SCIT.ATR.PI.2004.MK

Annual Technical Report 2004 on Patent Information Activities submitted by The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (SCIT/ATR/PI/2004/MK)

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.

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

In the frame of realization of the project for the automatisation of the administrative procedure for the registration of industrial property rights, the State Office of Industrial Property of Republic of Macedonia installed the IPAS (Intellectual Property Automation System) in March 2004, which was developed by the World Intellectual Property Organization.
According to statistical data this Office in 2004 received 452 patent applications, or 44 domestic and 408 foreign. The number of filed patent applications in 2004 has increased in comparison to 2003 by 4.9%. The increase of the number of filed patent applications in 2004 is primarily due to the increase of the number of patent applications filed by foreign applicants. The implementation of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) with the European Patent Organization has cause the channeling of the foreign applications through this treaty.
The structure of the filed applications according to the International Patent Classification shows that section A (consumables) has the biggest share or 45.5% followed by section C(chemistry, metallurgy) 35.5%, which presented the structure of the production capacities in Macedonia.
In 2004, the State Office for Industrial Property has granted 102 patents.

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

The State Office of Industrial Property of The Republic of Macedonia issues official gazette “Glasnik”. The Gazette is issued four times a year, every three months.
This official gazette contains publishing of recognized patents their abstracts and drawings if any. Regarding the regional European patents seeking protection for Republic of Macedonia in accordance with the Agreement on co-operation in the field of patents with the European Patent Office, the bibliographic data, patent claims and drawings are published, respectively. In addition it contains data concerning changes in respect of granted patents recorded by this Office
There are very often commentaries of actual activities in protection of the industrial property rights. The Office issues Annual Report for its activities in the former year. In this Report there is basic statistic data for patent applications and patents.

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

All patent documentation is classified according to the IPC classification, the seventh edition. All bibliographic data are published in accordance with the suggested INID codes by WIPO standards.

IV. Search file establishment and upkeep

The patent documentation is of paper kind and is based in the Office library. The documentation is updated continuously.

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

From the beginning of the year the Office, in cooperation with WIPO, started the implementation of the IPAS Software for the Patents and Trademarks domain and it is planned to gradually encompass Industrial Designs too.
- Administrative management systems:
IPAS Software

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)

Information concerning patents is available in electronic format and searchable (but until the end of the year 2004 it was still not available for online searches). Additional information (as application procedures and such) is available at the Office Web-site http://www.ippo.gov.mk.

VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of patent documentation and information

The Office's databases are provided by mutual exchange of patent documentation with other Offices. There is CD-ROM collection of: European Patent Applications, PCT international Application (WORLD), JOPAL, ACCESS, LEGAL and the Bulletin all from the ESPACE production, and than Patent Abstracts Of Japan (PAJ CD-ROM), USAPAT, Collection of Republic of Moldova, PRECES, HUNPATÉKA and Slovenian Patent Documents on CD ROM. The Office has been receiving the said patent documentation, continuously.
The official gazette “Glasnik” issued by The Office as well as The Annual Rapport are delivered to the following countries: YU, HR, SI, BG, CZ, PL, SE, TR, AT, AL, BY, BE, KR, FR, HU, CH, UA, ER, GB, US, JP, PT, KP, RU, SK, ES, MD and FI. The Office receives gazettes and annual rapport from the next countries: AT, BG, ER, BY, MD, PL, HU, UA, FI, CZ, RU, SK, JP, YU, HR and SI. These documents are on the paper, mostly.

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

IX. Other relevant matters

To achieve certain improvements to the Law of Industrial Property which was brought in June, 2002, in fact to make certain articles more precise and make certain procedures better defined, as well as the need to implement the conclusions of the Government of RM regarding the status of the Office, it was proceeded with a preparation of a Law for Changing and Amending of the Law on Industrial Property (Official Gazette of RM” No. 09/04) which took effect on February 27th 2004.