Annual Technical Report on Industrial Design Information Activities in 2017 submitted by Rospatent
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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
Development of information technology (hereinafter referred to as ‘IT’) has been carried out in the following areas in 2017:
- development of services to improve the convenience and quality of work for examiners and other services of the Institute;
- increase of the infrastructure reliability and security of the local computer network and Internet services;
- replenishment of the databases of Rospatent search systems, usability increase of search tools for examiners of Rospatent, as well as for the whole community of inventors, experts in the patent field and interested persons;
- ensuring the applicability and continuity of public services.
In 2017, users of the FIPS website were given the opportunity to electronically apply for industrial designs.
Currently, the Federal Register of State and Municipal Services (Functions) and the Unified Portal of State Services (hereinafter, EPGU) contain up-to-date information on all 26 of Rospatent’s State services. For 25 State services, it is possible to submit a request (applications, etc.) electronically via EPGU for the provision of a State service, including applying for an industrial design.
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/ru/about/plans.
In 2017, automatic registration of applications for state registration of industrial designs, software and databases submitted via the FIPS Internet portal was provided. Applications filed via the FIPS Internet portal are automatically uploaded to the ASBBD Industrial Design Applications paperless document flow system following assignment of an application number and date of receipt, for distribution to experts.
In 2017, preparatory work was undertaken for cooperation with the WIPO International Bureau under the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs. In 2018, there are plans to develop a system for automating office work in accordance with the Hague Agreement.
In order to enable electronic record-keeping during the provision of State services, the following work was undertaken at FIPS in 2017:
- 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 2017, 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.
The transition to electronic prosecution has seen a gradual decline in the use of paper-based information, a reduction in the time taken to process documents and search for required information, thereby leading ultimately to increased productivity and better public awareness of patent rights and amendments thereto, as well as the status of patent documents.
In 2017, EGR PO records continued to be completed. As at the end of 2017, it contained 31,994 patents.
Automatic downloading of information from State Registers in open data formats is provided in accordance with the Federal Intellectual Property Service’s disclosure requirements schedule of the most important data sets of social significance for 2017-2018. The information is available in the ‘Public Data’ section of the Rospatent website.
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.
In order to achieve the primary objective of migrating to electronic provision of State services, on Rospatent’s initiative a provision was included in Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1151 of September 23, 2017, On Amendments to the Regulations on Patent and Other Fees, to reduce by 30% all fees levied for providing State services electronically.
At present, applicants and representatives thereof may interact with FIPS electronically using services provided on the State Services Portal. (www.gosuslugi.ru).
In 2017, 344 industrial design applications were filed electronically through EPGU services (5.3 per cent of the total number of industrial design applications).
Interaction with the federal executive authorities is provided using the inter-agency electronic interaction system (hereinafter, ‘SMEV’). 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 inter-agency electronic interaction version 3.0 on July 28, 2017.
In 2017, the type of information on registered intellectual property subject matter was developed and registered in the production and test environment of SMEV 3.x Type of information that ensures the transfer of information about the registered objects of intellectual property.
Table 1 shows the trends in the filing of applications and grant of patents for industrial designs in 2016 and 2017.
Table 1
| 2016 | 2017 | % 2017/2016 |
Total number of industrial design applications filed, including: | 5464 | 6487 | 118,72 |
- by Russian applicants | 2391 | 3263 | 136,47 |
- by foreign applicants | 3073 | 3224 | 104,91 |
Total number of patents granted, including: | 4455 | 5339 | 119,84 |
- to Russian applicants | 1780 | 2194 | 123,26 |
- to foreign applicants | 2675 | 3145 | 117,57 |
The total number of applications filed for industrial designs increased compared to 2016 by 18.72 per cent, mainly due to a decline in Russian applicants (by 36.47 per cent), but also in foreign applicants (by 4.91 per cent).
The number of industrial design patents granted increased by 19.84% as compared to 2016.
(e) 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://new.fips.ru/to-applicants/industrial-designs/promyshlennye-obraztsy-normativnye-dokumenty.php;
- 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/ru/sourses/links;
- Guide to the resources and Internet resources of the VPTB Division of FIPS:
- Information notices in the Industrial Designs section:
http://new.fips.ru/to-applicants/industrial-designs/informatsionnye-soobshcheniya.php.
Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
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:
- Access to documents for patent applications for inventions, utility models, and industrial designs, and issuance of copies of said documents:
- Methodological recommendations on the examination of applications for industrial designs:
http://new.fips.ru/to-applicants/industrial-designs/metodicheskie-rekomendatsii.php;
- "Forms of documents" section:
http://www.rupto.ru/ru/documentforms;
- Specimen Applications and Requests, and Completed Examples section heading:
http://new.fips.ru/documents/formy-dokumentov/;
- "Electronic filing of an application" / heading "Submission of applications for an industrial design" section:
http://new.fips.ru/podacha-zayavki/podacha-zayavki-na-promyshlennyy-obrazets/;
- Fees section:
http://www.rupto.ru/ru/activities/dues;
- Fee calculator:
http://new.fips.ru/podacha-zayavki/kalkulyator-poshlin/index.php;
- Patent Law subject matter section: http://www.rupto.ru/activities/objects;
- Frequently Asked Questions section:
http://www.rupto.ru/ru/faq/kak-mozhno-zashchitit-originalnyy-dizayn-ot-poddelok-i-zaimstvovaniy.
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 2017, which contains information on 47,000 applications, and is updated daily.
January 1, 2017 on the site of Rospatent, the 11th edition of the International Classification of Industrial Designs (LOC) was published in Russian. It includes translation, scientific and terminological processing of all new types of industrial designs and changes in the previous version approved by the Committee of Experts on the Locarno classification.
At Rospatent, in 2017 was used the 11th edition of Locarno classification for classification of the current patent documents.
In accordance with the WIPO program for the improvement of the Locarno classification in 2017, Rospatent worked on the preparation of new designation of industrial designs for inclusion in the official Russian edition of the 12th edition of the Locarno classification, and the proposals of foreign patent offices were also commented.
In 2017 Rospatent took part in the work of Committee of Experts of WIPO of the Locarno Classification.
III. SOURCES OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE
Rospatent publications on industrial designs are presented in Table 2.
Тable 2
Publication Title | Form of Publication | Frequency of Publication |
Official Rospatent publications on industrial designs | ||
Industrial Designs Official Gazette (primary publication section), including the following sections: RF Industrial Design Patents |
Bibliographic data, image (s) of the product (s) (picture (s), figure (s), including those executed by means of computer graphics, reproductions, or in other ways), list of essential features of an industrial design (for applications received before October 1, 2014). |
Once per month |
Notifications
| Information is published on changes made to entries in the State Register of Industrial Designs of the Russian Federation. Information is provided by the appropriate subdivisions of the Institute and Rospatent in the established form. | |
Court decisions on infringement of the rights of patent owners | Court decisions on the infringement of the rights of patent owners (at the patent owner’s request) | |
Annual Rospatent Activity Report for 2016 (on CD and on website) | Structure and composition of data determined by Rospatent | Once per year |
During 2017, 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 2005-2017 available at:
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/portal/ofic_pub_ru/#page=bulletin&type=PO
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:
- Official Publications section:
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/portal/ofic_pub_ru/#page=search&type=PO&number=0;
- Catalog of Publications and Databases in the Patent Information Products section:
http://new.fips.ru/vse-uslugi/patentno-informatsionnye-produkty/.
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
1. Notifications containing communications on changes to information concerning State registration of an industrial design |
PD4L Change of denomination, first name, surname or patronymic of patent owner |
ТС4L Change of author’s(s’) details |
ТЕ4L Change of correspondence address |
2. Notifications containing communications on termination and restoration of validity of an industrial design patent |
MZ4L Premature termination of validity of a patent for an industrial design (group of industrial designs) on the basis of the patent owner’s request |
ММ4L Premature termination of validity of a patent owing to non-payment within the prescribed period of the fee for maintenance of the patent in force |
MK4L Termination of validity of a patent for an industrial design upon expiry of the term of validity |
NF4L Restoration of validity of a patent |
MF4L Cancellation of a patent deemed invalid MF4L Cancellation of a patent deemed partially invalid NG4L Grant of a new patent in respect of a previously granted patent deemed partially invalid |
|
3. Notifications containing communications on extension of the term of validity of a patent for an industrial design, grant of a duplicate patent |
ND4L Extension of term of validity of a patent for an industrial design (group of industrial designs) on the basis of the patent owner’s request |
RH4L Grant of a duplicate patent |
4. Notifications containing communications on agreements relating to disposal of the exclusive right in an industrial design, transfer of an exclusive right in an industrial design, without the conclusion of an agreement with the patent owner |
PC4L State registration of an agreement on alienation of an exclusive right |
QB4L State registration of an agreement on grant of right of use |
PC4L State registration of the transfer of an exclusive right without an agreement being concluded |
QB4L State registration of an agreement on a pledge (subsequent pledge) of an exclusive right |
QZ4L State registration of amendments relating to an agreement on alienation of an exclusive right |
QZ4L State registration of amendments relating to an agreement on grant of right of use |
QZ4L State registration of amendments relating to a commercial concession agreement (sub-concession), according to which the user was granted the right to use the industrial design |
QZ4L State registration of amendments relating to an agreement on a pledge (subsequent pledge) of an exclusive right |
QC4L State registration of termination of an agreement on grant of right of use |
QC4L State registration of termination of an agreement |
QC4L State registration of termination of an agreement on a pledge (subsequent pledge) of an exclusive right |
5. Notifications containing other communications on registered industrial designs |
ТK4L Correction of obvious and technical errors in the records of the State Register of Industrial Designs of the Russian Federation and/or in publications in the Gazette |
RZ4L Other changes relating to registration of industrial designs |
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://new.fips.ru/elektronnye-servisy/otkrytye-reestry/.
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.
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. 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.
Also periodical publications on industrial designs in hard copy are available for experts (6 periodical publications).
Furthermore, as an additional service, to examine industrial designs based on industrial design images results are prepared of a search for similarity with figurative elements of Russian Federation trademarks in the sub-system of linguistic description and image similarity search, SILOIZ. The search results are provided to examiners of industrial designs in a specialized interface for the preparation of reference materials based on the results of examination of industrial designs. In 2017, 4,026 searches of figurative elements were carried out relating to 1,792 industrial design applications.
In 2017, 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 (2014-2016) were offered on CD/DVD.
In 2017 in addition, users were offered sets of information on industrial designs for 1993 to 2015 on DVD (13 disks), as well as a retrospective set of an array of information on industrial designs for 1993 to 2016 by FTP.
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.
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, 2005.
Also periodical publications on industrial designs in hard copy are available for users (6 periodical publications).
- Rospatent Official Gazette, Industrial Designs.
On the FIPS website, the official bulletin "Industrial Designs" was published and the registers of Russian industrial designs continued to be maintained, indicating their legal status.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.
Also, users are provided free access to information on applications for the grant of a patent of the Russian Federation for an industrial design with a falling date after 01.01.2007.
Registers of Russian industrial designs contain the following databases:
- an industrial designs database (includes information on 71,000 patents from 1993 to 2017);
- a database of applications for industrial designs filed between 2007 and 2017 (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 2017, in respect of industrial design patents;
- Rospatent Official Gazette “Industrial Designs".
ISS users are given access to:
- a database of industrial designs containing information on 71,000 patents from 1993 to 2017;
- 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 2017, as part of the cooperation agreement between Rospatent and the appropriate organizations, the following had access to:
- full-text industrial design databases:
- 160 Technology and Innovation Support Centers
- Two organizations of Rostekhnologiya
- all FIPS databases:
- 105 organizations of the Federal Service of Court Bailiffs
- 235 organizations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
- 98 organizations of the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service
- 16 organizations of the Ministry of Defense
- 96 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 2017, internal and external users made more than 3,016,000 requests, of which:
- Approximately 91,000 by internal database users;
- more than 2,925,000 by external database users.
Users’ Work with Registers of Russian Patent Documents
Users are provided with free access to all documents contained in the "Open Registries".
In 2017, users made more than 81,630 thousand page views of "Open Registries", of which:
more than 332,000 - internal users of registries;
more than 81,298,000 - third-party users of registries.
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://new.fips.ru/vse-uslugi/patentno-informatsionnye-produkty/;
How to purchase publications and databases subsection:
- Industrial Designs Official Gazette in the Official Publications section:
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/portal/ofic_pub_ru/#page=bulletin&type=PO;
- Carrying out searches – in the Information Resources subsection:
Information-Search System:
Open Registers: http://new.fips.ru/elektronnye-servisy/otkrytye-reestry/;
- Patent databases – Databases subsection of the Information-Search System section:
http://new.fips.ru/elektronnye-servisy/informatsionno-poiskovaya-sistema/bazy-dannykh.php;
- Information on accessing and using resources – in the Information-Search System section:
and instruction on work with Internet resources FIPS
http://new.fips.ru/elektronnye-servisy/informatsionno-poiskovaya-sistema/instr_search_2018.pdf;
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://new.fips.ru/elektronnye-servisy/otkrytye-reestry/.
IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
In 2017, work continued on developing hardware and software to ensure industry experts and employees of functional departments could work securely in a remote location.
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 favorable response among patent attorneys.
A duplicating channel for Rospatent’s Internet access was connected, which allowed in 2017 an improvement in the speed of access and reliability of systems connected to the Internet.
In 2017 all work on 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 – 8 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 2017, 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.
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. 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.
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.
Industrial design applications are registered in the IRWC system (a unified system for registering applications and incoming correspondence), procedures for exporting data to DBA systems and the system of ASBBD "Applications for industrial designs" have been developed and implemented.
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
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, 2018, the collection contained, in total, over 2.6 million publications, including:
- national and foreign journals on design and new production methods – over 19,800 copies;
- more than 966 books on design;
- advertising brochures and catalogs – over 48,200 copies;
- the 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 2017, 57,500 copies of publications were issued from the industrial design collection, including:
- 0,600 paper copies, and more than 1,800 electronic copies of Official Gazettes were issued;
- approximately 5,000 items from thematic sub-collections were issued;
- more than 7,700 copies of design magazines were issued;
- approximately 169 copies of books on design were published;
- approximately 42,500 advertising brochures and catalogs were issued.
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://new.fips.ru/about/vptb-otdelenie-vserossiyskaya-patentno-tekhnicheskaya-biblioteka/index.php
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/ru/faq/kak-mozhno-zashchitit-originalnyy-dizayn-ot-poddelok-i-zaimstvovaniy.
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://new.fips.ru/to-applicants/dlya-novichkov/chto-takoe-intellektualnaya-sobstvennost-.php
Cooperation with universities, technology and innovation support centers, etc.
In 2017, as part of the Program for Regional Information Support, Rospatent provided 19 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 338 organizations in 8 federal districts of the Russian Federation as at December 31, 2017. Access was provided to: 2 support organizations; 8 science cities; 38 State scientific centers (SSC), 41 scientific centers of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SC RAS), 17 organizations within the framework of the Federal Target Program, Development of Nanotechnology Infrastructure in the Russian Federation for 2008–2011 (FTP), 174 TISC and 58 other organizations.
Education and training: training courses, e learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.
Organization of training and professional development of FIPS employees is carried out within the framework of the Unified Training System (UTS) on the principle of continuity, starting from the moment of employment. The provision of conditions for continuous professional development of employees is stipulated by the FIPS Charter.
The primary objective in 2017 was to continue the work on organizing classes for various categories of FIPS employees in connection with the issuance of new regulatory and legal acts regulating the rules and procedure for the provision of public services.
This was achieved through training employees according to the plans of professional training directly in FIPS subdivisions and centralized classes.
Organization of training of FIPS employees using internal forms
In accordance with the summary plans for internal training of employees approved by the director of FIPS, 19 centralized classes and 467 classes directly in FIPS subdivisions were conducted in 2017. The main focus of the training in 2017 was to study new provisions of regulatory acts concerning the provision of public services, changes to the Regulations on Patent and Other Fees.
The systematic training of examiner staff on the use of computer databases selected for conducting information searches in the process of examination and, automated systems used in the work, continued.
Advanced training for novice FIPS examiners
The advanced training of novice specialists in the field of examination of inventions and utility models is carried out on a regular basis, with obtaining of an appropriate certificate.
Resulting from obtaining by FIPS of a license to conduct educational activities, the advanced training of novice examiners was carried out on the base of FIPS in accordance with the approved program in the volume of 232 academic hours. 27 experts have been trained.
FIPS Educational Activity
The activities on implementation of additional professional programs are carried out on the basis of the license of the series 77JI01 No. 0008944 (reg. No. 0381 10) issued on December 19, 2016 by the Department of Education of Moscow.
In 2017 the Research and Educational Center was created in FIPS, which activity is aimed at the APE system development, promotion of educational programs at the world educational platforms.
In April 2017, in order to identify the training needs in the regions, all TISCs were questioned. The results of the questionnaire were used in the development of advanced training programs.
During the year, methodical documents on organization and execution of professional development of specialists within the scope of the educational license (12 titles) were developed and published on the FIPS website.
70 specialists of the defense industry complex and government customers underwent training courses on professional retraining and advanced training on the issues of management of rights to the results of intellectual activity
In 2017 within the composition of STC a new section “Development of educational activity” initiated its work. Special attention of the work of the section is given to the development, examination and adoption of APE programs.
11 advanced training programs and 2 retraining programs were developed and approved at STC sections. (see Table 6.4 of Appendix 6 to the Report).
In connection with the opening of the Novosibirsk branch of FIPS in March 2017, specially for the specialists of this department, from April 10 to May 18, 2017 a training was provided in the volume of 132 academic hours under a program "Examination of applications for utility models" (internal training). 12 persons completed the training.
FIPS actively cooperates with "Sirius" educational center, Rosatom, the regions of the Russian Federation in conducting training seminars and master classes.
The information on educational activities conducted by FIPS in 2017 is given in Table 6.5 of Appendix 6 to the Report.
In 2017, Rospatent participated in the organization and holding of 3 international exhibition and one international salon of inventions and innovations.
In 2017, Rospatent's specialists also took part in 4 exhibitions in 3 regions of the Russian Federation.
In 2017, Rospatent participated in organizing and holding 102 conferences, seminars and round-tables in 29 regions of the Russian Federation.
A total of over 3,000 people from various regions of the Russian Federation attended the conferences, seminars and round tables that took place in 2017.
In 2017, 10 intellectual-property conferences and seminars organized and held by Rospatent in 8 regions of the Russian Federation addressed issues relating to industrial design information.
In 2017, VPTB of FIPS held 2 thematic meetings on issues of “Training to work with the electronic filing system for industrial design applications. The other thematic meetings touched upon following issues: “Official publications of Rospatent. New opportunities”; “New approaches to pendency of industrial design applications”; “Revision to Statute on Fees”. Information about thematic meetings is available at: http://new.fips.ru/about/vptb-otdelenie-vserossiyskaya-patentno-tekhnicheskaya-biblioteka/tematicheskie-vstre chi/plan-provedeniya-tematicheskikh-vstrech-na-2017-g.php
The addresses of web pages of the Office’s site containing information about training, seminars and conferences:
- the "Training" section
http://new.fips.ru/about/deyatelnost/obuchenie/index.php;
- 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 dedicated to acquaintance with new by-laws for 2017.:
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/fonds/archiv_meetings;
- conferences and seminars in the regions of the Russian Federation in 2017:
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/confers/arkhiv_conf.
VI.INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION
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 2017, 1,425 copies of industrial design gazettes were received from 39 countries and one international organization on all kinds of carriers: 24 paper copies; 204 copies on optical disks, and 1,197 copies downloaded from office websites or Internet resources.
In 2017, 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 3 FIPS employees delivered addresses:
• March 28 - 29 in Tambov on the basis of the Tambov State Technical University;
• October 24 - 25 in Kaliningrad on the basis of the Kaliningrad Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
May 16 - 19, 2017, at the 20th Moscow International Exhibition of Inventions and Innovation Technologies, Archimedes 2017, which was organized with Rospatent’s support, and attended by representatives of more than 300 organizations and participants from 22 countries and 52 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/ru/international-cooperation;
"The Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designs" subsection:
http://www.rupto.ru/ru/activities/inter/coop/wipo/hague_system.