Annual Technical Report on Patent Information Activities in 2014 submitted by Brazil/INPI
I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN PATENT INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of patent information activities and expected time frames for their realization
New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies and plans mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks
Main areas of patent information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year
Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and grants with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes
The 33,916 patent and utility model applications filed in 2013 consisted of 26,066 non-resident and 7,850 resident applications. In 2014, with 33,076 applications filed, the number of resident applications has dropped and achieved 7,297 (-7%), while non-resident applications has also dropped but by a more modest rate (-1.1%) and presented 25,779. Despite this result, resident and non-resident share has no relevant change of total applications received by the Brazilian IP Office, with about 77% of non-resident applications. When considering countries’ origin for patent and utility model together, the participation of U.S. (with 29%) outperforms the Brazil (with 22%).
Over this period, the Brazilian IP Office (INPI) has seen a stable number of patent applications, from 30,884 in 2013 to 30,342 in 2014 (-1.8%). It contrasts with the trend for utility model applications in the same period, which presented a fall of 9.8%: from 3,032 utility model applications in 2013 to 2,734 applications in 2014.
Regarding the grants, in 2014, Brazil granted over 3,100 patents (2,749 patents and 367 utility models). Out of this total, 2,390 were granted to non-resident (2,375 patents and 15 utility models) and 726 for residents (374 patents and 352 utility models). Among the main foreign countries that were awarded with patent grants in 2014 are the United States of America with 33% of the non-resident total, Germany with 17% and Japan with 8%.
Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
Others statistics related to Brazilian patents applications are available at http://www.inpi.gov.br/estatisticas.
II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT 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
Guidance manuals for patent filling on paper are available at http://www.inpi.gov.br/portal/artigo/guia_basico_patentes
Information regarding on-line patent applications can be obtained at:
http://epatentes.inpi.gov.br/modulo2/edeposito/
Additionally, the Directorate of Patents offers a customer care sector to support the user with general information and orientation by phone, e-mail or face to face.
Electronic filing, which started in March 2013, represented in 2014 75% of all the patent applications filed in Brazil. The Directorate of Patents started to work on an easier, web-based platform to accept patent applications, and intends to release this platform by the end of 2015.
Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
The dossiers of the application are now indexed and can be accessed on the internet through a patent search system (https://gru.inpi.gov.br/pePI/jsp/patentes/PatenteSearchBasico.jsp), when available in electronic format. The Directorate of Patents is making a strong effort to generate a digital version of all the information that is currently on paper.
Classification1, preclassification2 (if applicable), reclassification3 activities; classification systems used (e.g., International Patent Classification (IPC)); matters concerning indexing of patent information
The official classification system used in INPI is the IPC, available in Portuguese at http://ipc.inpi.gov.br. In parallel, since 2014, CPC classification is also being used to classify applications in some areas. On 9 December 2014 the first document with a CPC symbol was published in our magazine under INID (52).
Examiners are being trained in the CPC classification system since 2013. The training was done in parts, first a general training was held in Brazil and thereafter groups of examiners, two per area, were filed specific trained at the EPO. In total, eight areas were covered with 16 examiners trained in The Hague and Munich.
Regarding IPC projects, the INPI was Rapporteur of several projects, including definitions, maintenance and C-projects (C468, C478). We continue our engagement in the IPC-forum and IPC meetings.
The WIPO systems related to classification were used in 2014, i.e. IPCA6TRANS for translating IPC 2015 and IPCRECLASS for reclassification due the IPC 2015 new version.
INPI pre-classifies an application by allotting an administrative unit, i.e. a technical area, using automated means (neural network algorithm). All administrative units are automatically ranked for every application and the application is then routed to the first technical area ranked. If this first choice is incorrect, the application can be rerouted to another unit, usually the second one ranked.
Abstracting, reviewing, and translation of the information contained in patent documents
Other activities
III. SOURCES OF PATENT INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE
Main types of publications of the Office (patent applications, full text, first pages, abstracts, bibliographic data, granted patents, etc.), medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URLs)
Since April 2005, official notices and selected bibliographic data relating to BR patent applications and granted patents are published in the official weekly electronic Brazilian Official Gazette (Revista da Propriedade Industrial - RPI). Official gazettes are available on the Brazilian Patent Office website in PDF and TXT format, at http://revistas.inpi.gov.br/rpi/, and all published officials gazettes are stored in the library available to the public. Bibliographic data of Brazilian patents are available for consultation at an internal database (SINPI) and at internet (www.inpi.gov.br). Keyword searches in titles or abstracts are available only in Portuguese. Brazilian patent documents' first pages contain bibliographic data, according to WIPO standards.
Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URL), etc.
Since April 2005, official notices and selected bibliographic data relating to BR patent applications and granted patents are published in the official weekly electronic Brazilian Official Gazette (Revista da Propriedade Industrial - RPI). Official gazettes are available on the Brazilian Patent Office website in PDF and TXT format, at http://revistas.inpi.gov.br/rpi/, and all published officials gazettes are stored in the library available to the public.
Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external collections and databases
INPI has a collection of DVD and CD-ROM containing published or granted US, Benelux, WO, EP, DE, ES, FR, JP, KR,OA CH, GB and TR patent documents, and paper copies of entire documents can be provided for internal or external demands.
INPI has also a paper collection of BR, US, WO, EP, AU, CA, NL, DE, CH, GB and FR patent documents classified according to the IPC and a microform patent document collection from BR, ES, US, FR, GB, DE and CH. This collection has been frozen since the implementation of search systems.
Internal users access CD-ROM, DVD, Epoque, Dialog, Thomson Reuters’ GENESEQ, CAS-STN, Vantage Point, Freely accessible databases on Internet and SINPI (Integrated System of Industrial Property - internal database).
Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to external users, conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)
By the payment of charges, external users can order patent searches (validity, freedom-to-operate, closest prior art, novelty and inventive step, etc.), as well as Patent Landscaping Reports.
Free of charge, INPI elaborates sectoral studies in partnership with other government institutions and Patent Landscape Reports in the areas of government interest that are made public via our website.
INPI also gives public access to its patent, trademarks, industrial designs and computer software databases free search tool through our website.
Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)
Nowadays the legal status of a patent can be obtained only by consulting the historic of legal events of the application. Starting in May of 2014, the Directorate of Patents started a working group to automatically provide and track in real time the legal status of all the applications and patents filed in Brazil.
Other sources
IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements
Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office
In order to support business processes related to the IPO, the core ICT solutions are divided in the following levels:
(i) Information Security Infrastructure: Essentially, this environment guarantees that information is protected from intentional or accidental modifications, by using the Fortnet firewall (Fortigate 1000C) for filtering, VPN controlling and Spam controlling. This hardware also acts as an IDS agent to inspect the inbound and outbound network activity identifying suspicious patterns, including Internet traffic. The INPI uses another kind of firewall to isolate networks like PROSUR, where the support is obtained from the pfSense-br.org. To complement this structure, the FortiAnalyzer guarantees the integration of network logging, analysis and reporting into a system with the view to create knowledge of security events throughout the network.
(ii) Networking Infrastructure: The focus of this structure is to maintain connectivity between LAN and the server farm, employing the central switch Matrix N-7 from Enterasys. As this switch is located in the INPI 's Datacenter, it has the function of concentrating all the incoming connections from the offices of INPI. This infrastructure is complemented by the SAN switches from Brocade to support connections in fiber channel to the Virtualization Infrastructure, Storage Infrastructure and Backup Infrastructure. A Wireless Internet network with 100 access points ensures that all floors of the two main buildings have Internet access. The Internet link consists on a High Load Balance through one internet connection links with 100Mbps speed. The Central Data Center in Rio de Janeiro is interconnected with 14 branch regional offices with a MPLS connection with 30Mbps.
(iii) Virtualization Infrastructure: The DataCenter has HP Blade Servers with 16 Blades under two Intel Xeon Quad-core 2.83 Ghz processors and 32GB RAM. All hosts are built in virtual machines running operating systems over the virtualization platform from vMware mounted with vSphere 5.1 and vCenter 5.1. With more than 160 virtual machines, the operating systems are distributed through Windows Server 2012 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Virtual Datacenters.
(iv) Storage Infrastructure: To provide rapid response in all IT environments, INPI invested in the Hitachi High End VSP solution, that is responsible to maintain the information stored in 80 Terabytes with Raid 6 array ensuring availability required to the business process. The backup architecture is base on a tape robot storage.
(v) Desktop Infrastructure: The computers used to support the business process are based in the solution from Itautec Infoway ST4273 with two monitor with 21 inches per research.
Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file
Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)
Other matters
V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF PATENT INFORMATION
Patent library: equipment, collection management, network of patent libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign patent libraries
INPI’s library has computers, microfilm and microfiche readers, and is a member of the national COMUT program, for collaboration with other libraries in Brazil.
The library catalog, design in MARC format, is available for the general public by INPI website. The public can consult ante the collection and others electronic resources in OPAC terminals, at the Library's Reading Room. As a WIPO Depository Library, the library staff catalog the intellectual property publications and make it available for the general public. Also, the library is a member of the Brazilian Bibliographical Exchange Program - COMUT, provided by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, it has more about 2,500 others partner libraries.
Publications related to different business procedures and patent information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.
INPI’s library has many different books, thesis, periodicals and other publications available to the public, all about Industrial Property.
Office's initiatives on providing foreign patent information in the local language(s) (e.g., machine translation tools, translation of abstracts)
Cooperation with universities, research centers, technology and innovation support centers, etc.
INPI develops sectoral studies in partnership with universities, research centers and government institutions aiming at the dissemination of the strategic use of patent information by teaching the partners how to perform patent searches and how to use the results in sectoral studies.
Education and training: training courses, e-learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.
We offer the following courses: “Intellectual Property for Librarians”; “Portal Periódicos CAPES Consortia / technical literature databases” for patent examiners in different fields: Biotechnology, Chemistry (pharmaceuticals), Chemistry (organic and inorganic), Engineering, Architecture, Electronics, Physics and related areas and “Portal Periódicos CAPES Consortia / technical literature databases for Innovation Units”.
INPI provides free of charge Patent Search tutorials in our website. Also we offer patent search and Landscape courses with different levels of difficulties.
Other activities
VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF PATENT INFORMATION
International exchange and sharing of patent information in machine-readable form, e.g., priority documents, bibliographic data, abstracts, search reports, full text information
INPI sends to 18 countries/organizations the bibliographic data and electronic copies of the whole patent applications and granted patents, as soon as the domestic publication occurs. Since 2011, INPI is publishing the intermediate patent documents such as examination and search reports and granted patents at the internet by the e-patents platform.
Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to patent information
INPI participates in the LATIPAT, PROSUR and IBEPI initiatives, besides sending to WIPO’s PatentScope and ESPACENET the bibliographic data and electronic copies of the whole patent applications and granted patents.
The INPI also participates in PROSUL and IBEPI. PROSUL is a regional initiative on technical cooperation among the National Industrial Property Offices in South America. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname and Uruguay are part of PROSUL. The project is financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). In the organization chart of PROSUL, there is a Patent Committee, which is responsible for cooperation in patent area and to discuss collaborative examination. There is also a Diffusion Technology Committee to develop the conversation about public domain.
The Ibero-American Industrial Property Program (IBEPI) exists under the Ibero-American General Secretary (SEGIB). Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Spain, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Dominican Republic and Uruguay are part of the group. In IBEPI, there is an Information Technology Committee, which produces thematic reports and discusses cooperation from the information contained in patent files.
Assistance to developing countries
Other activities
VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS
1.Classification is allotting one or more classification symbols (e.g., IPC symbols) to a patent application, either before or during search and examination, which symbols are then published with the patent application.
2. Preclassification is allotting an initial broad classification symbol (e.g., IPC class or subclass, or administrative unit) to a patent application, using human or automated means for internal administrative purposes (e.g., routing an application to the appropriate examiner). Usually preclassification is applied by the administration of an office.
3. Reclassification is the reconsideration and usually the replacement of one or more previously allotted classification symbols to a patent document, following a revision and the entry into force of a new version of the Classification system (e.g., the IPC). The new symbols are available on patent databases.