Annual Technical Report on Industrial Design Information Activities in 2014 submitted by the State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania
Please fill in your items before submitting your report
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 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. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of industrial design information activities and expected time frames for their realization
Protection of design is provided under the Law on Design of the Republic of Lithuania, which
entered into force on 1 January 2003.
There exist three ways to obtain exclusive rights to a design in Lithuania:
• Under the Law on Design of the Republic of Lithuania, by filing applications directly with the
SPB (the national way);
• Under Council Regulation No. 6/2002 of 12 December 2001 on the Community Design, under
which a Community design registered with the EU Office for Harmonization of the Internal
Market (OHIM) is protected in Lithuania from 1 May 2004 (the regional way);
• Since 26 September 2008, when Lithuania joined the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement on
International Registration of Industrial Design, registration of international design may be
extended to Lithuania (the international way).
New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies(plans) mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks
In 2014 new electronic services such as tm-efiling, ds-filing and e-services were deployed as a result of
cooperation of the IT Division with the Trademarks Division and the OHIM.
Main areas of industrial design information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year
Back office - the full implementation of this project is planning in the second quarter of 2015 and the State Patent Bureau is in the process of completion of the final stages of this project. The Back Office is a workflow-based system for handling trademarks and designs throughout the whole life cycle of the process from application to registration and publication.It streamlines the work process and helps users to create and monitor correspondence with applicants. It calculates fees, handles files, organizes correspondence.
Design View - a common search system for designs, based on information pooled from different sources. It is a multilingual and easy-to-use tool, and gives access to design applications and registrations provided by the participating offices through a single and unique platform. Each office owns the content it makes available and responsible for its daily update.
Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and grants (registrations) with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes
2,717 designs the applications for protection whereof have been filed via the national and the
international way, and 809,444 designs entered in the EU Register of Community Designs were
in effect in Lithuania as of the end of 2014.
25 applications (62 designs) have been filed with the SPB in 2014. All were filed on behalf of Lithuanian
applicants.
In 2014, 61 notifications of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) concerning
extensions of international design registrations to Lithuania were received. The SPB adopted 59
decisions to grant protection to international design registrations.
Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
Statistics are accessed at :
http://www.vpb.gov.lt/docs/20150206_1.pdf
II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Information and support provided by the Office to applicants regarding filing on paper and/or e-filing (instructions, seminars, etc.) - URLs
Current SPB information and support options are:
1. Via website: http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=EN
2. via telephone: +370 5 278 0290, fax: +370 5 275 0723
3. via e-mail: info@vpb.gov.lt
Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
Together with the new system the electronic services have been extended; now the applicant can not only submit the application for registration of a new IP right, but also can make requests for other actions, review the status of the documents, find the history reports.Electronic applications, signed by the person or his representative, have the same legal effect as paper-based documents. SPB issued documents will also be submitted electronically and signed with an electronic signature. For the submission of electronic documents, no special electronic equipment is required. The electronic application can be made via the SPB secure access website http://www.vpb.gov.lt/ or e-government gates http://www.epaslaugos.lt/.
Classification and reclassification activities; classification system used, e.g., International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification), other classification
Registrations have been classified in accordance with the ninth edition of International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification).
Other activities
N/A
III. SOURCES OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE
Main types of publications in the field of industrial design information, outline of the content (industrial design applications, design patents, registrations, etc.) and medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URLs)
In 2014, the following publications were issued:
2013 Annual Report of the Patent Office of the Republic of Lithuania
Statistics of the year 2013 on the legal protection of industrial property in the Republic of Lithuania
12 official bulletins of the SPB have been published in 2014
Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URL), etc.
http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=en&n=245
12 official bulletins of the SPB have been published in 2014
Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external documentation and databases
The SPB provide database of national and international design registration on it's website free of charge (http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=en&n=263)
Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) and services available to external users; conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)
The Design Register of the Republic of Lithuania was open to public access only in the following forms:
Extract from the Register (on request);
SPB Official Bulletin.
Design Database on SPB website free of charge.
Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)
The SPB website Designs Database has been an exact copy of the data stored in the Design Register of the Republic of Lithuania and contained data on designs registered and application filed directly with the State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania.The bibliographical data of industrial design were stored in CS software
Other sources
N/A
IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements
The capacity of Netapp data storage facility has been expanded in the process of increasing
database security. Register databases have been migrated from the old Sun SPARC architecture
servers into new x86 architecture servers operating in the virtual environment.
Physical security of the databases has also been increased: blinds have been installed on windows,
surveillance cameras have been installed, a new cooling system has been deployed. New
data security regulations have been approved with the Ministry of Interior.
Computer workstation maintenance and upgrading also takes place on a regular basis. Currently
there are 60 computer workstations at the SPB.
Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office
Common Software (CS) v. 3.31
Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
Designview database of OHIM
Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file
N/A
Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)
The State Patent Bureau of the Republic of the Republic of Lithuania (SPB) published on its website (http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=en&n=245) the Official Bulletin Inventions, Designs, Trademarks and on its website
(http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=en&n=263) Database of the Design of the Republic of Lithuania
Other matters
N/A
V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION
Office's library (if deals with industrial design information): equipment, collection management, network of libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign libraries
Lithuanian Technical Library (LTL) also offered for visitors the opportunity to get acquainted with a wide range of Lithuanian publications (SPB Official Bulletin, etc.), Official Gazettes of foreign states and intergovernmental organizations.
The visitors of LTL had been consulted on the spot as well as by phone or e-mail and had an opportunity to order trademark search.
Search for the international and Community trademarks and other services also have been provided by Patent Information Centre of LTL (http://www.tb.lt/PIC/PIC.htm).
Publications related to different business procedures and industrial design information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.
As every year, in 2014 the SPB prepared an annual review publication containing statistics for
2013
Cooperation with universities, technology and innovation support centers, etc.
Workshops on intellectual property assessment in universities were
held at Kaunas University of Technology and Klaipėda University in December 2014; the workshops
were organized at the initiative of the World Intellectual Property Organization and the
State Patent Bureau.
Education and training: training courses, e learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.
As part of the projects implemented in the framework of Bilateral Cooperation Agreement with OHIM , round table discussions
on the subject of intellectual property were organized in Kaunas, Alytus and Panevėžys. Experts
of the SPB used the events as a venue to raise awareness about legal possibilities for trademark
and design protection available in Lithuania and the European Union, explain how to use trademark
and design databases of the SPB, OHIM and WIPO, run a trademark/design search and
present the most recent industrial property legislation of the Republic of Lithuania
Other activities
N/A
VI.INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION
International exchange of industrial design information in machine-readable form (e.g., Official Gazettes)
SPB Official Bulletin has been published in an electronic format and has been accessible on SPB website (http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=en&n=245).
Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to industrial design information
In 2014 the SPB participated in the projects of the OHIM Cooperation Fund (CF) . Part of the projects is related with development of electronic services, access to industrial property information and its simplification.
Assistance to developing countries
N/A
Other activities
N/A
VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS