attorneys). The complex operates in the automatic mode and is available at the web page: http://opendata.uipv.org.

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

The main types of industrial design information activities include examination of industrial design applications, formation of search databases for internal use in the examination body, publication of information about registered industrial designs in the official bulletin, creation of the interactive databases and information and reference systems for information support of the wide range of users via the Internet. Publication of information on industrial designs is also performed on optical carriers.

Processing of industrial design applications is carried out by means of the Industrial Designs Automated System (IDAS) which has full functionality of the text processing and record keeping at all stages, from filing of an application to completing the examination and maintenance of the State Register of Patents of Ukraine for Industrial Designs.

An automated workplace of the Editorial Department is used to form the information arrays which are included to the Official Bulletin "Industrial Property".

In 2016 to support the process of maintaining the application processing and improving the labour organization conditions, measures were taken to update the computer hardware and telecommunication equipment, as well as software at the work places of the examination body specialists; besides, steps were made to update security hardware and software. Organizational and technical measures were taken to take obsolete equipment out of service and to put new computer equipment into operation.

In 2016 the efforts were concentrated on the improvement of the technological electronic document flow in the IDAS environment.

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

Applications filed:

in 2015 – 2,080, in 2016 – 2,302 i.e. 10.67 % more than in the previous year.

Patents granted:

in 2015 – 2,521, in 2016 –  2,469  i.e. 2.06 %  decrease with respect to the previous year.

Distribution of the registrations on industrial designs in 2016 according to the following classes of the Locarno Classification:

Class 19 "Stationery and office equipment, artists’ and teaching materials" 419 (17.0 %);

Class 9 "Packages and containers for the transport or handling of goods" 372 (15.1 %);

Class 32 "Graphic symbols and logos, surface patterns, ornamentation" 265 (10.7 %);

Class 12 "Means of transport or hoisting" 159 (6.4 %);

Class 11 "Articles of adornment" 142 (5.8%);

Class 8 "Tools and hardware" 139 (5.6 %);

Class 25 "Building units and construction elements" 114 (4.6%).

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

Annual Reports, statistical information, the Annual Technical Reports of the Office:

http://sips.gov.ua/en/plans_reports.html

News of the Office on the issues related to the industrial designs:

http://sips.gov.ua/en

http://ukrpatent.org/en/indexhtml

Information on the legislation related to the industrial designs

The web-site of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine

http://sips.gov.ua/en/normative_acts.html

http://www.ukrpatent.org/en/legistation.html

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

Information for users on different procedures and sources of information on industrial designs, in particular information on legislation in the sphere of industrial designs, services and Office activities related to the information on industrial designs, statistical information, etc. is published at the web-portal of SIPS (http://sips.gov.ua/en/index.html) and on the web-site of Ukrpatent (http://uipv.org/en/index.html).

The list of patent-information services, including paid services provided by Ukrpatent, in particular by its Innovations Department, is published on the web-sites of Ukrpatent and the department (http://iii.ua/uk).

Information for applicants on filing applications is available on the web-site of Ukrpatent (http://ukrpatent.org).

Information and means for filing electronic applications for industrial designs (within the test operation of the online system) are posted in a separate section of the "Electronic Filing" web-site (http://efiling.ukrpatent.org).

Access to online publications containing information on industrial designs is provided through the web-portal of SIPS (http://sips.gov.ua/en/info_resurses.html) and the web-site of Ukrpatent (http://uipv.org/en/bases.html, http://uipv.org/en/optic.html).

In 2016 external users had an opportunity to take advantage of the software product "Applicant’s Off-line Module" which facilitates applicants work by means of automation of the secondary documents creation process.

The module can be downloaded free of charge from the web-site of Ukrpatent at http://base.ukrpatent.org/off-line/.

Availability of the application dossier in electronic form

All application materials for industrial designs irrespective of the way of their filing, namely in the electronic form, on paper carriers, by e-mail, Fax and other telecommunication networks, are entered automatically or after scanning and stored in the electronic document archive and used by technological systems in the processing of applications. In future all the procedures within the pendency of an application are performed with electronic documents.

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

The International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification), Tenth Edition, translated into Ukrainian was used for classifying industrial designs.

Within the IDAS there operates a software system for checking classification symbols. It includes classification guides and specialized software for checking the allotted classification symbols and reclassification.

For information support of the wide range of users the IRS "International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification). Tenth Edition" was made available at the official web-portal of SIPS and on the web-site of Ukrpatent and is accessible free of charge.

Other activities

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)

The information of the Office on industrial designs is provided in the following publications (official editions, patent information products on optical carriers, free electronic databases (DB) and information and reference systems (IRS)):

The Official Bulletin "Industrial Property" – a printed periodical edition;

The analogue of the printed edition – the Official Bulletin "Industrial Property" on CD-ROM with a search system;

DB "Electronic Version of the Cumulative Official Bulletin "Industrial Property";

Interactive DB "Industrial Designs Registered in Ukraine";

IRS "Industrial Design Applications Proceeding State";

IRS "Information about Patents of Ukraine for Industrial Designs Deemed to be Invalid or Expired";

IRS "International Classification of Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification). Tenth Edition" (entered into force on January 1, 2014) (http://base.ukrpatent.org/locarno10/);

IRS "International Classification of Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification). Ninth Edition" (This edition is available for information and consultation only) (http://base.ukrpatent.org/locarno9/).

Information concerning industrial designs is published in Book 2 of the Official Bulletin "Industrial Property" in the following sections: "Information on the Grant of Patents of Ukraine for Industrial Designs" (contains bibliographic data and images (set of images) of industrial designs (variants) in black-and-white), in the Indexes to this section and in the section "Notices". Colour images of industrial designs (if any) are published in the appropriate section.

The Official Bulletin "Industrial Property" was issued twice a month – 24 issues of the bulletin were issued during 2016. The Annual Index to the Official Bulletin for the previous, 2015, year was also published.

Publications in the electronic information resources:

- DB "Electronic Version of the Cumulative Official Bulletin "Industrial Property" contains information on industrial designs in the same scope as in printed edition. Moreover, information concerning legal status of patents (as an extra operational element) is provided in the section "Information on the Grant of Patents of Ukraine for Industrial Designs";

- interactive DB "Industrial Designs Registered in Ukraine" includes bibliographic data and images (set of images) of the industrial designs (variants).

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

In the section "Notices" of the Official Bulletin "Industrial Property" (printed and electronic publication) with the periodicity of its release announcements in respect of industrial designs (to the extent provided by the respective applicable Law of Ukraine) are published including information on changes in the information entered into the State register of patents of Ukraine for industrial designs, information on issue of duplicates of patents of Ukraine for industrial designs, information on modifications due to the correction of errors and other information relating to the registration of patents of Ukraine for industrial designs.

The said information is available at http://sips.gov.ua/en/industrial_ownness_bulletin.html and http://www.uipv.org/en/of_bulletin.html.

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

The list about information resources available to examiners is given in Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file.

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

For information support of a wide range of public free access to the information concerning industrial designs is provided through the web-portal of SIPS and the web-site of the Ukrpatent – the List of DBs and IRSs is provided in the section 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).

The information about registered industrial designs is available as open data at http://opendata.uipv.org.

According to the Register of free-of-charge distribution approved by SIPS, the Official Bulletin "Industrial Property" on CD-ROM is sent free of charge to the specified organizations of Ukraine (bodies of the national system of scientific and technical information, in particular state and national libraries, as well as to the universities, departments of which are entrusted with the appropriate patent information functions) with the purpose of constant updating of their patent collections by the mentioned publication.

External users can also purchase the Official Bulletin "Industrial Property" on CD-ROM with a search system, the CD-ROM "Industrial Designs Registered in Ukraine" and the Cumulative Optical DVD "Industrial Designs Registered in Ukraine" containing information on all registered industrial designs in Ukraine from January 1993 to the date of the latest publication in the Official Bulletin "Industrial Property".

For external users the access to the Tenth edition of the International Classification of Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification) translated into Ukrainian was provided through the official web-portal of SIPS and the web-site of Ukrpatent where the IRS "International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification). Tenth edition" is placed and access to which is free of charge.

Moreover, external users were able to purchase the Ukrainian-language edition of the Tenth edition of the Locarno Classification on CD-ROM with search system which was issued in 2014 and can be distributed till the new edition of the classification is introduced.

The Annual Reports of the Office (in Ukrainian and English), Annual Technical Reports of the Office in Ukrainian, quarterly review "Industrial Property in Figures" which includes basic indicators of the activities of SIPS and Ukrpatent are also accessible for free on the SIPS and Ukrpatent web-resources.

The information on services available to external users is provided in the first part of section 5 Promotion activities aimed to support users in access and efficient use of industrial designs information.

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

The information concerning legal status of the registered patents of Ukraine for industrial designs to the extent prescribed by the applicable law of Ukraine is published in the Official Bulletin "Industrial Property" in section "Notices" both on paper and in electronic form (the CD-ROM "Official Bulletin "Industrial Property" and the DB "Electronic Version of the Cumulative Official Bulletin "Industrial Property").

In addition, such information is provided in the IRS "Information on Patents of Ukraine for Industrial Designs Deemed to be Invalid or Expired" and (as an extra operational component) in the relevant section of the DB "Electronic Version of the Cumulative Official Bulletin "Industrial Property".

Other sources

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

The processing of industrial design applications is supported by means of the IDAS. The IDAS software is built according to the Client-Server technology. The structure of the IDAS database implements the functions of managing the documents relating to industrial design applications, stores all bibliographic data and offers a wide range of search options.

The IDAS is integrated with other computerized systems, in particular, the Central Electronic Documents Archive (CEDA), the general Electronic Document Management System (EDMS), etc.

In 2016 a further increase the functional capabilities of the IDAS was provided, namely new IDAS functions and modules were developed and existing ones were updated which provide the application of the electronic digital signature on electronic documents, their storage and forwarding to applicants. The necessary amendments were made in the databases.

In 2016 with the aim of brining up to date the document flow and improving the labour organization conditions at the examination body specialists work places, works were carried out aimed at updating the software of the Fees Division (Fees Accounting IAS) with an option of importing into it of data sent through the Client-Bank system, Also, the integration with other technological systems was continued in order to enable examiners to record the paid fees for specific actions on applications and continue application processing.

Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office

The general network infrastructure consists of the security system of Checkpoint 5600 NGFW device which contains the VPN and Firewall modules for connection with the Internet and the internal router (based on the Unix server) to support the internal network. The availability of two firewalls enhances the overall security.

The Cisco and HP equipment is used as network switches.

The internal network is divided into ten virtual networks (Vlan).

The network utilizes the following technical means:

- HP (DL380Gen8, DL380G7, DL380G5), Intel (SE7520JR2, SE7501WV2) servers;

- HP (3Par StoreServ 7200, MSA2040, P2000, MSA2324fc, MSA1000), IBM (ProFibre Storage Array) and Infortrend (EonStor A16F-G2430, EonStor S12F-R1420, EonStor S16F-R1430) information storages;

- equipment for the SAN network (HP SN3000B, HP SAN Switch 8/24, Qlogic SANbox 5600);

- equipment for the HP local area network (Procurve 2910aI-24G, Procurve 2510-48, Procurve 2530-48).

Operating systems and software:

- Windows Server 2012R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Unix operating systems are applied on servers;

- servers virtualization is built on Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012R2  and VMware ESXi;

- MS SQL 2016, MS SQL 2014, MS SQL 2008R2, MS SQL 2005 are used as database management systems.

A domain structure of the Active Directory (AD) was designed which allows for central managing of all the information resources, including users, computers, files, peripherals, access to the services, network resources, web-sites, databases, etc.

Multiple domain controllers are used for the domain structure fault tolerance organization.

The WSUS server provides updating of the server and client computers operating systems.

The anti-virus server "Eset Endpoint Antivirus" provides centralized control of all anti-virus programs on the users computers, anti-virus databases updates, report generation on database updates and existing threats.

The Microsoft software product – System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) – which provides continuous data protection for reliable recovery of Windows servers is used for data backup. The plan of upgrading all servers and services after a failure was adjusted.

Measures for the IT infrastructure improvement taken during the current period were aimed at building a fault-tolerant computer network core, increasing its capacity, security and manageability, replacing obsolete hardware infrastructure components, consolidating and virtualizing servers. Virtualization servers are integrated into clusters providing high availability of all systems.

Series of actions were introduced to ensure compliance of the IT infrastructure with the requirements of a complex information security system. A Security feature is enabled at the network switch ports, making it impossible for unauthorized devices to connect to the corporate network. Changes are introduced to the password policy that meet safety requirements. A two-factor user authentication system was implemented and is based on hardware-software device for generation and verification of digital signatures. To manage the network equipment, information storages and SAN switches, a secure HTTPS protocol and the SSH application layer network protocol were introduced.

In general, the corporate network consists of 600 PCs, 28 physical and 42 virtual servers, 10 information storages and commutation equipment.

Connection to the Internet for searching and browsing was implemented for information systems users.

Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources

For examination of industrial design applications the following in-house information sources are used:

- the CEDA database with information on all applications and registered industrial design patents in Ukraine for the 1992-2016 period;

- the internal database of international registrations of industrial designs including all international registrations of industrial designs protected in Ukraine.

In-house databases are updated in the course of processing applications and within maintenance of the State Register of Industrial Design Patents of Ukraine.

Replenishment of the database of international registrations of industrial designs is carried out daily by automatic downloads from the WIPO web-site ftp://ftpird.wipo.int/wipo/hague/.

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

The search file consists of the arrays of applications entered into the technological IDAS database, database of international registrations of industrial designs and reference and search tool to it.

Documents of other Offices are not included to the industrial designs search file.

Information on the search file updates is provided in the previous section.

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

Administrative support is provided by regular means of the DBMS MS SQL Server 2005.

Other matters

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

In order to satisfy public needs for patent information in Ukraine the Public Patent Documentation Collection (PPDC) functions within the structure of the Innovations Department of Ukrpatent (Innovations Department). The PPDC is the most comprehensive patent library in Ukraine available to the public (intellectual property office library).

International exchange with foreign patent offices has long been the main source of foreign industrial property documentation of the PPDC, including information on industrial designs. Such international cooperation allowed to accumulate a considerable amount of current and retrospective foreign patent documentation, primarily on optical carriers, with information on industrial designs.

During 2016 the PPDC was updated by national and foreign patent documentation, primarily on optical discs. As of December 31, 2016 the PPDC numbered about 33 thousand copies of official bulletins and has a sufficiently deep retrospective.

The PPDC visitors enjoy free access to its materials in the reading room. The customers’ work with the foreign document arrays available in the PPDC on optical carriers is assisted by the consultants of the Innovations Department of Ukrpatent.

In 2016 the PPDC was attended by 200 users, 11% of which were legal entities and 89% – individuals.

Information concerning the contents of the PPDC and its quarterly updates was published in the "Information resources" section at the web-portal of SIPS (http://sips.gov.ua/en/document_fund.html), on the web-sites of Ukrpatent (http://www.uipv.org/en/fond_fkg.html) and its Innovations Department (http://iii.ua/uk/fond-patentnoyi-dokumentaciyi-gromadskogo-koristuvannya).

Proper storage of the PPDC documents meeting specified requirements and guaranteeing their safety was ensured during 2016.

The PPDC is located on the premises of the Innovations Department in three specially adapted and equipped areas (two depositaries with a total area of 81 sq. m. and a reading room of 40 sq. m.). The PPDC is equipped with 12 up-to-date computers with appropriate licensed software, as well as scanners, printers and xerographic copying machines.

To enable users to access to the electronic patent information resources, such as the Digital Patent Library online, the Internet access based on Wi-Fi technology was provided in addition to the traditional Internet access for users’ convenience.

All necessary consultations and services were provided by the Innovations Department, including on the PPDC basis, both on free-of-charge and commercial basis, including different types of information and documentation searches.

In particular, the PPDC provided the following services in 2016:

- 18 consultations on drafting application materials for applications for industrial design registration;

- consultations on the correctness of the application materials composition (213 in total, 21 for industrial designs);

- 34 searches of industrial designs;

- 220 title (firm) searches as for all IPRs, including industrial designs, upon requests of arbitration managers and liquidators of enterprises in default.

Consultations were provided on a free-of-charge basis concerning the most efficient ways to carry out information search, search on CD-ROMs and in the free remote databases of patent documentation via the Internet and consultations on the most common issues relating to the procedure of legal protection with further detection and cessation of unlawful use of industrial designs.

Information on paid services provided by Ukrpatent, in particular, by the Innovations Department is published on the web-site of Ukrpatent and the department (http://iii.ua/uk).

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

Information on industrial designs is published in the Annual Reports and Annual Technical Reports of the Office available at the SIPS web-portal. The statistics on industrial designs is also published in quarterly issues of the Internet review "Industrial Property in Figures" which includes basic indicators of the activities of SIPS and Ukrpatent and is accessible for free on the SIPS web-portal and Ukrpatent web-site.

Methodological recommendations on certain matters relating to industrial design applications examination are available on the Ukrpatent web-site.

Periodicals, e.g. the scientific and practical magazine "Intellectual Property in Ukraine", which is distributed as a paper and electronic edition over the territory of Ukraine by subscription, publish articles (including by the SIPS and Ukrpatent specialists) on various matters and in particular relating to legal protection of industrial designs. Printed edition of the magazine is available for free at the PPDC of the Innovations Department of Ukrpatent.

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

Over the reporting year, with the purpose of updating patent collections of certain bodies of the national system of scientific and technical information, in particular the state and national libraries and universities, departments of which are entrusted with the appropriate information functions, the Official Bulletin "Industrial Property" on CD-ROM was sent free of charge to the specified ones and some other organizations of Ukraine.

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

Significant attention was paid to the skills upgrading of experts of the state system of intellectual property legal protection.

During the past year, as part of experience sharing, training and skills upgrading, officials of the state IP rights protection system participated in numerous events arranged by international organizations, governments and foreign IP offices, studied at the higher educational institution – the Intellectual Property Institute of the National University "Odessa Law Academy" in Kyiv, examiners improved their knowledge of English.

In 2016, the EU Twinning project "Strengthening the Protection and Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights in Ukraine" came to an end. At the final stage of the project, in the first half of 2016, a number of workshops were held with the support of SIPS and Ukrpatent. In general, during the project, 676 people underwent training on intellectual property matters, including experts of SIPS and Ukrpatent, examiners, judges, customs officials, and representatives of the law enforcement agencies.

In 2016, for the purpose of professional development and improvement, and to disseminate intellectual property knowledge, experts of SIPS and Ukrpatent took part in a lot of specialized events in Ukraine. Those included the WIPO Regional Workshop on Intellectual Property for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and Building Respect for Intellectual Property Rights, the research-to-practice conference "Place and role of informational and intellectual property law in the current context"; the meeting regarding the matters of analysis of the judicial practice from the All-Ukrainian Public Organization "Ukrainian Bar Association", from the Committee on telecommunications, information technology and Internet, and from the Committee on intellectual property; the round-table meeting "Intellectual property in IT"; the International conference "Technology and innovation: from scratch to end product", held in Lviv; III Intellectual Property Forum IPF-2016, set up by the "Legal Practice" newspaper; the round-table meeting "Countering patent trolling in Ukraine in the context of intellectual property rights enforcement"; IX International business forum «Problems and prospects of innovation activities in Ukraine», the seminar ''Peculiarities of examination of applications for marks and industrial designs'', etc.

Within the framework of the events dedicated to the All-Ukrainian Week of Law, specialists of SIPS and Ukrpatent participated in the Second scientific and educational conference of the FARMAK PJSC "Intellectual Property and Pharmaceutics" and the round table on the current topics of the legal protection of intellectual property at the Antonov State Enterprise. Also, in accordance with the event programme of the All-Ukrainian Week of Law, an Open House Day was organized in Ukrpatent for lawyers-to-be, where the students learned the practical aspects of examination, having visited the examination divisions of the enterprise.

On July 25-30, the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (KNU) hosted the Summer School on Intellectual Property (basic course according to the WIPO programme). The work of this year's Summer School was supported by the Scientific and Research Institute of Intellectual Property of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine jointly with the Department of Intellectual Property of the KNU, along with SIPS.

During the course, the participants, among them the final-year students, teachers and young intellectual property specialists, mastered a theoretical course on intellectual property and had the opportunity to participate in thematic workshops and practicums according to the WIPO Summer School on Intellectual Property programme.

To disseminate the knowledge about the basic stages of development of the intellectual property sphere in Ukraine, Ukrpatent organized a number of excursions to the Museum of Intellectual Property Legal Protection for pupils and students from Ukraine.

The full list of events of the state system of intellectual property legal protection dedicated to intellectual property issues held in 2016 is contained in the Annual Report.

In the reporting year, SIPS received 25 applications for certification of potential patent attorneys, the consideration of which resulted in 24 candidates being admitted to pass qualifying examinations and certification by the Certification Commission.

Qualifying exams for potential patent attorneys were held in the higher educational institution, specified by SIPS – the Intellectual Property Institute of the National University "Odesa Law Academy" in Kyiv. This institution is licensed to conduct educational activities related to the training and skill upgrading of specialists with a degree in "Intellectual Property" and it has the relevant material and technical resources for such qualifying exams.

As a result of qualifying exams 20 persons were certified as professional intellectual property representatives (patent attorneys).

As of December 31, 2016 there were 514 registered patent attorneys in Ukraine, who render services in the field of intellectual property rights protection.

Other activities

Detailed information on other activities in the state system of intellectual property legal protection in 2016 is contained in the appropriate sections of the 2016 Annual Report (http://sips.gov.ua/en/year_reports.html)

In 2016 the Innovations Department ensured the functioning of the Industrial Property Internet Exchange the aim of which is to promote domestic IPRs to the market, including industrial designs, to encourage development of inventive and innovative activities, to increase the level of public awareness on the intellectual property importance, to inform the wide range of interested public.

The Industrial Property Internet Exchange is available at http://exchange.iii.ua.uk.

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)

The functions of patent documentation international exchange are performed by Ukrpatent, recognized in 2003 by the law as the Centre of International Exchange of Publications according to the Convention on International Exchange of Publications, adopted on December 3, 1958 by the UN General Conference on the matters of education, science and culture.

In the framework of international exchange, the Official Bulletin "Industrial Property" on CD-ROM containing information concerning industrial designs was sent to 14 foreign patent offices and organizations.

Ukrpatent received official bulletins concerning industrial designs from 6 foreign patent offices.

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

In 2016 in the framework of international cooperation the SIPS and Ukrpatent representatives took part in sessions and meetings of the WIPO Committees and Working Groups.

Assistance to developing countries

Other activities

VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS

One of the priority objectives of the examination body is to ensure effective functioning of the quality management system (QMS) of the examination procedure for industrial property rights applications introduced in 2012 at Ukrpatent (International Certificate No. 321012076 of October17, 2012).

In September 2016, an independent certification organization carried out the supervisory audit of the QMS. Representatives of the audit company noted the high professional level of Ukrpatent employees and positively estimated the professional training measures taken at Ukrpatent. Progress has also been noted in the implementation of electronic document management.

Based on the results of the audit, the QMS complies with the requirements of the ISO 9001:2008 standard (international certificate No. 321012076/1, in force from November 19, 2015 to September 14, 2018).