Annual Technical Report on Patent Information Activities in 2013 submitted by Canada (CWS/ATR/PI/2013/CA)
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. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN PATENT INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and grants with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes
Changes experienced in terms of application filings and grants with respect to the previous year;
National:
34720 filings of which 26627 were PCT (2013)
35242 filings of which 26904 were PCT (2012)
PCT:
1080 CA RO filings (2013)
2138 CA RO filings (2012)
ISA:
2320 ISA requests (2013)
2291 ISA requests (2012)
IPEA:
273 chapter II requests (2013)
260 chapter II requests (2012)
Trends in our e-services
National:
1659 e-filings 19790 e-correspondence (2013)
1477 e-filings 15084 e-correspondence (2012)
PCT:
996 e-filings (2013)
928 e-filings (2012)
Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
CIPO's Annual Report can be found at the following link:
http://www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/h_wr00094.html
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
Information on legislation related to patents:
http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/P-4/index.html
The following is a link to our Correspondence Procedures: http://www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/wr00633.html
Abstracting, reviewing, and translation of the information contained in patent documents
The Office translates the titles in French or English depending on the language of the application. Some translations are retrieved from the PCT import process which uses an XML file "FTPed" from WIPO or downloaded from WIPO's PatentScope. We are currently working on providing abstracts in both French and English on patents in Good Standing.
III. SOURCES OF PATENT INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE
Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URL), etc.
Find Patent-related news regarding the Office at the following a link:
http://www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/patents
The Canadian Patent Office Record (Gazette) is published weekly and is available on CIPO's website.
Images and text of applications open to public inspection and granted patents are sent by FTP weekly.
The Annual index of the Canadian Patent Office Record is available on CIPO's website.
Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external collections and databases.
The CIPO Resource Centre, provides non-patent literature research and reference services. It enables employees to access world-class external information sources by its many e-resources. Its current emphasis is on enhancing the virtual collection and training employees to effectively access electronic information sources from their desktops. It serves as the central point for information procurement within the organization.
Also, our TechSource system includes bibliographic data (from 1869-present), text (abstract, claim and description of laid open patent documents from 1978-present) and images of patent documents (from 1920-present). All these documents are stored on hard disk technology.
Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to external users, conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)
CIPO consolidated all of its intellectual property Search Library in Gatineau, Quebec into a single Client Service Centre. The various paper search files have been removed. CIPO clients now search only the electronic search files.
The following link is a link to the CIPO Patent main page http://www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/h_wr00001.html
The following link is a link to the Canadian Manual of Patent Office Practice http://www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/h_wr00720.html
The following is a link to electronic IP Data Products CIPO provides http://www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/bulk data
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
Custom correspondence is done using Microsoft Word 2010. All other office automation tasks are performed within our patent processing system TechSource.
The generation of patent information (printing) is done through a combination of software tools supported by the TechSource patent processing system.
Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file
File building:
The information for our search engine is coming from our Line of Business application (Mainframe based application to handle national cases) which enables CIPO to manage electronically all Canadian patent documents (paperless office).
Updating:
The Canadian Database search engine is updated electronically daily for our internal search tool and our external search tool is available on our web site. Our search system is entitled Intellect which was put into production in 2008.
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
CIPO consolidated all of its intellectual property Search Library in Gatineau, Quebec. The CIPO Resource Centre (http://ciponet.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/487.nsf/eng/h_ne00014.html), provides non-patent literature research and reference services.
CIPO is still running a PPH (Patent Prosecution Highway) pilot with many countries; we can get files from their public PAIRS system. The USPTO has to get Canadian files directly from their applicant.
Publications related to different business procedures and patent information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.
Office notices and changes to office procedures are published through the Canadian Patent Office Record (CPOR).
Some of these office notices, and many other patent related notices, are put directly on the CIPO website under the Patent Notices section at the following link:
http://www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/h_wr00292.html
Education and training: training courses, e-learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.
In 2014, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, in partnership with WIPO, offered a one-week Specialized Training Workshop on the Application of Management Techniques in the Delivery of IP Services. Ten senior officials participated in the 5-day workshop. The Executive Workshop offered several modules on the application of management techniques in the delivery of intellectual property services. CIPO staff and a WIPO official delivered presentations.
The CIPO Resource Center also has new services including webinars, specialty wiki's and is soon to introduce e-books.
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
Every week MIMOSA CDs for applications open to public inspection and granted patents are prepared and sent to various Patent Offices around the world.
CIPO now provides Laid-open and Grants documents on CD-R or via FTP transfer.
Other activities
CIPO has provided, in cooperation with WIPO, the following free patent services to developing countries:
• Patent search and examination reports for developing countries, upon request from WIPO (ICSES);
• State-of-the-art patent searches under the WIPO Patent Information Searches (WPIS) for developing countries; and
• Paper copies of relevant Canadian patent documents identified by WIPO patent searches.
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.
Publications related to different business procedures and patent information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.