CWS.ATR.TM.2013.RS

Annual Technical Report 2013 on Trademark Information Activities submitted by Serbia (CWS/ATR/TM/2013/RS)

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I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN TRADEMARK INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

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

In calendar year 2013, Intellectual Property Office of Serbia received 2203 national applications. Compared to 2012 (1898), national applications fillings increased 16 percent. 1466 national applications were registered, 329 less than in 2012, and 219 were refused, 10 more than in 2012.
At the same time the number of trademark applications filed under the Madrid Agreement and Madrid Protocol is increased for 118 applications. We had 4986 applications in 2012 and in 2013 total number are 5104 trademark applications. On the other hand, the International trademark department issued 3743 Grant of protection statements in 2013, against 4906 in 2012.
Trademark applications:
Year Madrid System National Total
2009 5422 2084 6263
2010 4927 2161 7088
2011 4968 1987 6955
2012 4986 1898 6884
2013 5014 2203 7307
Registered Trademarks:

Year Madrid System National Total
2009 5885 3371 9256
2010 5258 1872 7130
2011 4823 1405 6228
2012 5257 1795 7052
2013 3743 1466 5209

II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO TRADEMARK 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

All relevant data considering the trademark protection in Republic of Serbia are on our web site on www.zis.gov.rs. That includes 1) frequently asked questions about trademarks, 2) TM legislation, 3) guidelines and forms, 4) fees; 5) statistics; 6) reports.
National trademark database is on our web site as well.
Third parties can make trademark research in our Office through the intranet.

Availability of the application dossier in electronic form

Application dossiers are available by the official website of the IP Office. Electronic trademark register contains bibliographic data on applications and registered trade marks and representations of trade marks, as well as the data on changes relating to applications and registered marks (assignments, licenses, pledges), for which the procedure was carried out at the request of the applicants.
For the changes applied after 1 January 2008, data are available electronically. For the changes, which are initiated before 1 January 2008, data are available in the written TM registers at the premises of the Intellectual Property Office of the Republic of Serbia in Belgrade.

Matters concerning classifying
(i) Classification and reclassification activities; classification systems used, e.g., International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (Nice Classification), International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks (Vienna Classification), other classification
(ii) Use of electronic classification systems and pre-defined terms of the classification applied

The Nice Classification is used for the similarity examination search, for commercial search and for statistics. The translation of the list of goods and services is available on the official web site http://www.zis.gov.rs/upload/documents/pdf_sr/pdf_zigovi/Nic_klas10-2014-6feb%20PDF.pdf
We have been using Vienna Classification in trademark examination procedure for years, but from the beginning of 2010, Trademark Department started to apply Vienna Classification through the IPAS system.

Matters concerning processing of different types of non-traditional marks (e.g., three-dimensional, motion, hologram, color mark, etc.)

IPO of the Republic of Serbia allows registration of trademark for the three-dimensional, color and sound (musical) signs.

III. SOURCES OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE

Main types of publications in the field of trademark information, outline of the content and medium (on paper, on CDs, online – URLs)

The main type of the publication in the field of trademark information is an official gazette: Intellectual Property Journal. The following information and bibliographical data concerning registered domestic and international trademarks are published in the Intellectual Property Journal: registration number, registration date, expected expiration date of registration, application number, date of filing of the application, date concerning exhibitions, data relating to priority under the Paris Convention, list of goods and services according the Nice Classification of Goods and service, disclaimer, reproduction of the mark, information concerning the colors claimed, indication relating to the nature or kind of mark, name and address of the holder of the registration, name and address of the representative. Trademarks are published in grayscale and color technique.

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

The Intellectual Property Office of Serbia, on the basis of Trademark Law, publishes its official gazette: Intellectual Property Journal. The Intellectual Property Journal is published bimonthly, 6 times a year. The Intellectual Property Journal, in the part referring to trademarks, is prepared by means of computer, using an IPAS system. From the beginning of the 2010 gazettes can be found on our official web site http://www.zis.gov.rs/information-services/intellectual-property-gazette.462.html

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

Electronic trademark register contains bibliographic data on applications and registered trade marks and representations of trade marks, as well as the data on changes relating to applications and registered marks (assignments, licenses, pledges. Examiners use also IPAS, internal database which contains more information available through workflow.

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

Electronic register, and also Alphabetical list of goods and services of the Nice Classification are available to the external users via the official website of the IPO, free of charge.

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

Legal status information are available through the Electronic Register of Trademarks, and also in paper version for the applications submitted before January 1st 2014.

IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO TRADEMARK INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements

IPAS (Industrial Property Administration System) – acquired from WIPO

Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office

Intranet network of Windows OS working stations, Windows (2003 R2 STD, 2010 R2 STD) based servers (Fujitsu servers, RAID controlled disks, three tiered architecture with Oracle as database server and JAVA application server
Internet access is achieved through direct optical connection to the provider at 20Mbit/sec, 2xCisco ASA 5510 in active/standby firewall configuration.
IPAS server - FujitsuSiemens Primergy TX200 server, 4GB RAM memory, 5x146GB hard disks in RAID 5 configuration, 2 NICs. MS Windows 2003 R2 Server Standard Edition, application software is IPAS (proprietary), database is Oracle.

Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources

Oracle database, IPAS case management system

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

MySQL database that is regularly updated, periodically, by transferring/converting appropriate dataset from internal Oracle database. Available for external use via hyperlink on IPO web site.

Other matters

General informations related to trademarks are posted to IPO web site by employees of Trademark Department by means of CMS software.

V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION

Office’s library (if deals with trademark information): equipment, collection management, network of libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign libraries

Office library is a member of the COBISS system which represents an organizational model of joining libraries into a national information system with shared cataloguing, the COBIB union bibliographic/catalogue database and local bibliographic databases of participating libraries, the COLIB database on libraries, the CONOR authority database, and with a number of other functions. Functioning of the system is preconditioned by the following professional outlines and technological assumptions:
-standardized and shared cataloguing of library materials as well as a uniform management of catalogues and bibliographies,
-adequately skilled cataloguers,
-linking of libraries via computer and communications network.
Each national library information system built on the COBISS platform is co-created by the national COBISS center and the libraries as members of the system.
COBISS (Co-operative Online Bibliographic Systems and Services) is a model of a system representing the platform for the national library information systems in Slovenia, Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Albania. All these systems are interconnected into the COBISS.Net regional network.

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

Various publications related to trademarks such as studies, brochures, newsletters and leaflets are available in paper form or in electronic form on the IPO website http://www.zis.gov.rs/publications.446.html
Education and Information Center (EIC) of the IPO is publishing a EIC Newsletter with information about topical subjects in the field of intellectual property. The EIC Newsletter is intended for all organizations and individuals involved in intellectual property or seeking knowledge in this field. The EIC Newsletter offers informative and educative thematic articles and other important information in the field of intellectual property. The Newsletter is available via official website of the EIC http://www.zis.gov.rs/sources-of-information/newsletter.302.html

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

The Education and information Centre (EIC) of the IPO provides support in the form of a service of disseminating information and education realized through consultations and conducting training, seminars and workshops aimed at identification, protection, management and exploitation of the results of research as intellectual property created in institutions involved in research. In a broader context this helps to promote innovation - transformation of ideas into products, processes and technologies benefiting society as a whole. Stimulating universities and other public research institutions to be more active in protecting and exploiting, the EIC held 18 seminars for professors, researches and students attended by 686 participants.

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

EIC has developed a range of different type of seminars for different stakeholder groups. Lectures can be tailor made. Also, the IPO is equipped with the modern public library, and the premises for seminars and educational purpose.
http://www.zis.gov.rs/home.334.html
In course of 2013 Education and Information Center held 78 seminars with different level of expertise for: SMEs, SMEs support institutions, institutes, universities, enforcement institutions and general public with 1841 participants.
Beside the regular consultancy on daily basis, EIC had 12 Open door events, once a month for consultancy in groups.
IPO had a stand at the following fairs:
- Science is not a bogeyman, Nis March 2013
- International Agricultural fair in Novi Sad, May 2013
- INOCOOP Fair of entrepreneurship in Zrenjanin - August 2013
- TESLA FEST in Novi Sad -the biggest inventor's exhibition in Serbia, October 2013
- Trade fair in Nova Pazova, October 2013
- Trade fair in Paracin, October 2013
- Business database fair in Belgrade, November 2013

At three trade fairs IPO participated with the lectures upon invitations from organizers.

Other activities

In 2013, Intellectual Property Pre-diagnosis was provided to 51 business companies which were 44% more than in previous year. The aim of this service was to show to the business companies the possibilities of the improvement of competition on the market by using and managing own resources of intellectual property. Business companies for which this service has been provided belong to the different fields in industry, and most of them were in the field of food and dietary supplements, metal industry, construction, chemical and textile manufacturers.

VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION

International exchange of trademark information in machine-readable form (e.g., Official Gazettes)

The Office has received gazettes from the following countries: Czech Republic and Belarus in paper and from Bulgaria, Belarus, Slovenia, Russia, Ukraine and China on CDs.

Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to trademark information

The officials of the IPO in 2014 had attended 10th Liaison Meetings on Trademarks and the 8th on Technical Cooperation in the OHIM.

VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS

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