Annual Technical Report on Industrial Design Information Activities in 2024 submitted by Norwegian Industrial Property Office

Please provide links to your website where the requested information can be found in English, French, or Spanish.  Alternately, you may provide text responses instead of URLs if desired.  If the information is not available on your website in an ATR language, then please provide text.

URLs in responses should meet the following requirements:

The term "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

Information on the following topics is desired:

  • Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of industrial design information activities and expected time frames for their realization
    • The Digital Strategy 2020 - 2025 evaluation and activity for renewal of strategy according to the WIPO Recommendations (Final by 2025)
    • Else; see strategy and annual report.
  • New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies(plans) mentioned above, short description:  aims, partners, tasks
    • Generative AI infrastructure and Rag/Fine tuning projects (End by 2025)
    • New OP-case workflow (Opposition type cases; migration from Documentum to MS workflow)
    • Open data initiate (ST.97 JSON) to be finalized in 2025
    • Participation in Global Design Database initiated, to be finalized in 2025
  • Main areas of industrial design information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year
    • Team organization of Digitalization Dept. (Continuous)
    • Generative KI project started with focus on harmonization of regulation and routines
    • Cloud infrastructure (Azure)
    • Legal Status extract and database for Trademark
    • Digital Gazette for Trademark
    • Open data API for Trademark
    • Altinn 3 migration (National platform for secure electronic filing and correspondences)
  • Statistics:  changes in terms of application filings and grants (registrations) with respect to previous year;  trends or areas experiencing rapid changes
    • Trends:
       202220232024
      Design applications in total1 1981 3651 291
      National applications from Norwegian applicants155185153
      National applications from other applicants141166166
      International designations from Norwegian applicants162315
      International designation from other applicants886991957
      Total number of individual designs filed4 3004 5954 250 
      Number of decisions annually
      (Registrations, refused, shelved)      		1 1391 2571 387 
      Renewed design rights5 2015 9441 519 
      Total number of design registrations in force12 13012 57513 235 

    • The average time from filing to decision is 1.5 months (goal between 2 and 3 months)

    • 5% fewer design application compared to 2023, but similar to 2022, perhaps normal variations with the low total volume.

II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Information on the following topics is desired:

  • Information and support provided by the Office to applicants regarding filing on paper and/or e-filing (instructions, seminars, etc.) – URLs
  • Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
  • Classification and reclassification activities;  classification system used, e.g., International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification), other classification
    • Locarno product classification
  • Other activities

III. SOURCES OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE

Information on the following topics is desired:

  • 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 Gazettes:  main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online – (URL), etc.
    • Digital gazette form march 2024 onwards, prior gazette in collection of weekly PDFs.
    • Design Gazette
  • Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external documentation and databases
    • Acsepto v11, only national collection
  • Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) and services available to external users;  conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)
    • Free search, text and values, for register and dossier. 
    • Payment service (Renewals)
    • Professional design searches in national database available at additional charge, both for a given application, but also as a general confidential service.
  • Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)
    • From march 2024 onwards Legal Status events are produced according to standard, but in local JSON format
    • Pending action to open the design legal status event records database as Open Data by 2025
  • Other sources
    • Planned integration to GDD and GBD by 2025
    • Full member of TMView and DesignView: weekly update
    • CTI integration for TMView and DesignView is under planning 

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

Information on the following topics is desired:

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

    • All infrastructure off prem (data center, colocation) 100%, except for network capabilities and work stations.
      200+ local servers (virtual included). Redundancy, off site backup. Secure home office availability.

    • Some main technologies: VMWare, MS.Net, Oracle, Documentum, MS.Azure, Citrix Workspace

    • Standard workstation is laptop, docking, 49" widescreen monitor. Providing up to dual monitor home office.

  • Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office
    • Off site colocation server racks.
    • Some main technologies: VMWare, MS.Net, Oracle, Documentum, MS.Azure, Citrix Workspace, Elasitc Search
  • Internal databases:  coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
    • Design register and dossier coverage: Complete for all trademarks in force, complete register from approximately 2003
    • Complete collection of design applications open for public inspection and registered rights (limited bibliographic data).
  • Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file:  file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file
    • Search file based on structured data and full text indexes (Elastic Search), and Oracle databases,
    • Acsepto (by Coexya) for trademark with image coding and search, jpeg and png-file formats
  • Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)
    • Ptolemy, SDU ++ (by Coexya, France)
    • Acsepto (Coexya) for Trademark
    • Unit4 ERP
    • Plus integrations
  • Other matters 

    • Digital service portfolio (By NIPO developers):

      • Register search on updated copy database, with user selected alerts
      • Legal status event export (march 2024 onwards)
      • Digital gazette publication (march 2024 onwards)
      • Open data management (2024: pending test)
      • Customer portfolio /dossiers with self service (require secure authentication)
      • Altinn filing services  Filing, forms, correspondence, roles, user inbox (Migration to Altinn III continues)
      • Altinn Customer message inbox (all incoming and outgoing forms) (Migration started)
      • Real time statistics
      • Product guide.
      • Guided application filing (for non-professionals)
      • Online payment (annual fees, renewal, partial renewals) calculation, due dates, CC or bank transfer

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

Information on the following topics is desired:

  • Office’s library (if deals with industrial design information): equipment, collection management, network of libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign libraries
    • Online search and dossier, customer desk services, call center: Winner of best public office call center in Norway 2024 (5th in row)
  • Publications related to different business procedures and industrial design information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.
    • Web page with training content and guides.
  • Cooperation with universities, technology and innovation support centers, etc.
    • Cooperation with several Universities (programs, educations)
  • Education and training:  training courses, e learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.
    • On site training courses for agents and professionals (fee of charge)
    • Extensive program of lectures (online) and training sessions during industry exhibitions (free of charge)
    • Active stands during exhibitions
    • Active contributor to others program within industry
  • Other activities 
    • Large focus on Social Media platforms

VI.INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION

Information on the following topics is desired:

  • International exchange of industrial design information in machine-readable form (e.g., Official Gazettes)
    • Full member of DesignView (EUIPO)
    • Pending project for full register in Global Brand Database (By 2025)
    • Various exports of data for IP community (expecting soon to be replaced by open data)
  • Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to industrial design information
    • Active in the Madrid Working Group
    • Broad and active participation in CWS and CWS task forces, active in WIPO Conversations
    • Supporter of ICT Road Map Meeting
    • Supporter of WIPO initiatives for ICT Strategy Best Practices and extended ICT focus under the WIPO umbrella 
    • Initiatives for a Nordic ICT forum for cooperation
    • Various projects with EUIPO on TMView and DesignView
    • Active members in many EPO projects
    • Observer in several projects for distributed register, digital wallets, digital national currencies
  • Assistance to developing countries
    • Support of pending WIPO programs. Not any direct activity within 2024

VII. ACTIVITIES RELATING TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF WIPO STANDARDS CONCERNING INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION

Note: For each Standard listed below, please enter one of the following values: 

  • "Implemented";
  • "On implementation phase";
  • "Planning to implement";  and
  • "No plan to implement"


WIPO Standard ST.3: Two-letter codes for the representation of states, other entities and organizations

Implemented

WIPO Standard ST.13: Numbering of applications for IPRs

Implemented 

WIPO Standard ST.80: Bibliographic data relating to industrial designs

Implemented

WIPO Standard ST.81: Content and layout of industrial designs gazettes

Implemented

Currently INID codes not provided due to dual language interface (INID under evaluation

WIPO Standard ST.86: Processing of industrial design information using XML

No plan to implement

WIPO Standard ST.87: The exchange of industrial design legal status data 

Implemented

There is some parts still not fully compliant. Only the published events are currently available in JSON format through weekly gazettes.

WIPO Standard ST.88: Electronic representation of industrial designs

Implemented

WIPO Standard ST.90: Recommendation for processing and communicating Intellectual Property data using Web APIs (Application Programming Interfaces)

Planning to implement

WIPO Standard ST.91: Recommendations on digital three-dimensional (3D) models and 3D images

Planning to implement

WIPO Standard ST.96: Processing of Industrial Property information using XML

Planning to implement

Currently planned open data with ST.97 v5 register data on test for Open Dat

Other WIPO Standards Related to Patents

Note: Please list any other WIPO Standards related to patents (not mentioned above) that your Office or Organization has implemented, is currently in the process of implementing, or plans to implement in the future.  For each Standard, please indicate the implementation status with an option: Implemented, On implementation Phase or Planning to Implement. 

No comments

VIII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS

https://www.patentstyret.no/en