Annual Technical Report 2004 on Industrial Design Information Activities submitted by Republic of Moldova (SCIT/ATR/ID/2004/MD)
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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
In 2004, the AGEPI received 509 applications for the registration of 1972 industrial designs and 377 requests for renewal of 1219 industrial designs.
The national applicants filed 170 (27,9%) applications for 527 (26,7%) industrial designs, while the foreign ones proceeded with 439 (72,1%) applications for 1445 (73,3%) industrial designs.
The national applicants filed 23 (6,1%) requests for renewal for 84 (6,9%) industrial designs, while the foreign ones proceeded with 354 (93,9%) requests for renewal for 1135 (93,1%) industrial designs.
According to the requested procedures of protection, the applications filed by foreign applicants are divided as follow: national procedure – 16 (3,6 %) applications for 29 (2,0%) industrial designs and 10 (2,8%) requests for renewal for 14 (1,2%) industrial designs; procedure under the Hague Agreement - 423 (96,4%) applications for 1416 (98,0%) industrial designs and 344 (97,2%) requests for renewal for 1122 (98,2%) industrial designs.
141 (82,9%) applications filed under the national procedure came from legal and 29 (17,1%) – from natural persons. This ratio is unessential different from that of the last years.
The most active foreign applicants in 2004 were from Switzerland (314 applications – 750 industrial designs), Germany (91 – 486), France (28 – 262), Italy (11 – 40).
Primarily requested fields of protection were: watches and watches accessories (264 applications - 553 industrial designs); articles of adornment (21 - 241); transport facilities and accessories (43 – 94), construction elements (14 - 76), packages and containers (24 - 67 ), furniture (4 - 64).
In 2004, 110 certificates for registration of 410 industrial designs were issued. The absolute majority of the issued certificates hold the national owners – 108 (98,2%). In the year 2004 the number of industrial design certificates increase with 29% over 2003.
The analysis of the industrial designs domain highlights the broad interest of the national applicants towards protection of bottles (45 certificates – 84 industrial designs), labels (38 certificates – 226 industrial designs), packages and containers (7 certificates – 31 industrial designs), footwear (5 certificates – 35 industrial designs).
Concomitantly with the issuance of certificates for registration, the AGEPI granted 25 certificates for renewal of 85 industrial designs. 22 (88%) certificates for 81 (95,3%) industrial designs were issued to national owners and 3 (12%) for 4 (4,7%) industrial designs to foreign owners.
II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, and distribution of industrial design documents and of secondary sources of industrial design information, i.e., official gazettes
The most important publications in the field of industrial design documentation are the following:
- The Official Bulletin of Industrial Property Protection (BOPI);
- The National Industrial Designs Register;
- The National Industrial Designs Applications Register.
Both Registers are published on paper carrier.
BOPI includes Sections VI with information on industrial designs and models, from January 2000 onwards are available online via our AGEPI web site at www.agepi.md in portable document format (PDF).
Section VI contains:
- FF4L Registered industrial designs (bibliographic data and graphic reproduction);
- FG4L List of industrial design certificates issued in …(date of issuing);
- FG4L List of renewal industrial designs;
- FG4L Numerical Index of industrial designs registered in the Republic of Moldova according to the Hague Agreement;
- FG4L Subject Index of industrial designs registered in the Republic of Moldova according to the Hague Agreement;
- NZ4L List of industrial designs renewed in the Republic of Moldova according to the Hague Agreement.
Section VII contains various types of notices referring to all amendments occurred to the legal status of the protected industrial property objects (List of amendments, List of assignment agreements, Errata, etc), etc.
As from 2002, searches related to industrial designs, registered in the Republic of Moldova and published in BOPI, can be performed on line via our web site www.agepi.md. The Collection contains graphic reproductions of the industrial designs and bibliographic data of the products.
III. Matters concerning classifying, reclassifying and indexing of industrial design information according to the classification systems applied
Republic of Moldova became a state party to the Locarno Agreement Establishing an International Classification for Industrial Designs (1968) on December 1, 1997.
The Agency uses the International Classification for Industrial Designs since 1994. All the documents are classified according to the Locarno Classification. The full texts (Romanian and Russian) of the Locarno Classification were published in BOPI.
The classification symbols (the 8th edition of the Classification) of an application are allotted by the applicant. It is up to the Agency to afterwards check, and eventually to correct, the classification symbols.
The classification is used for the novelty examination, for search purposes and for statistics.
IV. Search file establishment and upkeep
At the disposal of examiners in their daily practice, there are the following databases:
- National automated searchable database “Industrial Design”, supporting a number of search fields;
- International applications received in the International Design Bulletin (paper form and CD-ROM);
- Card - files of industrial designs grouped by categories of the Locarno Classification, of the following countries: BY, BG, FI, HR, HU, LT, MK, RO, RU, SK, TJ, UA, UZ. (from 1994 onwards).
The searches cover a period of 11 years for the collection of industrial designs registered under the national procedure and - 16 years for the collection of industrial designs registered under the Hague Agreement.
Moreover, the manual paper search files consist of special books, periodicals, booklets, and a number of other lists and sources.
The examiner’s search files are updated on a regular basis.
V. Activities in the field of computerized search systems for industrial designs
In 2002 the interface for on-line searches in Data Base “Industrial Design” available in Romanian, English and Russian, was put into operation. At present, the “Industrial designs” Data Base contains information on the applications filed from 1993 up to date and on the registered objects. The users have access to the bibliographic data, images of industrial designs, for which the decision to register the industrial design has been taken. From 2003 in the procedure of examination it is used also CD-ROM BOPI_RO (before 2003 it was used the paper version of BOPI of Romania). From 2004 in the procedure of examination it is used also Data Base of Russian Federation, containing the applications published in the period 1993 -2004.
Several work stations were modernized, offering thus, from the technical point of view, sufficient possibilities of homogenizing the working environment, the operation and application soft used within the Agency, namely the installation of the Microsoft Windows 2000/XP and the Microsoft Office 2000/XP. All examiners have access to the Internet at their desks.
In 2004 a Data Base, including the international applications filled under the Hage system and designating the Republic of Moldova was elaborated. At present, this data base does not contain images, thus it is used as a register without being used for examination procedure.
Equipment used: The internal network uses a client-server arrangement on an Ethernet LAN running Microsoft Active Directory Domain. The platform used by the Industrial Design Section uses a database server, for Interbase applications. Client PCs are used by all staff and are Pentium III or Pentium IV machines with a mixture of 15"/17" CRT or 15” LCD screens. Client PCs operating systems Microsoft Windows 2000/XP. The Software specific of the CD-ROM is “International Design Bulletin”
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
The office library functions simultaneously as an in-house and public library, open to a wide range of IP users of the Republic of Moldova.
The AGEPI Library is open to the public during 6 days (except Sunday) from 9:00 to 16:00.
Collection management, preservation
The main information sources of the IP Collection are the official publications of the AGEPI, official gazettes and trademark literature received through international exchange with Patent Offices worldwide and other information centers, purchase or subscription. All the received documents are registered, classified and grouped for storage purpose.
On December 31, 2004, the Library collection included 18.858 thousand of documents (both on paper and e-support). In 2004 the total number of acquisitions made through bilateral exchange, subscription, publication etc., was 2274103 documents, of which 2270287 documents on electronic support, 569 official bulletins, 1494 books, 925 periodicals, 520 AGEPI publications and 308 other documents.
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).
The AGEPI Library has a general and a specialized reading room.
Visits to the IP Library and services offered to all categories of readers are free of charge.
The Library also provides paid services, such as: copying the documents from CD-ROM/DVD-ROM on paper or on CD / DVD-ROM (in 2004– 6090 documents), copying the documents form the Library paper Collection; selling the AGEPI editions.
The main features regarding the library-information services rendered in 2004 are the following: readers- 790; visits – 6114; borrowed documents – 47218.
During the year 2004, the AGEPI has rendered to the economic agents over 622 consultations on how to access and use IP information, organized many visits to enterprises, universities.
Information about the new acquisitions in the library collection is systematically offered on the AGEPI web site. The information provided on the AGEPI web site – www.agepi.md – covers all general topics concerning the industrial property objects (national and international legislation, office procedures, application forms).
VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of industrial design documentation and information
The AGEPI exchanges documents with the National Library and the National Technical Scientific Literature Library, which have a complete collection of the official bulletins and relevant literature in the field published by the AGEPI; the Agency also exchanges documents with other national offices and regional organizations.
The AGEPI Library cooperates intensively with 22 territorial Libraries to which the IP information and other literature in the field is furnished regularly for further dissemination in the territory.
In 2004, the AGEPI Library offered to the public Libraries methodical assistance concerning the organization and utilization of IP document collections, by organizing 61 events for promoting the library services, including a national seminar ”The Public Library and the Intellectual Property” and the competition ”Public Library-A Partner in the Promotion of Intellectual Property”.
International or regional cooperation in the exchange of industrial design information, e.g., in the form of official gazettes
In the year 2004, the process for completion and development of the literature and document collection in the industrial property protection field continued on the basis of a bilateral exchange with foreign patent and trademark offices.
In The Official Bulletin (BOPI) was received in 2004 by bilateral exchange from 22 countries in paper form and from 8 countries on CD-ROM (in total 569 Official Bulletins); 1173 CD-ROMs have been acquired in 2004 by bilateral exchange, as well as, 647 books and 2487 periodicals.
The AGEPI has sent the Official Bulletin to 36 national offices and 4 international organizations.
As from 2004, the BOPI is accessible on-line, due to this change, some offices, from the bilateral exchange list, refused to the paper version of the gazette preferring the on-line access.
Exchange of machine-readable information, e.g., data contained on CD-ROM or magnetic tape
As from the 2005 the AGEPI intends to publish the BOPI on CD-ROM.
VIII. Matters concerning education and training including technical assistance to developing countries
During the year 2004, the AGEPI organized on industrial property protection matters 20 national seminars, including 4 national seminars with international participation and one regional seminar organized in cooperation with the WIPO and WTO.
The AGEPI staff participated in 52 international events such as trainings, meetings, seminars, symposia, consultations, official visits etc., among which the most relevant are:
- National Symposium “Protection of Industrial Property under the New Regulations”, organized by OSIM and the National Association of Industrial Property Protection of Romania (ANPPI)
- Practical consultations on the procedures of examination of industrial designs under the Hague system
- Training course on industrial property, organized by the WIPO at the Center for International Industrial Property Studies (CEIPI)
- WIPO Seminar on the Hague System of International Registration of International Designs
- Exchange of experience in the field of trademarks and industrial designs within the State Office for Inventions and Trademarks (OSIM), Romania
- The participation in the works of the WIPO Committees and Working Groups on industrial design issues.
During the year 2003, the Office participated in 22 national exhibitions and granted logistical and financial assistance for the participation of Moldovan inventors in 4 international exhibitions.
More than 400 communications, interviews, reports were delivered to the republican mass-media and 5 press conferences were organized on the occasion of the most important IP events.