Annual Technical Report on Industrial Design Information Activities in 2014 submitted by Croatia

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

The main policies and plans of the Croatian State Intellectual Property Office given in the Annual Work Plan for 2014 were focused on the following objectives: evaluation of end-users needs with regard to industrial design information aimed to improve the Office’s guidelines and instructions related to industrial design registration and maintenance procedure; alignment with the other EU national offices for the harmonization of practice concerning certain aspects of industrial design examination; the development of internal tools to assess the duration and quality of the proceedings phases related to the registration and maintenance of industrial design rights. The Office has begun a major project of migrating data and functionality from the existing sytem to a new, open-source platform which will improve a number of services of the Office.

New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies(plans) mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks

The Office participated in convergence programmes launched in 2014 related to the practice of national offices and OHIM in the graphical depiction of designs, which, along the programme of convergence of classification of goods (the Locarno classification) has the objective to harmonize the procedural principles and the examination of formal requirements of industrial design applications, so as to ensure a greater degree of predictability and harmonization of the industrial design registration process for the applicants on the entire territory of the EU including the territory of Croatia.

Main areas of industrial design information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year

In August 2014, a project concerning common quality standards was implemented. On the European Trademark and Design Network’s website, the Office, along with other offices participating in the project and the OHIM, publishes standardized maps of processes concerning the selected quality standards and submits data on selected work quality standards in the Office. The project data are used in the development of internal tools to assess the quality and average duration of the proceedings phases related to the registration and maintenance of industrial design rights.

From October 2014, the survey with which the Office evaluates the satisfaction of users with the quality of services provided by the Office can be electronically completed as result of the joint tool implemented in cooperation between OHIM and national offices which enables the creation of various questionnaires and surveys.

Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and grants (registrations) with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes

Number of industrial design applications (inc. multiple applications)

Number of designs contained in industrial design applications

Industrial designs in force (according to number of industrial design applications)

Industrial designs in force (according to number of industrial designs contained in industrial design applications)

In the year 2014, the number of industrial designs applications filed by national route with the SIPO decreased by 8,15% compared to the previous year, whereas the number of designs contained in industrial designs applications decreased by 19,1 % compared to the previous year.
The number of application filed by international route (Hague Agreement) decreased by 79,3 % compared to the previous year, whereas the number of designs contained in internationally filed application decreased 72,5 % compared to the previous year.

Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.

Annual report:

http://www.dziv.hr/hr/o-zavodu/godisnje-izvjesce/arhiva-g-i/  (HR)

http://www.dziv.hr/en/about-sipo/annual-report/archive/  (EN)

Statistics:

http://www.dziv.hr/hr/o-zavodu/statistika-ind-vlasnistva/  (HR)

http://www.dziv.hr/en/about-sipo/ip-statistics/  (EN)

Official gazette:

http://www.dziv.hr/hr/glasnik-hgiv (HR)

http://www.dziv.hr/en/the-croatian-intellectual-property-gazette (EN)

News:

http://www.dziv.hr/hr/novosti/  (HR)

http://www.dziv.hr/en/news/  (EN)

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

Filing on paper (instructions, Guidelines on the basic requirements of industrial design protection in Croatia with the practical examples):

http://www.dziv.hr/files/File/obrasci/industrijski/uputa_dizajn.pdf

http://www.dziv.hr/files/File/obrasci/industrijski/Industrijski_dizajn_vodic.pdf

E-filing :

http://www.dziv.hr/hr/e-usluge/e-prijava/

WIPO's Leaflet: “Looking Good: An Introduction to Industrial Designs for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises“.
http://www.dziv.hr/files/File/obrasci/industrijski/Dobar_izgled.pdf

Availability of the application dossier in electronic form

http://www.dziv.hr/en/the-croatian-intellectual-property-gazette

Industrial Designs search:

http://www.dziv.hr/hr/e-usluge/pretrazivanje-baza-podataka/industrijski-dizajn/

(HR)

http://www.dziv.hr/en/e-services/on-line-database-search/industrial-designs

(EN)

Classification and reclassification activities; classification system used, e.g., International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification), other classification

The 10th edition of the Locarno Classification has been used since January 1, 2014.

Other activities

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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)

Official Gazette :
http://www.dziv.hr/en/the-croatian-intellectual-property-gazette

Industrial Designs search:

http://www.dziv.hr/hr/e-usluge/pretrazivanje-baza-podataka/industrijski-dizajn/

(HR)

http://www.dziv.hr/en/e-services/on-line-database-search/industrial-designs/

(EN)

The Office maintains a complete history of its industrial design files in paper form (except files that are filed electronically/through e-filling) and all information for industrial design applied from the year 2000 to date in electronic form.

The information regarding published industrial design registrations is also available in the Office database containing public data from the Industrial designs register, accessible through the Office website, free of charge. A range of search options is available, including: Date of Application, Proprietor, Image, Locarno Class.

Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URL), etc.

Since 2006 Official Gazette of the SIPO was published monthly, and starting with the issue No. 05/2009 of May 2009 the Office discontinued publishing the Gazette in printed version and publishes it since only as an electronic publication. From October 2013 the frequency of Gazette’s publication has increased to every two weeks publication. The Gazette is fully available free of charge in the PDF-format at the official Office's web site http://www.dziv.hr/en/the-croatian-intellectual-property-gazette/, including the archive of the earlier editions (since the beginning of the electronic publication only). The gazette is also published on CD-ROM as an annual collection or individual publication at the request of a user (against the payment).

Official Gazette contains following information on industrial design: Publication of Changes Entered in the Industrial Design Register, Publication of Industrial Design, Industrial Design Indexes by Numbers, Classification Symbols and Owners, Publication of Changes Entered into the Industrial Design Register, Publication of Corrections of Data to Published, Industrial Design Registrations, Publication of the Granted Industrial Designs Extensions Publication of Industrial Design Expirations, Publication of Information on International Registrations of Industrial Designs with effect in the Republic of Croatia. The information regarding published industrial design registrations is also available in the Office database containing public data from the Industrial designs register, accessible through the Office website, free of charge. A range of search options is available, including: Date of Application, Proprietor, Image, Locarno Class.

Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external documentation and databases

Industrial Designs Register available to examiners and formality officers is used for filing all bibliographic data concerning the particular design application. The Register is interlinked with the electronic depository of the design documents. The coverage of the national industrial design documents in electronic form is complete since year 2000 and partially since 1991 when the Office was established. The document collection is maintained by an in-house developed document management system.

International industrial designs data in XML format are weekly downloaded from the WIPO’s ftp site. After processing data are available through the related software tool. Those data are used for substantive examination of the international industrial designs designated for Croatia.

Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) and services available to external users; conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)

General information regarding the industrial designs and industrial designs registration procedures are provided free of charge. They can be obtained face-to-face at the Office’s information centre (acronym INCENTIVE), by phone, via fax, e-mail or posted letter, and are also available at the Office’s web site: http://www.dziv.hr/hr/intelektualno-vlasnistvo/industrijski-dizajn/. Industrial design's databases professional search services of the industrial designs databases as well as registry extracts are available upon user’s request against payment.
Standard design search services, based on the appearance and description, include the following search criteria: applicant/owner, class, subclass, or name of the product according to the Locarno Classification, and bibliographic data printouts. Tailor-made search services are also available, if requested.
On-line search services (e-services) of national register are available to users at http://www.dziv.hr/hr/e-usluge/pretrazivanje-baza-podataka/industrijski-dizajn/ & http://www.dziv.hr/en/e-services/on-line-database-search/industrial-designs/ and http://www.dziv.hr/hr/e-usluge/pretrazivanje-baza-podataka/medjunarodni-dizajn/ & http://www.dziv.hr/en/e-services/on-line-database-search/international-designs-hr/ as well as links to the e-search-services of other institutions at http://www.dziv.hr/hr/informacije-usluge/usluge-pretrazivanja/bp-iv-bez-naknade/ & http://www.dziv.hr/en/sipo-information-services/non-commercial-ip-db.

Data regarding published industrial designs are available to the public free of charge through the Office’s web site http://www.dziv.hr/en/e-services/on-line-database-search/industrial-designs/(EN).
Access to the databases of the other relevant authorities, available from the relevant web pages, are also offered to the users (Hague Express Database http://www.wipo.int/ipdl/en/hague/search-struct.jsp and DesignView Database https://www.tmdn.org/tmdsview-web/welcome?lang=hr)

Public computers in the INCENTIV premises are available to users free-of-charge for on-line database searches and web browsing.

Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)

Detailed legal status information are available in the Industrial Designs Register, accessible only to the Office staff, while the basic information on the legal status are available to the public on the Office's web site:

http://www.dziv.hr/en/e-services/on-line-database-search/industrial-designs/

Other sources

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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

A wide set of software tools has been developed in-house to support business procedures of the Office, providing a range of tools for efficient processing of the applications and other documents.

Office's software system is in the process of migration to a new (open-source) platform.

Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office

- 20Mbit/s leased line used for Internet connection,

- CISCO Network Equipment (LAN based on Fast Ethernet - 1000/100/10 Mbit/s).

SERVERS:

All servers are virtualized under VMware (except mail server)

- VMware vSphere 5.5 Essentials Plus Kit for 3 hosts, 192 GB RAM

- Physical Servers:

- Dell PowerEdge R610 64GRAM; 12 x CPU Intel Xeon E5645

- Dell PowerEdge R620 64GRAM; 8 x CPU Intel Xeon E5645

- Dell PowerEdge R620 64GRAM; 8 x CPU Intel Xeon E5645

Virtualized servers are on the following operating systems:

- Win SERVER 2008 R2 Enterprise

- Win SERVER 2003 St. Ed.

- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

- SUSE Linux Enterprise 10

- Debian GNU/Linux 6 

Mail Server:

- MS Exchange 2010 Server Enterprise,

- Physical Server: Fujitsu RX300 S5

- OS Win SERVER 2008 R2 Enterprise

Workstations:

- Desktop - PC Pentium IV with WIN XP PROF or WIN 7

- Notebooks - OS - MS WIN 7 or WIN 8

Storage

- NAS:

- NetApp DATA ONTAP Release 8.0.2P4

- IBM N3400, 12x600GB SAS, 24x 1TB SATA disks

Backup software

- SYMC BACKUP EXEC 2012 Server Win Per Server Bndl

- SYMC BACKUP EXEC 2012 Option Ndmp Win Per Server

Backup tape device

- Dell PowerVault TL2000

Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources

The bibliographic data are stored in industrial designs database and designs images are stored in a network file directory. They are interlinked by different software tools. Data coverage is a complete set of industrial designs data since year 2000 and partial data since 1991 (when the office was established).

Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file

The Office does not carry out examination of the novelty and individual character of industrial design as a part of the granting procedure so no search file is built in the processing of application. Published industrial designs data (grants) can be searched at the Office's web site through the web-server application (MS Windows 2003 server and mySQL database).

Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)

From September 2014 SIPO’s used an open source database postgreSQL (before that an ingres database was used). An Electronic Industrial design’s register is used for filing all bibliographic data concerning the particular industrial design. All industrial design changes (change of ownership, change of name, address, licence, etc.) are recorded and are maintained by Industrial design Register user interface.

Since year 2000 SIPO has developed its own document management system in electronic form that is meeting office needs (all incoming and outgoing documents have been scanned in Adobe Acrobat).

International industrial design data in XML format are weekly loaded from the WIPO’s ftp site. After processing data are available through the application “HAGUE”. Those data are used for examination and publication purposes.

MS Word is used for automatic generation of output documents. MS Excel is used for (automatic) generation of specific reports, which are used, for annual SIPO’s report, WIPO statistics and for other purposes (improving industrial design processes).

Published industrial design data (applications/grants) can be searched at the SIPO’s internet site http://www.dziv.hr/en/e-services/on-line-database-search/industrial-designs/ through the SIPO's web-server application (MS Windows 2003 server and mySQL database).

The Office does not carry out examination on the novelty and individual character of industrial design as a part of the granting procedure so no search file is built in the processing of application. Published industrial designs data (grants) can be searched at the Office's web site through the web-server application (MS Windows 2003 server and mySQL database).

Other matters

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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

The Office's Library (http://www.dziv.hr/hr/informacije-usluge/knjiznica & http://www.dziv.hr/en/sipo-information-services/library/) operates within the Office's Information Centre (acronym INCENTIV, http://www.dziv.hr/hr/informacije-usluge/incentiv/ & http://www.dziv.hr/en/sipo-information-services/information-centre/). Library public services include access to the collections and the reading room, available to public during the working hours of INCENTIV. Library collections are available at the Library premises and on-line at the Office's web page (http://knjiznica.dziv.hr/). User inquiries and reservation requests can also be made via e-mail (knjiznica@dziv.hr). The collections contain numerous books and periodicals, primarily in the field of IP or related fields, and are catalogued in the regularly maintained database.

Publications related to different business procedures and industrial design information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.

The Office's Library: 
http://www.dziv.hr/hr/informacije-usluge/knjiznica/ & http://www.dziv.hr/en/sipo-information-services/library/

Cooperation with universities, technology and innovation support centers, etc.

The Office has a developed cooperation with a range of partners, including universities, technology and innovation support centers, development agencies etc.

Education and training: training courses, e learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.

Seminars, Workshops and Lectures on Intellectual Property for Academic Community in 2014

• Lectures “Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights “, within the specialization course of the Police Academy - Zagreb, 20 January 2014 and  24 March 2014.
• Workshop “Intellectual Property Data Base Searches “at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology - Zagreb, 18 February 2014.
• Seminar on intellectual property for students and staff of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy - Split, 4 March 2014.
• Lecture “Protection of Intellectual Property “, within the manifestation “Engineers’ Days” at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing - Zagreb, 18 March 2014.
• Lecture “Trademark and Industrial Design Registration Procedures “, Faculty of Architecture, School of Design – Zagreb, 22 May 2014.
• Lecture on intellectual property for students of the Chemical Department of the Faculty of Science - Zagreb, 25 October 2014.
• Seminar for students of the Faculty of Economics and Tourism University in Pula - Zagreb, 11 December 2014.

Lectures for Entrepreneurs and Small and Medium Enterprises in 2014

• Lecture “Use of Intellectual Property in Business Operations of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises “ - Pula, 6 February 2014.
• Series of lectures on the application of intellectual property in business and assessing the potential of intellectual property in cooperation with the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, intended for representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises - Split, Osijek, Zagreb, Karlovac, February -      April 2014.
• Lecture “Protection of Intellectual Property in Activities Related to Agricultural Production" - Biograd na moru, 10 May 2014.
• Lecture “Intellectual Property Protection by Trademark for Female Entrepreneurs “ within the seminar “Woman and Rural Development “ - Sisak, 13 September 2014.
• Lecture “Protection of Intellectual Property and its Use in Business “, within the conference “Protect your Idea by JCI“ - Zagreb, 20 September 2014.
• Lecture “Overview of Intellectual Property Rights and the International System of Protection “, within the seminar “Intellectual Property and International Business” - Zagreb, 25 November 2014.

Seminars and workshops for the representatives of state institutions and judicial bodies in 2014

• Workshop for judges "Intellectual Property Rights – Basic Module ", in cooperation with the Judicial Academy -  Zagreb, 3 October 2014.
• Lecture “Basics of Intellectual Property“, for employees of the Technology Department of the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports - Zagreb, 19 December 2014.

Public Seminars and Distance Learning Courses organized in 2014:

• General Course on Intellectual Property (DL-101HR) – 4 February – 16 April 2014 and 15 September – 20 November 2014.
• WIPO’s International Summer School on Intellectual Property in Croatia – Dubrovnik, 26 May – 6 June 2014.

Public Events in which the Office Participated in 2014

• Public events within the action Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy – Slavonski Brod, 14 February 2014; Varaždin, 14 June 2014; Zaprešić, 13 December 2014.
• 8th International Fair of Innovations in Agriculture - Biograd na moru, 9 – 11 May 2014.
• 12th International Innovation Exhibition ARCA 2014 - Zagreb, 15 – 18 October 2014.

Professional and Promotional Events in which the Office Participated

• Round table “From an Idea to the Commercialization of Innovations” - Pula, 6 February 2014.
• National conference of the project “Improving Information to the Croatian Business Community BIZimpact II”; Presentation of the mini guide ““With Intellectual Property to Successful Business “ – Zagreb, 28 February 2014.
• 5th Intellectual Property Rights Conference “Intelektiv“ - Zagreb, 28 May 2014.
• Conferences regarding the presentation of results of the EVLIA project; Round table on the results and the perspective of the methodology resulting from  Evlia project - Zagreb, 16 December 2014.

Professional and Promotional Events in the Co/organization of the Office

• Presentation of the European Observatory for the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights - Zagreb, 26 November 2014

Other activities

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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)

In 2014 the Office commenced with the preliminary activities to exchange the design information in machine-readable form with the EU Office for Harmonization on the Internal Market (OHIM) which will lead to the supply of data to the common public database DesignView that includes design data from the OHIM, national offices of EU member states and other participating offices.

Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to industrial design information

The Office participates in Liaison meetings with other national industrial designs offices of the European Union member states and the Office for the Harmonization in the Internal Market of the European Union (OHIM) and extends this cooperation to the Convergence.

The Office participated in convergence programmes initiated in 2014 related to the practice of national offices and OHIM in the graphical depiction of designs, which, along the programme of convergence of classification of goods (the Locarno classification) has the objective to harmonize the procedural principles and the examination of formal requirements of industrial design applications.

Assistance to developing countries

Study visits organized in SIPO

Other activities

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VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS

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