Annual Technical Report 2006 on Trademark Information Activities submitted by The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (SCIT/ATR/TM/2006/MK)
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I. Evolution of registration activities
In the year 2006, the total number of trademark applications (including national applications and international applications - Madrid System) was 5,049, which compared with the previous year 2005, when the total number of trademark applications was 5,329, is an decrease of 5.4%. This decrease is due mostly to the drop of the foreign applications under Madrid System.
In 2005, the number of trademark registrations was 624 and in 2006, the total number of trademark registrations was 1290 which was an increase of 103.1% in the number of trademark registrations in the Office.
According to the International Classification of Products and Services, (Nice agreement) the situation with the received trademark applications by classes has changed significantly in comparison to last year. Thus, the majority of the applications in 2006 were class 35 of the Nice classification (274 applications with 9.61% participation). In second place were application with reference to the class 05 (238 applications and participation of 8.35%) and in third place was class 41 (211 applications and participation of 7.40%). These first three were followed by the applications for the goods in the class 09 (208 applications and participation of 7.29%) and the applications related to class 30 (207 applications and class 16 (176 application and participation of 6.21%).This data indicate increased interest in protection of the trade marks in the field of advertising, work management, administration of work and office maters of the class 35, high interest for trademark protection in the area of pharmaceutical industry, class 05 and food industry, class 30, which may be attributed to the existence of the pharmaceutical and food industry in the Republic of Macedonia.
In 2006 the number of trademark applications filed under the national procedure by the national applicants constituted 40.0% of the total number of applications filed, The number of the countries which filed trademarks applications under the national procedure is 60. The most active applicants were from US (259 applications), HR (61 applications), YU (33 applications), DE (119 applications).
The internationally registered Macedonian trademarks within the framework of the Madrid System in 2005 were on the same level of the previous year (7 trademarks and 1 territorial extension). In 2006 the State Office of Industrial Property has internationally registered 19 trademarks.
In 2006 within the framework of the Madrid System 3311 international trademark applications were received and 495 territorial extensions where the applicants were members of the Madrid Union and request protection in Republic of Macedonia. Compared to the 2005, the number of applications under Madrid System was decreased for 11,1% and 20.2%compared to the territorial extensions. In that context the most applications were from Germany 21.5%, Italy 9.0%, France 7.3%, Switzerland 6.8%, Turkey 5.3% and according to the participation of the countries in the total number of the applications we recognized that, excluded the increased number of application from Turkey, there were no changes in the position kept by countries in 2005 (Germany 27.7%, Italy 8.6%, France 7.9% and Switzerland 6.3%).
In 2006, 664 trademarks were renewed, 692 changes in the trademark registers were made, and 196 cancellations of registrations of the trademark were issued.
II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, and distribution of secondary sources of trademark information, i.e., trademark gazettes
The Industrial Property Protection Office of the Republic of Macedonia issues the official gazette “Glasnik”. The Gazette is issued every three months. This official gazette contains data concerning:
-Trademark applications
-Trademark registrations
-Trademark renewals
-Trademark assignments
-Change of data concerning trademark owners
- Change in the list of goods and services
-Registration of license agreements in respect of trademarks
-Cancellations of national trademarks
-Official decisions,
and information regarding other activities of the Office, in the country and abroad. There are very often commentaries of ongoing activities in protection of industrial property rights. The Office issues an Annual Report of its activities from the previous year. This Report contains basic data for trademarks.
III. Matters concerning classifying, reclassifying and indexing of trademark information
The Industrial Property Protection Office of the Republic of Macedonia uses International Classification of Goods and Services for the purposes of the registration of Marks (Nice Classification).
Bibliographic data of trademark applications and registered trademarks are stored in a database on magnetic disc and they are machine searchable.
WIPO Standard ST.60 is used for bibliographic data coding.
IV. Trademark manual search file establishment and upkeep
Trademark files are kept in paper form in the library, and they are updated continuously.
V. Activities in the field of computerized trademark search systems
State Office of Industrial Property use computerized trademark search system. In 2006 were made 661 searches of the national and international (the WIPO ROMARIN web side is widely used for researches of the international trademark) data base.
- Administrative management systems:
IPAS Software
The 2006 was the third consecutive year since the implementation of the IPAS software in the Office and it was marked by a significant increase in productivity resulting in an equivalent decrease in the backlog of Trademarks.
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)
The Office disposes of information relating to trademarks entered into the Office register.
The Library has a collection of relevant publications and periodicals, which are available to all interested persons at the Office library.
VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of trademark documentation and information
The Office sends and receives trademark gazettes in paper form. The official gazettes, as well as the Annual Report are distributed to the following countries: AM, AL, AT, AZ, BA, BG, BY, CH, DE, EG, FR, GB, HU, IT, IL, JP, LV, LT, MD, PL, , RO, RU, SI, SM, SE, SK, TR, UA, US, YU AND EIPO AND EPO. The Office receives gazettes and annual reports from the following countries: ER, BA, BY, HR, MD, PL, SL, UA, RU AND YU.
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)
In the year 2006, the educational and training activities of the employees of the Trademark Department was as follows:
WIPO
Seminar: Madrid System for International Registrations of Marks (January, Geneva)
In 2005 State Office of Industrial Property (SOIP) in cooperation with WIPO organized seminar “Trademark Issues. The participants from the offices of the Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia and Monte Negro and Turkey were invited.
CARDS Work program- Regional Industrial and Intellectual Property Rights
Seminar: Trademarks and design (Tirana Albania)
Workshop: Trademark cases (Alicante Spain)