Annual Technical Report 2005 on Industrial Design Information Activities submitted by Ukraine (SCIT/ATR/ID/2005/UA)
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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. Evolution of registration activities
• Changes experienced in terms of application filings and grants (registrations) with respect to the previous year;
• Trends or areas experiencing rapid changes with respect to the previous year.
In 2005 an additional opportunity of filing of application materials simultaneously on electronic and paper carriers was provided. Client-side software was developed for application preparation.
In 2005 software tools aimed at the improvement of the register keeping technology of granting titles of protection and their annexes in electronic form were developed and implemented into the automated system “Industrial Designs”.
Changes experienced in terms of application filings and grants with respect to the previous year:
Applications filed:
in 2004 – 1,862, in 2005 – 2,010, i.e. 8 % more than the previous year.
Patents granted:
in 2004 – 1,436, in 2005 – 1,569, 9 % more .
Trends or areas experiencing rapid changes with respect to the previous year (according to the Locarno Classification): the highest percentage of applications were filed for stationery and office equipment (class 19), packages and containers for the transport or handling of goods (class 9), Building units and construction elements (class 25), Articles of adornment (class 11), Means of transport or hoisting (class 12).
II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, and distribution of industrial design documents and of secondary sources of industrial design information, i.e., official gazettes
• Publishing, including printing, copying techniques and electronic printing;
• Main types of announcements of the Office in the field of industrial design information;
• Mass storage media and microforms used;
• Databases and office automation.
The main publications of the State Department of Intellectual Property (hereinafter referred to as the State Department) concerning industrial designs are: the normative documents, the official bulletin “Promyslova Vlasnist” (“Industrial Property”), in which information about the registered patents for industrial designs (bibliographic data, graphic images) is published.
In every issue of the “Promyslova Vlasnist” bulletin the current systematic and numerical indexes of industrial design patents are published. Besides the above-mentioned, the Annual Index to the official bulletin comprises the numerical index of applications for industrial designs and the name index of owners of patents for industrial designs.
In 2005 the activities towards the improvement of the national patent documentation were continued, particularly, the list of the data published in the Official Bulletin “Promyslova Vlasnist” was broadened (changes caused by the amendments introduced to the Intellectual Property Legislation of Ukraine) and the form of their presentation in the publication was improved. Within the changes made an additional section “Colour images of industrial designs” was introduced.
Starting with January 2005 together with the official publications on paper carriers a number of patent information products was issued on optical carriers. Among them there was the Official Bulletin “Promyslova Vlasnist” on CD-ROM. It is issued monthly (12 disks per year), includes the same information as the edition on paper.
During 2005 the official bulletin “Promyslova Vlasnist” was delivered free of charge on paper and on CD-ROM to the State Scientific and Technical Library, the Ukrainian Institute of Scientific, Technical and Economic Information and 22 Scientific, Technical and Economic Information Centres in different regions of Ukraine. This publication was also disseminated by subscription.
The means of large-scale storage of the information concerning industrial designs at the State Enterprise “Ukrainian Industrial Property Institute” (Ukrpatent) are the electronic database servers. An interactive database "Industrial Designs Registered in Ukraine" available via the Internet serves for the information provision of numerous users.
All the procedures dealing with the automation of industrial design applications processing is provided by means of the automated system AS “Industrial Designs”. The nucleus of the AS “Industrial Designs” is the technology database. Its data is used for the forming of the official bulletin section data store as well as for the updating of the interactive database "Industrial Designs Registered in Ukraine".
In the year 2005 the publication of the scientific and practical periodical “Intelektualna Vlasnist” (“Intellectual Property”) was continued. Therein theoretical and practical issues of the legal protection of intellectual property were elucidated, the official information, normative documents and comments on them, consultations of experts were placed. The periodical is published in Ukrainian and its contents and annotations of the articles (starting with issue No.12/2003) – also in Russian and English. From now on, the information on the news, the content, the articles and other useful and interesting materials concerning the national system of intellectual property protection placed on the pages of the scientific and practical journal “Intellectual Property”, as well as information on the activity of its editor’s, is available from the own web-site of the journal at the following address: www.intelvlas.com.ua.
Information on the sources of information concerning industrial designs available in the state intellectual property protection system was published in special sections of the State Department (www.sdip.gov.ua) and Ukrpatent (www.ukrpatent.org) websites in the Internet which also includes wide range of legal information, statistics and reports, reference information as for studying, seminars and conferences.
III. Matters concerning classifying, reclassifying and indexing of industrial design information according to the classification systems applied
• Classification and reclassification activities; Classification system used, e.g., International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification), other classification (please indicate whether industrial designs are classified by your Office and, if so, which classification is used);
• Bibliographic data and processing for search purposes.
In the year 2005 the Ukrainian version of the 8th edition of the International Classification for Industrial Designs (The Locarno Classification) was used. Reclassification and indexing of the information about industrial designs were not carried out.
A program system that includes the classification system of the Locarno Classification and a special classification symbols control program system functions within the AS “Industrial Designs”.
Bibliographic data processing on their introduction to the database is performed by software tools. The database structure ensures storage of all the bibliographic data and provides a wide range of opportunities for the searching purposes.
IV. Search file establishment and upkeep
• File building;
• Updating;
• Storage, including mass storage media;
• Documentation from other offices maintained and/or considered part of the available search file.
The search file is composed of the retrieval means and the array of input applications included in the database of the automated system (AS) “Promyslovi Zrazky” (“Industrial Designs”). By the end of 2005 the database comprised the data of 14,364 applications for industrial designs. During 2005 it was updated with the data of 2,010 applications.
V. Activities in the field of computerized search systems for industrial designs
• In-house systems (online/offline);
• External databases;
• Administrative management systems (e.g., register, legal status, statistics, administrative support, etc.);
• Equipment used (hardware, including the types of terminal and network used, and software), data carriers used.
The internal computerized search systems for industrial designs comprise the search system of the automated system AS “Promyslovi Zrazky” (“Industrial Designs”), AS “Vhidnyi Reyestr Zayavok” (“Filed Applications Register”) and AS “Pokaznyky” (Indicators). These are all on-line systems.
The external database "Information about International Deposit of Industrial Designs Legally Protected in Ukraine", ІRS "Industrial Design Applications Processing State" and IRS "International Classification for Industrial Designs" (the Locarno Classification) were put into operation and connected to the Internet in 2005.
The interactive database "Industrial Designs Registered in Ukraine" is in operation. User access is provided via the websites of the State Department (www.sdip.gov.ua) and Ukrpatent (www.ukrpatent.org).
VI. Administration of industrial design services available to the public (relating to facilities, e.g., for lodging applications, registering designs, assisting clients with search procedures, obtaining official publications and registry extracts)
• Planning, administration, automation, security;
• Collection management, preservation;
• Information services available to the public (including computerized services and search files contained in libraries remote from your Office and industrial design information posted by your Office on the World Wide Web).
In the Public Fund of Patent Documentation (PFPD) (the patent library available to the public) visitors were able to use the “Promyslova Vlasnist” official bulletin, as well as the official bulletins of foreign industrial property offices, which include publications on industrial designs.
Upon request of the users copies of the necessary documents were provided.
The needs of the PFPD users in patent documentation were systematically analyzed in order to update the collection with the lacking foreign documentation that includes information about industrial designs mostly in the framework of international exchange.
Upon requests of the users PFPD provided searching services and offered consultations on the matters dealing with the acquisition, protection and use of the industrial property rights, in particular, drafting of applications industrial designs.
The works on the improvement of the existing and development of the new patent information services, their forms and methods were systematically conducted.
Within the last years information collections have undergone the replacement of the computer hardware for the more powerful and modern one that is able to operate with the newest software products used by the foreign patent offices. The transition from CD-ROM to DVD disks takes place and information is concentrated at the network control server that considerably accelerates the searching process.
In order to make information services available to the public at large access via the Internet was provided to the interactive databases “Industrial Designs Registered in Ukraine”, “Information on the International deposit of Industrial Designs Protected in Ukraine”, the information reference system (IRS) “Industrial Design Applications Processing State” and IRS “International Classification for Industrial Designs”.
VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of industrial design documentation and information
• International or regional cooperation in the exchange of industrial design information, e.g., in the form of official gazettes;
• Exchange of machine-readable information, e.g., data contained on CD-ROM or magnetic tape.
In the framework of the patent documentation international exchange the official bulletins containing industrial design information from 35 foreign industrial property offices and from WIPO were received.
With the transition to the publication of patent documentation on electronic carriers foreign exchange partners, according to their wishes, received the official bulletin on CD-ROM only.
VIII. Matters concerning education and training including technical assistance to developing countries
• Promotional activities (seminars, exhibitions, visits, advertising, etc.);
• Training courses for national and foreign participants;
• Assistance to developing countries (sending consultants and experts, receiving trainees from developing countries, etc.).
One of the tasks of the State Department is the coordination of activities concerning the development, improvement and functioning of the system for training of intellectual property specialists in Ukraine. 16 institutions of higher education in Ukraine hold license for specialist’s and master’s degree training in the field of intellectual property with the total license capacity of about 1,210 people in 2005. In the system of the higher education institutions which implement educational-professional and professional programs of training, improvement and upgrading of qualification in the sphere of intellectual property there functions the educational scientific and production complex “Academy of Intellectual Property”. The Complex is defined as the leading institution in training, improvement and upgrading of qualification of experts in the sphere of intellectual property. The Institute of Intellectual Property and Law (IIPL) which is the basic institution for training and raising the skill level of the professionals in the field of intellectual property and the lecturers, and also for developing curriculums, training programs and teaching and methodical literature, in particular, in the subject “Intellectual Property Basics” for secondary education institutions is charged with the function of the coordination of the research, teaching and educational activities of the Complex.
In order to disseminate knowledge and increase awareness of the public in the sphere of intellectual property in the system of continuous education the IIPL developed an Internet-platform based distance learning with the Ukrainian modules under the WIPO World Wide Academy DL-101 “General Course on Intellectual Property”.
In 2005 the State Department organized and held (in cooperation with Ukrpatent 20 conferences and seminars on the urgent problems of intellectual property rights protection including industrial designs. In particular, the following events took place: together with the IIPL – the science and practical seminar “Intellectual Property Management”; the ninth international science and practical conference “Urgent Intellectual Property Problems” etc. The proceedings of the seminars and conferences are published in the special section on the website of the State Department (http://www.sdip.gov.ua).
During 2005 the Ukrainian Center for Innovation and Patent Information Services (Branch of Ukrpatent) held a number of seminars for the intellectual property system users. The seminars proceedings can be found in the special Section of its website (www.ip-centr.kiev.ua).
The activities of the intellectual property system in Ukraine were regularly elucidated by mass media as well as by the radio and on television.