Annual Technical Report on Industrial Design Information Activities in 2016 submitted by the State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania
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Where URLs are requested below, it is preferred that either URLs which are likely to remain stable over time (three years or more) are provided, or home (main) page URLs are provided with a short explanation of how to access the corresponding information.
The expression "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
In Lithuania , the protection of industrial designs is provided under the Law of Design of the Republic of Lithuania which entered into force on 1 January 2003.
Since 26 September 2008, when Lithuania joined the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement on
extended to Lithuania (the international way)
Under Council Regulation No. 6/2002 of 12 December 2001 on the Community Design, under
In Lithuania, industrial designs are registered by formal registration system. The SPB does not examine the industrial design as to its novelty, individual character, industrial applicability or the right of a person to file the application
Since the establishment of the SPB until 31 December 2016, 1 873 national applications for design registration were filed. 296 out of 1 616 design registrations entered in the Design Register of the Republic of Lithuania are valid.
Since 2008, 399 notifications of the extension of international design registrations in Lithuania were received from the WIPO. After examination, 399 decisions to grant protection were made.
Year end 2016, 3 366 registrations of national or international designs and 105 035 Community designs registered in the EU Register of Community Designs were valid in Lithuania
Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of industrial design information activities and expected time frames for their realization
A number of projects were established within the Cooperation Fund, a lot of them have already been implemented but still on some of them the work is carried out. The Cooperation Fund covers work in collaboration between EUIPO and national offices. Main goals of this project are: harmonization of practices, adaptation to the digital environment, barrier removal, improvement of technical system. Such objectives create a good strategy especially in order to adapt to the competitive internal European and digital market. In 2016, EUIPO launched European Cooperation Programme aiming at enhancing the cooperation between the national IP offices.
New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies(plans) mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks
Main areas of industrial design information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year
Back office - the full implementation of this project happened in 2016 . The Back Office is a workflow-based system for handling trademarks and designs throughout the whole life cycle of the process from application to registration and publication.It streamlines the work process and helps users to create and monitor correspondence with applicants. It calculates fees, handles files, organizes correspondence.
Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and grants (registrations) with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes
In 2016 41 design applications were filed (119 designs).
Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
Statistics are accessed at :
http://www.vpb.gov.lt/docs/20150206_1.pdf
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
Current SPB information and support options are:
1. Via website: http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=EN
2. via telephone: +370 5 278 0290, fax: +370 5 275 0723
3. via e-mail: info@vpb.gov.lt
Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
A trademark and design administration system Linra, including new TMView and DesignView versions, data filing with the international databases, uploading the data of international trademarks, appeal and opposition data, and automatic generation of design and trademark bulletin was finally developed and maintained.
Classification and reclassification activities; classification system used, e.g., International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification), other classification
Registrations have been classified in accordance with the ninth edition of International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification).
Other activities
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)
In 2017, the following publications were issued:
2016 Annual Report of the Patent Office of the Republic of Lithuania
Statistics of the year 2016 on the legal protection of industrial property in the Republic of Lithuania
24 official bulletins of the SPB
Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URL), etc.
http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=en&n=245
24 official bulletins of the SPB have been published in 2016
Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external documentation and databases
The SPB provide database of national and international design registration on it's website free of charge (http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=en&n=263
Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) and services available to external users; conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)
The Design Register of the Republic of Lithuania was open to public access only in the following forms:
Extract from the Register (on request);
SPB Official Bulletin.
Design Database on SPB website free of charge
Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)
The SPB website Designs Database has been an exact copy of the data stored in the Design Register of the Republic of Lithuania and contained data on designs registered and application filed directly with the State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania
Other sources
N/A
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 new trademark and design administration system Linra, including new TMView and DesignView versions, data filing with the international databases, uploading the data of international trademarks, appeal and opposition data, and automatic generation of design and trademark bulletin was developed in cooperation with EUIPO
Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office
SPB uses workstations and notebooks with
Microsoft Windows XP Professional,
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional,
Microsoft Windows 10; multimedia tablets with Apple iOS, Google Android and Microsoft Windows 10 Pro;
physical and virtual servers with Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard & Enterprise, Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard & Enterprise, Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Standard & Enterprise, Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard & Enterprise, Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard, CentOS Linux 5/6/7, Debian GNU/Linux 6/7/8 and Ubuntu Server LTS; hypervisor servers with VMware vSphere and windows Server 2012 R2.
Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
Industrial design data are stored on the specialized, regularly updated internal database, where image information and bibliographic details are held, :
- BackOffice;
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)
The State Patent Bureau of the Republic of the Republic of Lithuania (SPB) published on its website (http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=en&n=245) the Official Bulletin Inventions, Designs, Trademarks and on its website
(http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=en&n=263) Database of the Design of the Republic of Lithuania
Other matters
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
Publications related to different business procedures and industrial design information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.
http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?n=476&l=en
Cooperation with universities, technology and innovation support centers, etc.
In autumn 2016, WIPO started a pilot project called “Baltic States Pilot Project for the Development of a Regional Pool of IP Commercialization Experts” where 17 universities from Lithuania , Latvia, Estonia take part. This is a capacity building program for regional professionals to develop necessary competences in the area of knowledge transfer and IP commercialization. The project will be performed from 2016 to 2017
Education and training: training courses, e learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.
Round table discussions with business representatives on Trade Marks and Designs protection in the EU were organized by the State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania in cooperation with 6 regional chambers for industry, trade and crafts - Vilnius, Kaunas, Marijampolė, Panevėžys, Šiauliai, Alytus. This activity helped to fix the knowledge already acquired as well as to gain new information about the developments in the field of trademarks and designs in the EU.
Specialists from the SPB met with local business representatives, mainly small and medium enterprises, invited to round table discussions by 6 regional chambers for industry, trade and craft in different cities of Lithuania.. The SPB shared information on trade mark and design protection in the EU for actual and potential users of EUTM and RCD systems. Employees of the SPB showed in practice how to use the European Union trademarks and designs databases, E-filling tools, getting the audience acquainted with "TMview" and "Designview" and information that can be found in these databases, replied to questions concerning the main steps obtaining registered rights for trademarks or design, showed how to fill online application form, classify of goods and services, etc.
Other activities
N/A
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)
SPB Official Bulletin has been published in an electronic format and has been accessible on SPB website (http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=en&n=245).
Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to industrial design information
In 2016 the SPB participated in the projects of the OHIM Cooperation Fund (CF) . Part of the projects is related with development of electronic services, access to industrial property information and its simplification
Assistance to developing countries
N/A
Other activities
N/A