Annual Technical Report 2007 on Trademark Information Activities submitted by Hungary (SCIT/ATR/TM/2007/HU)
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I. Evolution of registration activities
PREPARATION OF LEGISLATION
The HPO performed its functions and responsibilities concerning the preparation of intellectual property-related legislation and analysis of legal practice with initiative and in a comprehensive and efficient manner. The majority of the tasks concerning the preparation of legislation focussed on codification and supplementary duties related to Hungary’s membership of the European Union, the European Patent Organisation and the World Intellectual Property Organization as well as on the preparation of amendments to legislation affecting the HPO and connected with the restructuring of governmental organisations. Also an important objective was to streamline and refine procedural rules, based on legal practice, in order to satisfy the needs of clients more efficiently.
The HPO prepared the bill on the amendment of certain industrial property laws, which resulted in the adoption of Act XXIV of 2007 amending certain acts on industrial property. The amendment entered into force on 1 May 2007. It re-regulated the legal status of the HPO and laid down rules necessary for the implementation of certain European Community regulations.
A Government decree was adopted containing rules on the electronic filing of patent, utility model and design applications and requests for the renewal of trademarks: Government decree 147/2007. (VI. 26.) Korm. on the detailed rules of the electronic filing of certain industrial property applications entered into force on 1 July 2007.
The HPO contributed to the preparation of Government decree 124/2007. (V. 31.) Korm. on the detailed rules concerning the protection of geographical indications of agricultural products and foodstuffs and the inspection of products.
Hungarian Council for the Protection of Intellectual Property
For the September meeting of the Council, a discussion paper was prepared on the current intellectual property-related issues of the publishing and selling of books. In this context, the HPO and the Council drew up a joint questionnaire entitled “Questionnaire on the status of book publishing and selling in the light of current issues of copyright and intellectual property protection”. This serves as a basis for a survey aiming at the intellectual property aspects of the book industry and covers the most important publishers and sellers. The purpose of the survey is to give an overview of the relations between copyright and other titles of intellectual property protection and publishing and selling of books, to draw up a status report and to initiate the necessary measures.
Preparations were completed for the publication of the third volume of the “White Paper on the Protection of Intellectual Property”, a series launched in 2005 by the HPO and the Council. The volume devoted to the timely issues of intellectual property protection contains the HPO’s medium-term strategy on institution strengthening, publishes a selection of international strategies, deals with the establishment of the National Board Against Counterfeiting and addresses issues of collective rights management.
The quarterly “Newsletter on intellectual property protection”, a joint publication of the HPO and the Council, entered its fourth volume. It sums up news and current information affecting the fields of industrial property and copyright. The aim of the publication is to acquaint in a concise form responsible political and professional decision-makers and players of the economy and culture with current national and international issues of intellectual property protection.
OFFICIAL EXAMINATION AND PROCEDURES IN INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY MATTERS
OFFICIAL ACTIVITY
The amount of Community trademarks and designs with effect extending to Hungary is continuously growing. The number of Community trademark applications was above 88 000 and the amount of registered Community trademarks exceeded 426 000. At the same time, as a consequence of the draining effect of the Community protection system, the number of foreign trademark applications received under the Madrid Agreement decreased by 10%.
The number of national route trademark applications was up by 9 compared with the previous year.
At the same time it is promising that the number of trademark applications of domestic applicants rose by 3.6%.
The number of Community trademark applications filed by Hungarian applicants further increased by about 27%, while that of international trademark applications filed by domestic applicants under the Madrid Agreement was up by 74%, mainly as a result of the activity of one large enterprise.
Although as a result of Hungary’s accession to the European and Community protection systems, a decreasing tendency could be noticed in the number of foreign applications filed directly with the Hungarian Patent Office, the amount of protection obtained by foreign applicants and extending to the territory of Hungary increased in total. Hungarian enterprises producing for the domestic market have to respect Community and European protection effective in Hungary as well. Accession to Community and European protection systems has generated new official tasks. The HPO carried out national trademark searches for the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) and sent the search reports with respect to more than 85 000 Community trademark applications.
The HPO has performed the tasks of a receiving office deriving from the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), from the accession to the European Patent Convention on 1 January 2003 and from the accession to the European Union on 1 May 2004. Hungarian applicants file their foreign applications increasingly with the HPO as a receiving office: domestic applicants filed 130 PCT applications, 7 European patent applications, 438 international (Madrid) trademark applications, 33 Community trademark applications, 8 design applications and 2 applications for Community plant variety rights.
TRADEMARKS
In 2007, 4568 international trademark applications were received under the Madrid Agreement. As a consequence of the draining effect of the Community trademark system, the number of international applications was down by 11%, or 555 applications, compared with the previous year. At the same time the number of Community trademark applications covering Hungary increased by 10 000 compared with the previous year, thus exceeding 88 000.
Last year Hungarian applicants were more active in filing trademark applications abroad. International (Madrid) applications were filed in 438 cases and the number of Community trademark filings amounted to 261. The growth in the number of international (Madrid) applications of Hungarian origin by almost three-quarters of the previous year’s figure was due to the activity of a large Hungarian pharmaceutical company.
The number of trademark applications filed following the national route was 4246, practically remaining at the previous year’s level. 85% of applications filed following the national route came from domestic applicants, and only 631 foreign applications were filed directly with the HPO. The activity of Hungarian applicants was promising: the number of domestic applications was up by 125, or 3.6%.
Applications received from enterprises were preponderant in the case of both domestic and foreign applicants: 80% of domestic applications and 97% of foreign applications were of such origin.
Although the US joined the Madrid system, US applicants continue to rank first among foreign applicants filing applications directly with the HPO: 26% of direct foreign filings came from US applicants, they were followed by German, Swiss and British ones.
In national granting procedures 5509 national trademark cases were completed, the number of registrations was 4011, 333 applications were rejected, 137 withdrawn and 1026 considered withdrawn. 4555 trademark applications were published. 61 cases were recommenced on the basis of requests for review. The number of pending cases decreased by 20%, from 5161 to 3959. To the general satisfaction of applicants, the full processing time of registration procedures was reduced from 14.3 months to 11 months, while the time until the publications of trademark applications decreased on average from 11.9 months to 6 months.
With respect to national trademark procedures, the number of oppositions increased: 243 were filed. The number of completed cases in which opposition was involved also grew: the procedure was successfully completed in 202 cases, compared with the 38 cases in the previous year.
Accelerated procedure was requested in 396 cases, which is more than double the figure of the previous year. The increasing popularity of this institution indicates the demand of customers for a quick closing of procedures.
The HPO proceeded in 67 cases covering national trademarks to be settled by a board. 61 requests related to cancellation and 16 to revocation. The settlement of requests for cancellation in accelerated procedure was asked for in 2 cases.
With respect to international trademark applications, notice of opposition was filed in 78 cases. The number of cases completed that concerned opposition amounted to 47, of which 39 trademark applications were rejected, 3 were granted protection, in 5 cases the notice of opposition was withdrawn.
The HPO continued to draw up national search reports for OHIM: in 2007, such search reports were prepared and forwarded to OHIM with respect to 85 166 Community trademark applications, which represented an increase of 20% compared with the previous year.
The number of national trademarks valid in Hungary amounted to 52 093, which was up by 1577 on the previous year. Hungarians owned 54% of valid national trademarks. The ratio of US proprietors was 21%. The US was followed by the United Kingdom (5%) and Germany (3%). Among the proprietors having the highest number of valid national trademarks, Hungarian and foreign pharmaceutical companies ranked first, such as Richter Gedeon, Chinoin and Glaxo Group.
The classes most frequently indicated in the case of valid national trademarks were: 1) pharmaceutical, sanitary preparations; 2) advertising, commercial services; 3) education, training, sporting; 4) instruments for scientific purposes; 5) paper, packaging materials.
During 2007, 1869 valid trademarks were renewed. 66% of valid trademarks are 10-year-old or younger. 92% of the trademarks are not older than 20 years. 59 valid trademarks are older than a hundred years. Right-holders possessing such “old” trademarks are, among others, DaimlerChrysler AG with the signs “Mercedes” and “Daimler”; Unilever N.V. with the signs “Vasenol”, “Izal” and “Lux”; Kodak GmbH with the sign “Kodak”; Gilette Company with its figurative trademark; Richter Gedeon with the signs “Tomogen” and “Hydropyrin” and OSRAM GmbH with the sign “Osram”.
At the end of 2007, international (Madrid) trademarks valid in Hungary totalled 147 538, representing a decrease of 2% compared with the previous year. 33% of them were owned by German, 16% by French and 11% by Swiss proprietors. 70% of international trademarks valid in Hungary were younger than 20 years and 37% were younger than 10 years.
One new application was filed for the registration of geographical indications. Under the Lisbon Agreement, 16 new applications were received. The increase was mainly due to appellations of origin relating to Georgian wines.
COURT REVIEW OF THE DECISIONS OF THE HUNGARIAN PATENT OFFICE
The number of requests for review, in the case of trademarks, the year witnessed a further decline compared with the record in 2003; the number of cases settled within the HPO’s own competence remained at the previous year’s level.
2007 saw a considerable decrease in the number of cases returned by the courts with a final decision. This may be due to the fact that the Court of Appeal of Budapest, after having been set up on 1 July 2003, eliminated the backlog in 2004 and 2005, mainly as far as trademarks are concerned; on the other hand less requests for review were filed. Concerning trademarks the number of orders was reduced by about 40%. As regards trademark matters, the proportion of orders rejecting the request for review increased.
Table_2007_Tm.doc - MS Word97 314 kB
II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, and distribution of secondary sources of trademark information, i.e., trademark gazettes
OFFICIAL AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS
In the 112th volume of the Gazette of Patents and Trademarks, 12 issues containing altogether 3244 pages were published. Within this, the official columns amounted to 3015 pages, and the so-called literary section to 229 pages. From January 2008 on, the Gazette has been published twice a month, providing more favourable conditions for shortening the registration period of the special accelerated trademark procedure.
In compliance with Article 13(1) of Act XC of 2005 on the freedom of electronic information, from 1 January 2006 the Gazette has been published electronically, with electronic signature ensuring authenticity, accessible free of charge and in a full text searchable PDF format on the website of the HPO. The whole Gazette, as well as the columns themselves, is downloadable. There was a great interest in the Gazette: the monthly published files were downloaded from the website in 330 936 cases, surpassing by 80% the previous year’s figure. 46% of the downloads were started from the English version of the website. The HPO provides printed copies of the Gazette subject to the individual orders of the clients, at production cost.
It was the second year that the Industrial Property and Copyright Review was published as an independent publication with a renewed appearance. This bimonthly periodical comprised altogether 1003 pages. Of the columns, “Studies” made up the biggest volume, followed by “International survey” and “Legal cases”. The periodical is also accessible electronically on the HPO’s website, with a half-year delay.
III. Matters concerning classifying, reclassifying and indexing of trademark information
Both classification systems (Nice and Vienna) are in use. The classification of list of goods and services is subject to formal examination during the procedure for the registration of trade marks. Despite of the fact, that Hungary is not a contracting state to the Vienna Agreement, the classification is used for figurative signs.
IV. Trademark manual search file establishment and upkeep
By enriching and fine-tuning the NAGIOS automatic monitoring system, the HPO made further steps towards the improvement of functional security. Striving for controlled operation was also given a priority in the IT strategy; this purpose was served by the introduction of HP Service Desk system supporting an operation in compliance with the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). It was a strategic task to switch over from the Novell NetWare network operating system to Linux. There was an important step forward in the continuation of server consolidation and virtualisation programmes prescribed by the annual plan, when servers (PIPACS, esp@cenet) were moved from outer locations to the machine room of the HPO.
The uniform record system set up for the support of the industrial property office management activity, the so-called ENYV system, efficiently performed the tasks relating to the national official activity and to Hungary’s membership of the EPC and the European Union. The amendment to industrial property laws generated development and maintenance tasks affecting the office management procedures and the correspondence system. In connection with the revisions of office management procedures, significant improvements were made in the field of international trademarks.
The informatically transformed version of the electronic register (e-register) was also developed. The e-register encompasses the data of all titles of protection in the patent field (patents, validated European patents, plant variety protection, supplementary protection certificates) as well as those of trademarks, utility models and designs.
V. Activities in the field of computerized trademark search systems
IT SUPPORT FOR OFFICIAL ACTIVITY
In accordance with the schedule laid down by industrial property laws amended on the basis of Act XCL on the general rules of the procedures and services of administrative authorities, the HPO introduced in January 2007 the system of the electronic receipt of trademark applications. Following this, electronic filing of patent, utility model and design applications and requests for the renewal of trademarks became available on 1 July 2007. Applicants used the electronic filing system only in 70 cases.
Following the proposals of a control by the Government Audit Office in 2006 relating to IT security, the HPO’s regulation on including computerised applications in security classes and the data processing regulation on the HPO’s services available on the Internet were prepared with the help of KFKI ICON, an outsider partner. Government decree 84/2007. (IV. 25.) Korm. on the security requirements of the Central Electronic Service System and the related systems lays down requirements relating to the HPO’s IT security, in harmony with the above-mentioned regulations.
The medium-term IT strategy, prepared in January 2006 in accordance with the provisions of Government decree 44/2005. (III. 11.) Korm. on the coordination of Government informatics and the order of related procedures and using the relevant recommendations of the Interministerial Coordination Committee for Government Informatics was revised. The purpose of this work was to summarise and evaluate the measures taken for the implementation of the strategy and the outcome thereof and to check and where appropriate modify, the tools of the implementation.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE OFFICE’S HOMEPAGE
Throughout the development of the homepage containing in-depth professional knowledge, there was an endeavour to provide comprehensive and up-to-date information to customers about the official activity of the HPO and to raise awareness of the intellectual property system and promote innovation processes. The English version of the website was fully renewed, and the consolidation of the Hungarian-language website continued. Legal sources previously made up of html files are gradually changed into searchable pdf files. The scientific calendar paying tribute to the intellectual heritage of Hungarian scientists and inventors is now complete. The interactive intellectual property role-playing game “Fel-talált szer-elem” designed for young people was placed third at the eFestival. The homepage fully complied with the obligations prescribed by law that determine the electronic services and homepage managing activity of government organisations.
The homepage was visited by 310 823 individually identifiable visitors on 453 051 occasions. The number of visitors and that of visits were up by 20% each compared with the previous year. The downloaded data volume increased by more than 80%.
As to the country of origin of the interested persons, Hungarian visits ranked first. Among foreign visitors, the US was followed by China, from where about 60 000 pages and files of 15.2 GB were downloaded.
Visits to the PIPACS database, also accessible from the website, amounted to 78 394 in 2007. The electronic register was visited on 21 462 occasions.
VI. Administration of trademark information products and services available to the public (relating to facilities, e.g., for lodging applications, registering trademarks, assisting clients with search procedures, obtaining official publications and registry extracts)
INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY INFORMATION AND DOCUMENTATION SERVICES
The HPO’s services are focussed on the support of the official patent activity and of public information by documentation and information technology.
There was a keen interest in the services of the Patent Library: 7802 requests were received. Of this, general information was given by phone in 2072 cases and personally in 2418 cases; in 2017 cases the subject of the service was search in documents. The Patent Library has also performed tasks directly supporting the official examining work.
The stock of the Industrial Property Professional Library, comprising 18 thousand volumes, was augmented by 844 new technical books; 293 Hungarian and foreign periodicals were available to the readers. There were 380 registered readers. Lending is exclusively available electronically, in the “Huntéka” integrated system for libraries of the Computer and Automation Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Since August 2007, the Patent Library and the Industrial Property Professional Library have received customers in a common reading room.
Trademark register books were repaired with monetary assistance from a the National Cultural Fund, using a tender designed to aid the restoration of unique library documents.
VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of trademark documentation and information
BROADENED RANGE OF INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY SERVICES
Taking into account benchmark international experience for offices providing quality services, mainly based on British, Danish and Austrian examples, the HPO is gradually developing its fee-based higher-level industrial property services extending beyond the free-of-charge information activity of the client services.
Since July 2006, fee-based higher-level services in the field of patent and trademark search (express patent search, simplified trademark filtering) have provided indispensable industrial property tools for the actors of the Hungarian economy to make well-founded business decisions. There has been great interest in the simplified trademark filtering: since its introduction approximately 750 orders have been received from customers. There are more and more regular customers, which shows satisfaction with the service.
Since the end of 2007, customers can get a preliminary search report before filing a trademark application or relating to an already registered trademark. The HPO performs this search with respect to national trademarks and trademark applications and also Community trademarks and trademark applications where the effect of these extend to the territory of Hungary. With the help of this new service the customer can obtain an overview of similar signs protected as a trademark or under registration.
An important step on the road to becoming a regional industrial property competence centre was the launch of the CETMOS project, implemented with Austrian and Hungarian coordination in September 2007. Through this new service customers receive on the basis of a single request a search report extending to earlier trademarks and trademark applications valid in the territory of several Central-European countries. The existence of such a service is also justified by the fact that a lot of enterprises extend their activity to Central and Eastern Europe entailing the demand for trademark protection in the region. With the Austrian and Hungarian national offices taking a leading role, the project has meant the establishment of a new regional service network, not exising until now on European level, with the cooperation of nine Central European countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia).
INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS
The HPO endeavours to consciously exploit the possibilities of international and European projects to a maximum extent.
The HPO is a member of the eight-member consortium established to implement the eMARKS project. This is the continuation of the eMAGE project which, launched in 2004, aimed at screening out counterfeited products. The project is funded by the European Commission as part of the eTEN programme. Its objective is to perform a market analysis and put on the market the “eMAGE” service. The four-language service makes it possible to retrieve figurative trademarks and registered designs by pattern recognition. The HPO coordinates, among others, the operation of the Data Integration Centre, ensuring updates of the service. Potential users of the service are customs and law enforcement authorities, small enterprises, patent attorneys, lawyers and examiners.
The IP4INNO project, “Intellectual property for innovation” was launched on 1 January 2007 within the sixth framework programme of the European Commission. It involves a consortium of 20 organisations from 11 countries, among them the HPO. The aim of the project is to create a uniform European training programme for SME supporting organisations. Its purpose is to increase the innovation propensity of enterprises and economic utilisation through collecting teaching materials, storing them in an electronic database, developing six innovation-stimulating industrial property training modules and training the trainers. The knowledge obtained can serve as an excellent basis for intellectual property information and advisory services. The HPO participates in the elaboration of modules dealing with the commercialisation of innovation and contributed to the organisation of the training of trainers.
The three-year-long IP-BASE project launched in November 2007 is an intellectual property awareness and enforcement modular-based programme to support SMEs. It brings together two important initiatives under one umbrella action: InnovAccess, a web portal created by the national patent offices to provide information on their services for the end user and IPR-Helpdesk, a helpline and training mechanism for contractors in EC-funded RTD Framework Programme projects. The HPO, as a member of the consortium set up with the cooperation of 20 national offices and 6 other institutions, undertook to implement an independent work-package entitled “Developing of actions and local services promoting IP awareness and improving enforcement of IP rights”. Taking into consideration the needs of SMEs, the task aims to collect and analyse national intellectual property strategies and innovation policies, collect services and service providers present in this field. Building on this data it aims to elaborate new services in accordance with these needs and implement them in a trial phase.
The close relations with the Community trademark and design authority (the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market) continued on the basis of a technical cooperation agreement. Within this framework, the HPO undertook to publish brochures on the Community trademarks and design systems and to carry out promotion activities at seminars and exhibitions. The Community trademark data and the relevant seniority data were uploaded in PIPACS, the Hungarian industrial property database. With the help of Hungarian brochures and web pages prepared within the framework of the cooperation, the Client Services provided information on the opportunities offered by the Community protection systems in almost 10000 cases personally, by phone and e-mail.
VIII. Matters concerning education and training, including technical assistance to developing countries (please indicate URLs of web pages of the Office’s website wherever appropriate)
COMMUNICATION AND PRESS ACTIVITY
The fundamental principle of the HPO concerning its public appearance is effective and open communication. In this spirit, regular relations were maintained with the representatives of the media, mutually informing each other of the possibilities for cooperation. In several cases working relations were established with the persons responsible for communication in partner institutions cooperating in certain events, in particular with those of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Ministry of Economy and Transport, National Office for Research and Technology, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and the Hungarian Innovation Association.
The HPO penned articles on innovation promotion and increasing awareness in the economic daily “Napi Gazdaság”. The second communication conference was organised on 10 May 2007 with the professional support of the National Office for Research and Technology, the National Club of Scientific Journalists, HEURÉKA-Solart Film, the Hungarian Innovation Association and the HPO. The HPO hosted the conference aiming at the renewal of the “Heureka” TV programme.
In the Hungarian media more than 400 articles, pieces of news, radio or TV programmes dealt with, or mentioned, intellectual property protection, inventions, inventors, patents and copyright. In addition to these, 52 articles were published in connection with the HPO and its activities. Officials of the HPO appeared in electronic media about 18 times.
Since September 2007, the HPO has been sending a monthly electronic newsletter to its registered clients. The E-news contains selected and edited news available on the office’s homepage.
INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY EDUCATION
The long-standing focussed educational activity of the HPO is a key contributor to the development of Hungarian industrial property culture and to the enrichment of intellectual property knowledge. There was significant interest in the intermediate and advanced level industrial property courses. Industrial property training programmes were present in higher education institutes and several specialised courses were held. In 2007, with the cooperation of 20 institutions, almost 1500 students received industrial property and copyright education in a total of 852 hours.
The two-year advanced level industrial property course is an important pillar of the development of domestic industrial property culture and of the bringing-up of the new generation of professionals. Launched in September, the course started with 44 students. The students came in equal proportions from entrepreneurial, legal or attorney candidate and HPO staff member backgrounds. From the students of the previous course, 23 persons defended their theses successfully.
The intermediate industrial property education is sought for, in addition to higher education institutes, by enterprises and administrative organisations. 30 students received intermediate education at the Károly Róbert College of Gyöngyös and 32 students at the Faculty of Technology and Agriculture at Mezőtűr at the College of Szolnok. The HPO organised an intermediate level course combined with distance learning for 32 innovation liaison officers of the Hungarian Police Headquarters. Out of the staff members of the newly opened PATLIB centres and the information points operated by chambers, 7 persons and a further 15 interested outsiders obtained intermediate qualifications within the framework of the HPO’s training.
On the basis of cooperation agreements concluded with the most important universities of Hungary, the students of higher education institutes could acquire up-to-date intellectual property knowledge within the framework of graduate and post-graduate training and distance learning. In 2007, 1174 students of higher education institutes took part in such forms of training.
The competition launched by the HPO for the preparation of diploma works has been successful for years. In 2007, 58 works were received, of which 35 met the requirements. The HPO helped prepare the diploma works of 9 students from the University of Szeged, 7 from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, 7 from the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, 6 from the University of West Hungary and 5 from the University of Miskolc.
The HPO organised specialised courses for the leading researchers of the Institutes for Life Science, Natural Science and Sociology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. 58 researches took part in the courses.
The modern distance learning programme also contributed to acquiring intellectual property knowledge at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics and at the University of Debrecen, with the total participation of 208 students. Introduction of the distance-learning programme continued at the Szent István University, at the University of Szeged and at the University of Miskolc.
The third module of the Innovation Support Training (IST) organised by the European Patent Office and implemented with the participation of national offices was held in Budapest in February 2007. During the one-week training well-known foreign lawyers, attorneys and experienced representatives of the national offices shared their knowledge about strategies ensuring enforcement of intellectual property rights, court practices and alternative methods of dispute settlement with about 30 participants coming from the national offices of 21 countries.
PARTNERS in PROFESSIONAL AND EDUCATIONAL COOPERATION
The HPO established professional, educational and other cooperation with several institutions. The most important were:
Professional cooperation: Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungarian Association for the Protection of Industrial Property and Copyright, Association of Hungarian Inventors, Hungarian Innovation Association, Hungarian Academy of Engineering, C3 Foundation, Hungarian Research Student Foundation, NOVOFER Foundation, Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Hungarian Police Headquarters.
Educational cooperation: Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Corvinus University, University of Debrecen, Eötvös Lóránd University, Károly Róbert College, Academy of Fine Arts, University of Miskolc, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, University of West Hungary, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, University of Pécs, Semmelweis University, University of Szeged, Szent István University, College of Szolnok
Cooperation in professional communication: Hungarian Television – Delta, Duna Television – Magyar Csillagok, HEURÉKA–Solart Film, Élet és Tudomány, Jogtudományi Közlöny, Mérnökújság, Napi Gazdaság, Világgazdaság, Gazdasági Rádió, Figyelő, Agrárium, MAG, Természettudományi Társulat, Természet Világa, Zsiráf student magazine.
IX. Other general information related to the Office that is available on the Internet -- URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that:
http://mszh.hu
http://hpo.hu
X. Other relevant matters
INTERNATIONAL AND EUROPEAN COOPERATION IN THE FIELD OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION
International cooperation focussed on exercising rights and meeting obligations deriving from Hungary’s membership of the European Patent Convention and the European Union, as well as on international professional cooperation within the framework of the World Intellectual Property Organization. The majority of the HPO’s international activity concerned participation in the work of the European Patent Organisation and the European Union. Of the missions abroad 62% represented trips connected with meetings of the professional bodies of these two organisations. The management efficiency of the missions is shown by the fact that the costs of 53% of the trips were reimbursed by the receiving organisations.
Exercising of rights as a Contracting State of the European Patent Organisation
With the contribution of delegations headed by the president, the HPO successfully performed the tasks deriving from rights and obligations involved by membership of the European Patent Convention. In 2007, the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation held four meetings. The Board, set up in the interest of a better preparation of the Administrative Council’s decisions, met nine times, the Budget and Finance Committee twice. The legal vice-president of the HPO is the chairman of the Committee on Patent Law and also takes part in the meetings of the Board in this capacity.
It is partly due to the action of the HPO that further centralisation of the European patent system, clearly placing smaller and Central-Eastern European countries at a disadvantage, was prevented and the European Patent Network (EPN) involving the substantial participation of national patent offices could be established. The new cooperation policy to be implemented within the framework of EPN provided for the preparation of individual national action plans.
Tasks deriving from membership of the European Union
The HPO established close cooperation with the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market of the European Union (OHIM) and fulfilled its obligations as an EU Member State. Hungary’s representative in the Administrative Board of OHIM is the legal vice-president of the HPO and the alternate representative is the head of the Trademark, Model and Design Department. In 2007, the Administrative Board and the Budget Committee held two meetings each. Liaison meetings were held twice. In October 2007 a workshop was held between OHIM and experts from national offices to discuss certain legal practice issues in the trademark field.
From 1 May 2004, Hungary has been represented in the Administrative Council of the Community Plant Variety Office by two government officials, one of them is the technical vice-president of the HPO.
The HPO was represented at the Working Party on Intellectual Property of the Council of the European Union, at the expert committees of the European Commission and at other meetings on 14 occasions. Meetings were held in the following subject matters: Council Working Party meetings on copyright and related rights; financial perspectives of OHIM; enhancing the patent system in Europe; protection of broadcasting organisations; plant variety rights; expert committee meeting on Community designs.
The HPO took an active part in the work of the Inter-ministerial Committee for European Affairs (ICEA). In addition to operating the ICEA’s expert group responsible for intellectual property, the HPO participated in the activity of the following expert groups: 6. Agriculture (protection of geographical indications and plant varieties), 8. Free movement of goods, market surveillance (drug-related issues), 28. Audiovisual policy, 29. Culture, 30. Science and research, 38. Customs union, customs law, customs cooperation, 46. Proceedings before the Court of Justice and Court of First Instance of the European Communities and procedures preventing such proceedings, 47. Enlargement, 48. Competitiveness and growth.
Within the framework of operation as an EU Member State, the HPO elaborated negotiating positions in the following subjects: Council conclusions about the financial perspectives of OHIM and enhancing the Community trademark system; communication from the Commission on enhancing the patent system in Europe; amendment of Directive 98/71/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the legal protection of designs with respect to the protection of spare parts; Communication from the Commission: “Improving knowledge transfer between research institutions and industry across Europe: embracing open innovation”, and the initiative of the Presidency for a charter for the management of intellectual property from public research institutions and universities. The HPO also contributed to the elaboration of the draft reply to be given to an official invitation in proceedings instituted for breach of obligations with regard to Article 86(2) of Act LXXVI of 1999 on Copyright. In cooperation with the Ministry of Justice and Law Enforcement, it started data collection serving as a basis for an impact assessment relating to the transposition of Directive 2004/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the enforcement of intellectual property rights.
Within the framework of the EU TAIEX programme, Turkish experts were received by the HPO to study design issues.
Cooperation within the framework of the World Intellectual Property Organization and the World Trade Organization
The HPO represented Hungary in the international cooperation under the aegis of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The representatives of the HPO regularly took part in the meetings of the standing committees of WIPO. In 2007, the HPO provided Hungarian participation in the following meetings: 43rd series of meetings of the Assemblies of the Member States of WIPO, extraordinary meetings of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, meetings of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Legal Development of the Madrid System, meeting of the Working Group on the establishment of the digital access service for priority documents, meeting of the Standards and Documentation Working Group of the Standing Committee on Information Technology, meetings of the Administrative and Legal Committee, Consultative Committee and Council of UPOV, meeting of the Working Group on Reform of the PCT, meetings of the Standing Committee on Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications, meeting of the Committee of Experts of the Locarno Union, meeting of the Preparatory Working Group of the Nice Union, as well as meetings dealing with the future of harmonisation of substantive patent law.
Regional and bilateral cooperation
Regional and bilateral intellectual property relations continued in 2007. The heads of the industrial property offices of the “Visegrad countries” held their annual meeting in Tale in July. With the coordination of the Austrian and Hungarian offices and with the participation of 9 Central and Eastern European countries a regional trademark search service named CETMOS was launched in September.
As regards bilateral inter-office meetings, the HPO was visited by delegations from the State Office of Industrial Property of the Republic of Macedonia, the State Intellectual Property Office of Croatia, the Turkish Patent Institute and the State Office for Inventions and Trademarks of Romania as well as by the chief executive of the UK Intellectual Property Office. Delegations of the HPO paid visits to the Danish Patent and Trademark Office, the Austrian Patent Office and the State Office of Industrial Property of the Republic of Macedonia.