Annual Technical Report 2003 on Trademark Information Activities submitted by Australia (SCIT/ATR/TM/2003/AU)
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.
I. Evolution of registration activities
Changes experienced in terms of application filings and registrations with respect to the previous year
(Please Note: AU provides for multi-class filings. Figures below are in classes)
Applications:
2002 - 64436
2003 - 73671
14.3% increase
Registrations:
2002 - 51741
2003 - 50015
3.3% decrease
Trends or areas experiencing rapid changes with respect to the previous year
Continuing growth in on-line filing of applications for registration. By end 2003 on-line filings accounted for close to 50% of all applications received.
II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, and distribution of secondary sources of trademark information, i.e., trademark gazettes
Publishing, printing, copying techniques
The Australian Official Journal of Trade Marks (the trade mark gazette) is published weekly. There are 50 issues per year - the Easter and Christmas weeks being excluded. It is available in both hard copy, for which there is a yearly subscription charge, and on-line, free of charge, via the IP Australia internet site.
Main types of announcements of the Office in the field of trademark information
Applications Filed
Applications Accepted for Registration
Amendments and Changes
Applications Lapsed Withdrawn and Refused
Trade Marks Registered
Assignment, Transmittals and Transfers
Cancellation of Entries in Register
Renewal of Registration of Trade Marks
Opposition Proceedings
Removal for Non-use Proceedings
Notices
Mass storage media and microforms used
The Office's bibliographic data is maintained on an ADABAS Natural mainframe. Trade Mark images (devices) are stored in a Unix file directory.
Word processing and office automation
Journal production is fully automated, apart from the inclusion of ad-hoc notices which are produced in Word.
Techniques used for the generation of trademark information (printing, recording, photocomposing, etc.)
Bibliographic data (ADABAS as XEROX XICS output) and images from Unix are merged for Journal production. The printing and assembly of the paper journal is outsourced.
III. Matters concerning classifying, reclassifying and indexing of trademark information
Classification and reclassification activities; Classification systems used, e.g., International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (Nice Classification), International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks (Vienna Classification), other classification (please state whether goods and services for the registration of marks and whether the figurative elements of marks are classified by your Office and, if so, which classification(s) is (are) used)
Australia classifies goods and services according to Nice Version 8.
Australia does not use the Vienna Classification scheme to classify the figurative elements of marks. Rather figurative elements are classified (and searched) according to a thesaurus of device terms developed by the Office.
For example, the WIPO device is indexed as follows:
1 ANNULUS 2 CONCENTRIC
3 HAND 4 PEN
5 BOOK,OPEN 6 GRAIN,EAR
7 VIOLIN 8 WHEEL,GEAR
9 MUSICAL-INSTRUMENT 10 CIRCLE+
11 ROUND 12 ROUND+
Each device term may then be used as a search criteria, either singularly or in combination, in order to locate marks with similar device characteristics.
Use of electronic classification systems to check the classification symbols furnished by an applicant and which are contained in the lists of goods and/or services
This process is performed manually, largely because applicants are not obliged to use pre-defined classification terms. The Office is currently investigating ways to automate the process. A new release of the on-line application form (scheduled Dec 2004) will allow the selection of goods/services to be restricted to pre-defined classification terms (NICE and Office Determinations).
Obligation for applicants to use pre-defined terms of the classification applied
There is no obligation for applicants to use pre-defined terms.
Bibliographic data and processing for search purposes
Bibliographic data is stored against each trade mark application in the ADABAS Natural business administration system. Transaction history records are created as this data is updated during the life-cycle of the trade mark. The business administration system allows access to this data via a variety of search utilities. Whilst the search utilities are used primarily for internal purposes, some of IP Australia's larger customers (mainly trade mark attorneys) access a sub-set of these utilities via a terminal emulator over the internet. Additionally, data from the ADABAS Natural system is carried in real time to the Australian Trade Marks On-line Search System (ATMOSS), an ORACLE web-server application. ATMOSS allows both internal and public access to bibliographic data, and trade mark images, via the IP Australia internet site.
IV. Trademark manual search file establishment and upkeep
File Building
An EDMS case file is established for each trade mark application on filing. The EDMS has been developed in-house using a proprietary Australian EDMS product, Objective. The system is known as TRACS; the Trade mark Records, Applications and Correspondence System.
Updating
The TRACS case file is updated (added to) as correspondence is received from the applicant/agent, or alternatively, generated by the Office. It also contains the search material considered by the examiner during the course of substantive examination, and will also contain information relating to Opposition matters if the application proceeds along such a path.
Storage, including mass storage media
The TRACS case file stores a variety of Word, Adobe pdf, and XML files.
Documentation from other offices maintained and/or considered part of the available search file
None
V. Activities in the field of computerized trademark search systems
In-house systems (online/offline)
Searching for conflicting marks can be conducted via a search utility in the mainframe application or ATMOSS. All searching by examiners is conducted through ATMOSS with search extracts then forming part of the search file in TRACS. There is still a small number of customers (large attorney firms) still using the mainframe utility - however most are transitioning to ATMOSS as it provides access to images as well as the bibliographic data.
External databases
The Office has developed a simple utility to search a number of external databases - principally dictionaries, gazetteers, reference titles, etc - so as to streamline distinctiveness searching. Examiners routinely search the Internet for the same purpose.
Administrative management systems (e.g., register, legal status, statistics, administrative support, etc.)
As mentioned previously, the primary business system is the ADABAS Natural mainframe application,TMARK, running on IBM MVS. TMARK interfaces to a number of satellite applications, eg Word for production of reports, XICS for publishing output, a couple of mid-range applications for EDI under the Madrid Protocol, an automated data capture utility (ADC) for capturing data received electronically, and ATMOSS. Document management is handled via TRACS.
All processing relating to the life-cycle of a trade mark (apart from financial processing) is conducted within this environment. The Trade Mark Office, along with the Patent and Design Offices in IP Australia is in the process of transitioning our business applications from the mainframe to our strategic server infrastructure environment. This environment includes Sun Solaris, Oracle RDBMS, J2EE, BEA Weblogic, and Objective EDMS.
Equipment used (hardware, including the types of terminal and network used, and software), carriers used
The Canberra Office has an ethernet-based LAN providing high speed bandwidth for each user desktop connection. A frame relay-based WAN provides connections from Canberra to each State Capital. A DMZ-based, DSD approved firewall using IAN ports (Internet IEFT Assigned Numbers) provides the secure means to allow access from internal systems/users to external entities such as the Internet or public/private organisations.
Current standard desktop software includes Windows XP with Office SE 2003, IE 6.0 SP1, and Lotus Notes.
VI. Administration of trademark 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)
IP Australia has State Offices in each of the Australian State Capitals providing public access to a range of services, including filing, searching, official publications, registers and general advice and information. Increasingly, IP Australia is using its web site as a means of providing an alternative means of public access to these services, as well as new services such as electronic filing (currently approximately 50% of trade mark applications are filed online) and trade mark searching via ATMOSS. IP Australia is currently finalising the design of a system to support business-to-business data exchange of patents, industrial designs and trade marks transactions with its high volume clients (Patents and Trade Mark Attorneys). This system will be consistent with WIPO electronic filing and National e-commerce standards.
VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of trademark documentation and information
International or regional cooperation in the exchange of trademark information, e.g., in the form of official gazettes
IP Australia dispatches the Official Journal of Trade Maks (gazette) to 42 countries
Exchange of machine-readable information
SGML/XML (MECA) exchange between the Office and the IB.
VIII. Matters concerning education and training including technical assistance to developing countries
People's Republic of China
1. In August 2003, Judge Lu Guoqiang from China visited Australia on a fact-finding mission and held discussions with the Attorney-General's Department and IP Australia on aspects of Australian intellectual property law.
Nepal
2. In August 2003, an Australian team comprising of members from government and private legal practice conducted a review of Nepalese IP legislation, including relevant aspects of the Nepalese enforcement processes. The review sought to identify any inconsistencies between Nepalese laws and the requirements of the TRIPS Agreement and make recommendations as to how the laws and enforcement processes may be amended or improved so as to comply with the TRIPS Agreement.
Singapore
3. On 31 January 2003, an official from IP Australia visited the IP Office of Singapore to discuss current awareness and education programmes and how Singapore and Australia may continue to share experiences in the IP awareness and education field.
Thailand
4. On 21 May 2003, a group of five visitors from the Chulalongkorn University Intellectual Property Institute in Thailand visited IP Australia. Discussions focused on licensing and IP valuation methodologies.
Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Nepal
5. From 22 to 24 October 2003, officials from Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Nepal visited IP Australia to study the strategies and programmes being pursued in Australia to promote the use of IP by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. This study visit was sponsored by WIPO.
II. REGIONAL/MULTILATERAL ACTIVITIES
APEC-IPEG
6. With funding received from APEC under its Trade and Investment Liberalization and Facilitation programme, IP Australia is managing a project to develop a public education and awareness programme for Indonesia, the Philippines and Viet Nam. Under this programme a public education and awareness workshop was delivered from 24 to 25 June 2003 to staff from the Indonesian Directorate General of Intellectual Property Rights. A similar workshop was delivered to the National Office of IP in Viet Nam from 27 to 28 October 2003. Website development and the development of publications, training and strategy development are also part of the deliverables for this project.
The Regionally Focused Action Plan (RFAP) for the Pacific Islands Forum Countries
7. From 2 to 4 September 2003, WIPO, IP Australia and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat organized workshops on Administration of Intellectual Property and Enhancing Public Awareness of Intellectual Property in Port Vila, Vanuatu. The workshops were attended by officials from 12 Pacific Island countries.