SCIT.ATR.PI.2003.UA

Annual Technical Report 2003 on Patent Information Activities submitted by Ukraine (SCIT/ATR/PI/2003/UA)

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The term "patent" covers utility models and Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs). Offices which issue design patents should report their design patent information activities in their Annual Technical Reports on Industrial Design Information Activities.

I. Evolution of patent activities

Changes experienced in terms of application filing and grants with respect to the previous year:
Inventions
Applications filed:
in 2002 – 10189, in 2003 – 12605, i.e. 24% more than the previous year.
Patents granted:
in 2002 – 9178, in 2003 – 10983, 20% increase.

Utility models
Applications filed:
in 2002 – 622, in 2003 – 839, 35% increase.
Patents granted:
in 2002 – 440, in 2003 – 672, 53% more with respect to the previous year.

Trends or areas experiencing rapid changes with respect to the previous year: class A61 – “Medical or veterinary science; hygiene” (16% applications filed), class G01 – “Measuring, testing” (5,6%), class A01 – “Agriculture” (3%).

II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, distribution and use of primary and secondary sources of patent information

Main publications of the State Department of Intellectual Property (hereinafter referred to as the State Department) concerning inventions and utility models: the normative documents, the official gazette “Promyslova Vlasnist” (“Industrial Property”) and the Ukrainian patent and utility model specifications.
Ukrainian legislation provides for the publication of patent specifications within 3 months after the date of the publication of the announcement on the grant of the patent. However, due to the new technology of the specifications processing and their preparation for publication put into practice in 2003, the duration of these procedures was considerably reduced. The reproduction of the specifications may be carried out as early as on the next day after the official patent registration. The publication of specifications and their distribution is completed within 40 days after the registration. 11655 Ukrainian patent specifications were published during the year 2003.
The official gazette “Promyslova Vlasnist” is published in two books: Book 1 “Inventions, Utility Models, Topographies of Integrated Circuits” and Book 2 “Industrial Designs, Marks for Goods and Services, Qualified Appellations of Origin of Goods”. 12 issues of the official gazette were published in 2003.
In every issue of the “Promyslova Vlasnist” gazette the current systematic and numerical indexes of the pending applications for inventions and of the patents for inventions and utility models are published. Besides the above-mentioned, the Annual Index to the gazette also comprises the numerical index of applications (for patents issued for inventions and utility models), the name index of authors of inventions and the name indexes of owners of patents for inventions and utility models.
Besides this, during the year under review 10980 Ukrainian patents were published on the regional CD-ROM “CISPATENT” issued jointly by the CIS countries. The technical executor and coordinator of the project of issuing the above-mentioned CD-ROM is Rospatent. The Ukrainian patent documents constitute more than 30% of the total number of patent documents of the participant offices, published on the “CISPATENT” CD-ROM in 2003. The Ukrainian patent documentation is presented on the CD-ROM as bibliographic data and abstracts in 3 languages (Ukrainian, Russian and English) and complete patent specifications only in Ukrainian. Search is carried out in Ukrainian and English bibliographic data with the help of the search software MIMOSA.
During 2003 the official gazette “Promyslova Vlasnist” and the Ukrainian patent specifications were delivered free of charge 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 edition was also disseminated by subscription.
In the year 2003 the publication of the scientific and practical periodical “Intelektualna Vlasnist”(“Intellectual Property”) continued. Therein theoretical and practical issues on 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, its contents and, starting with issue No.12/2003, annotations of the articles, also in Russian and English.
Activities on creating the national CD-ROM “Vynakhody v Ukraini” (“Inventions in Ukraine”) and the electronic official bulletin “Promyslova Vlasnist” (“Industrial Property”) on CD-ROM were carried out.
A notification on the sources of patent information was made available in the special section of the State Department website on the Internet (www.sdip.gov.ua).

III. Matters concerning abstracting, classifying, reclassifying and indexing of technical information contained in patent documents

The seventh edition of the International Patent Classification was used for classifying of inventions and utility models.

IV. Search file establishment and upkeep

Since July 1, 1997, the Patent Informational Base (PIB) with its reference and search tool – the search file of the examination body, the Ukrainian Industrial Property Institute (Ukrpatent), responsible for carrying out the substantive examination of applications for inventions has been in operation. By the end of 2003 the PIB contained approximately 10 000 CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs: the EPO (since 1978), PCT (1978 -), USA (1975 -), Russian (1994 -) patent documents and Japanese English-language abstracts (1976-2001). Beginning from 2002 the PIB has been supplied with the regional patent information product of the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States “CISPATENT” on CD-ROM that contains, in particular, the Ukrainian patent documentation and the patent documentation of the Eurasian Patent Office (EAPO). Foreign patent documentation was received by the PIB mostly in the framework of international cooperation. In the year 2003 the PIB received such patent information products: ESPACE-EP-A, ESPACE-EP-B, ESPACE-ACCESS, ACCESS-B, ESPACE-WORLD, USAPAT, PCT Gazette, “Патенты России” (“Patents of Russia”), ESPACE-LEGAL, ESPACE-BULLETIN, CISPATENT.
In the year 2003, external databases available in the Internet were used for the purposes of patent information search, in particular: esp@cenet, the Industrial Property Digital Libraries (IPDL) available on the sites of such Patent Offices as the USPTO, the Japan Patent Office, the German Patent and Trademark Office and of WIPO.

V. Activities in the field of computerized and other mechanized search systems

In 2003, the implementation of all-round automation of the technological process of application examination, patent search, preparation of grant decisions, support of the state registration of industrial property rights and the official publication of information on them using up-to-date computers, information and telecommunication technologies continued at the examination body (Ukrpatent).
A constant tendency of the increase of the number of patent applications filed requires continuous upgrading and developing of the computer-informational environment, namely: implementing software tools, widening the functional possibilities of the existing automated systems, creating new systems and databases and expanding the local computer network.
In the year 2003 the system of overall electronic document circulation, the integrated automated system of fees accounting for all industrial property rights were put in operation in Ukrpatent, also a number of databases were developed and implemented. To date, the examination of the applications for the grant of industrial property rights is supported by 12 electronic databases with the general information content of over 35 Gbytes. The monthly information increase is about 1,5 Gbytes. 23 software complexes for extending the functions of automation of application processing, decreasing the extent of manual operations and, respectively, increasing the productivity of labor of the Ukrpatent specialists were developed and put into practice; 17 of them are aimed at gradual raising of the functional possibilities of the “Vynakhody” (“Inventions”) automated system, adapting it to the changes in the legislation and supporting the centralized application registration technology.
As of December 31, 2003 the “Inventions” database contained the data of 103658 applications.
In 2003, with the purpose of the implementation of the provisions of the WIPO document “Principles Concerning the Changeover to Electronic Data Carriers for the Exchange of Patent Documents“ the technology of production of CD-ROM containing the national patent documentation “Vynakhody v Ukraini” (“Inventions in Ukraine”) and the electronic publication of the official gazette “Promyslova Vlasnist” (“Industrial Property”) on CD-ROM were elaborated at Ukrpatent.
Under the international agreement the technology of the data preparation for the regional CD-ROM “CISPATENT” was introduced. The technology of forming electronic arrays of the Ukrainian patents data for supplying to the INPADOC database of the European Patent Office has been developed.
During the year 2003 users had access through the Internet (www.ukrpatent.org) to the domestic interactive specialized database “Vynakhody v Ukraini” comprising bibliographic data, abstracts, patent claims and patent specifications. Bibliographic data and abstracts were presented in one of the two languages (either Ukrainian or Russian) up till 2001, and in three languages (Ukrainian, English and Russian) – since 2002. Patent claims and patent specifications are presented in the above-mentioned database only in the original languages: Ukrainian or Russian (the latter for the patents registered in Ukraine before 2000).

VI. Administration of the industrial property office library and services available to the public (relating to facilities, e.g., for lodging applications, for assisting clients on searching procedures, for obtaining official publications and registry extracts)

The Public Fund of Patent Documentation (PFPD) is the patent library available to the public, which is in operation since 1999. The PFPD collection comprises the domestic patent documentation, the official gazettes, which publish information on inventions and utility models of 45 countries of the world and of 2 international organizations, as well as complete patent specifications on paper carrier and on microfiches (Poland, Slovakia, Canada until 1999, the former GDR) and, mostly, on optical discs (EPO, PCT, OAPI, Canada from 2000 on, China, USA, Austria, Switzerland, France, Russia, Slovenia, Germany, the countries of the Eastern and Central Europe, Japan, the CIS countries). By the end of 2003 the collection of foreign patent documentation listed approximately 8000 CD-ROMs. Besides patent documentation, PFPD was supplied with the main Ukrainian periodicals, legal and methodical literature.
Upon request of the users PFPD provided printouts of patent documents, rendered services and offered advice on the drafting of applications for inventions and utility models. Extracts from the Ukrainian State Registers of patents for inventions and utility models were issued on request.

VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of patent documentation and information

In the international exchange framework in 2003 were received official gazettes containing publications on inventions (utility models) from 37 national industrial property offices, from the EAPO, the EPO and WIPO (the official bulletin “PCT Gazette”). As for patent documents exchange, patent specifications of Ukraine were dispatched to 7 patent offices (AT, CA, DE, JP, PL, SK, RU) on paper carriers, and patent documents on CD-ROM from 10 offices (AT, CA, CH, CN, DE, EP, FR, RU, US, WO) were received.
Filing of applications was allowed only on paper.
With the purpose of implementation of the provisions of the WIPO document “Principles Concerning the Changeover to Electronic Data Carriers for the Exchange of Patent Documents”, in the year 2003, on the one hand, continued the participation of Ukraine in the realization of the Agreement on the issue of the joint regional patent information product of the CIS countries on CD-ROM – CISPATENT, signed by the patent offices of Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine and the Eurasian Patent Office. It is envisaged that the use of this disc for the purposes of the centralized international exchange will be accomplished through Rospatent, which is the coordinator of the above-mentioned project.
On the other hand, now that the preparatory works for the production of the national CD-ROM “Vynakhody v Ukraini” (“Inventions in Ukraine”) are nearly completed, after the beginning of its regular publication it will be used for the bilateral exchange with the foreign Patent Offices.

VIII. Other relevant matters concerning education and training in, and promotion of, the use of patent information, including technical assistance to developing countries

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. Today 12 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 500 persons per year. The most important educational institution in the field of intellectual property is the Institute of Intellectual Property and Law (IIPL). The IIPL 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 on the subject “Intellectual property basics” for secondary education institutions.
In 2003 the State Department organized, conducted and participated in 13 conferences and seminars concerning the protection of intellectual property rights. In particular, the State Department took part in the work of the Interstate trade exhibition of industrial technologies, means of production, goods and services of the CIS countries which was held in Kyiv. At the exhibition were presented the Internet stock-exchange of intellectual property, the specialized database “Vynakhody v Ukraini” (“Inventions in Ukraine”), the information products on CD-ROM produced by the Centre of Innovatics and Patent Information Services.
In the year 2003 two specialists of the State Department received on-the-job training within the framework of the international cooperation after the training programs of the WIPO Worldwide Academy, and seven specialists – at the European Patent Office.

IX. Other relevant matters