Annual Technical Report 2007 on Patent Information Activities submitted by Russian Federation (SCIT/ATR/PI/2007/RU)
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 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. Evolution of patent activities
Changes experienced in terms of application filings and grants with respect to the previous year
In 2007, the Office procedures for filing and examination of applications for the grant of Russian Federation (RF) patents for inventions remained unchanged.
In 2007, amendments and updates were made to the Recommendations on the examination of applications for inventions and utility models in order to reduce the period for consideration of requests by applicants to make amendments to the information on an applicant (applicants) or author (authors) of an invention or utility model.
Trends or areas experiencing rapid changes with respect to the previous year
Inventions
Table 1 (attached) shows the data for 2006-2007 for the filing of applications for and grant of RF patents for inventions.
The patents granted for inventions in 2007 were distributed according to the sections of the International Patent Classification (IPC) can be found in Table 2 attached.
In 2007, the same distribution trends were preserved according to the sections of the IPC as in 2006.
The largest number of patents for inventions in 2007 was granted to Russian applicants for Section A of the IPC – Human Necessities; and to foreign applicants for Section C – Chemistry and Metallurgy.
The least popular among both Russian and foreign applicants was Section D — Textiles and Paper. The number of patents granted under this Section in 2007 constituted only 0.96 per cent of the overall number of patents granted for inventions.
Utility models - please see Table 3 attached.
As shown in table 3, the number of applications filed by foreign applicants in 2007 increased by 12.21 per cent compared with 2006, and the number of utility model certificates issued in 2007 to foreign applicants rose by 19.57 per cent, i.e. the same growth trend was preserved as in past years, basically as a result of foreign applicants.
In Table 4 (attached) are the data for the distribution of utility model certificates (patents) according to sections of the IPC.
The leading section of the IPC in 2007 was once again Section B – Performing Operations and Transporting, and in second place Section A – Human Necessities. The one in least demand remained Section D – Textiles and Paper – according to the number of certificates issued it is the least numerous – and also Section C – Chemistry and Metallurgy.
URLs of web pages of the Office's website that provide statistics related to patents
Statistical information is provided on the Office site webpage addresses, in relation to patents in the Statistics section, at http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/regions/okrug2006.rtf, http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/regions/otras12006.rtf; and in the Provision of legal protection for intellectual property subject matter section of the Rospatent Annual Report, at http://www.fips.ru/rep2006/R1.htm.
II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, distribution and use of primary and secondary sources of patent information
Publishing, printing, copying (main types of publications of the Office in the field of patent information, etc.)
During the reporting period, the following were published in official gazettes:
• 38,589 invention announcements, including 23,028 claims for invention patents, 15,153 claims for invention applications, and 408 claims for previously unpublished inventions;
• 9,761 utility model claims.
Documents providing protection were prepared and sent to rightsowners for all types of industrial and intellectual property subject matter.
All the information on inventions and utility models was published in the Rospatent Inventions and Utility Models Official Gazette on electronic CD-ROM carrier with search system.
Main types of announcements of the Office in the field of patent information
Table 5 (attached) gives information on the main types of Office communications in the field of patent information.
In 2007, an annual index to the gazettes for 2006 was issued:
• to the Inventions and Utility Models Official Gazette on paper – five volumes (eight parts).
In 2007, the 2006 Rospatent Annual Report was prepared and released.
The Inventions and Utility Models Official Gazette on electronic CD-ROM carrier, with search system, and corresponding paper Gazette are distributed by subscription. The last three Gazettes are available on the Rospatent site.
Mass storage media used (paper, microforms, optical storage, etc.)
Optical and paper carriers as well as databases were used as means for storing data files. There follow a list and a short description of the means for storing data files:
- In 2007, the Inventions and Utility Models Official Gazette was published on CD-ROM, with a total of 36 issues during the year;
- Alongside the Official Gazette, Gazettes were also published on paper with the same frequency;
- Annual retrospective sets of invention descriptions for USSR author’s certificates and RF patents for 1924-2006 on DVD (a total of 98 disks);
- Title sheets of utility model descriptions for RF documents providing protection for 1994-2006 on DVD – one disk;
- Descriptions of patent inventions on paper – 23,028 units;
- Title sheets of utility model descriptions on paper – 9,761 units;
- Annual index for the Inventions and Utility Models Gazette on paper – five volumes;
- IPC, 2006 edition (IPC-2006), core and advanced levels on CD-ROM, and also with the parallel paper edition;
- In 2007, publication of the Inventions and Utility Models Official Gazette continued on the Rospatent Internet site, as did updating of the registers of Russian inventions and utility models with details of their legal status.
Table 6 (attached) contains information on the Federal Institute of Industrial Property (FIPS) inventions and utility models databases, the number of documents therein, a retrospective and the frequency with which they are updated.
Table 7 (attached) contains data on open FIPS registers, the number of documents contained therein, a retrospective, and the frequency with which they are updated.
In 2007, work continued to create the PatSearch patent search system for examination purposes. In 2007, USSR patent documents for 1924-1993 and Russia patent documents (inventions and utility models) for 1993-2007 were included in the system.
Word processing and office automation
Information for publication is transmitted on an electronic carrier via the Federal Institute of Industrial Property (FGU FIPS) local network, after being scanned and numbered. The proofs of claims relating to patents for inventions and utility models are then read in order to identify technical and grammatical errors after numbering. After being read by editors, information on inventions and utility models and also different kinds of notifications are transferred to the MIMOSA information search system for subsequent publication on CD-ROM.
The technological process of preparing and issuing official publications is designed to support the good quality of publications.
(New) techniques used for the generation of patent information (printing, recording, photocomposing, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), etc.)
Information for publication is prepared by means of scanning and numbering with the subsequent transfer of texts to the MIMOSA search system.
For the preparation of patent information, the following technology is used:
- PK FS P3-866 16 units
- PK HP P4-2.6 2 units
- PK HP P4-2.8 26 units
- Fujitsu fi-5750 scanner 1 unit
- Fujitsu M 3099GX scanner 1 unit
- HP LaserJet 4200n printer 1 unit
- HP LaserJet 4250n printer 1 unit
- HP LaserJet 4050n printer 1 unit
CD-ROMs containing the Official Gazette are printed by a firm which specializes in the publication of such products.
The paper Gazette is printed on an FGU FIPS polygraphic base:
- by polygraphic means on Romajor-314, GTO 52-2 and QM-46-1-1 printing machines (an Inter Plater 66 P
–one unit, a Bacher Platemaker 3071 copying frame
–one unit, a photocomposition device for correcting and editing originals
–two units, and an ITEK-617S processor for producing argentiferous offset printed forms are used to produce printed forms);
- by electrographic means on a Docutech 6100 operational printing system.
All printing materials are transferred electronically in PDF format.
URLs of web pages of the Office's website that provide access to online publication of patent documents and gazettes, and to other primary and secondary sources of patent information, including patent publication servers and download of bulk patent data
The webpage addresses on the Office site, which provide access to online publications:
• official gazettes – Inventions. Utility models subsection in the Electronic gazettes section http://www.fips.ru/el_bl/default.htm;
• patent documents and other main patent information sources, including patent publication servers and downloading of main patent data array – in the Information search system section of the Databases subsection
http://www.fips.ru/russite/dbs/dbs.htm;
Classificators section http://www.fips.ru/russite/classificators/classificators.htm#iz;
Open registers of Russian patent documents http://www.fips.ru/cdfi/reestr_rupat.htm; http://www.fips.ru/cdfi/reestr_rupm.htm;
Register of Russian invention applications http://www.fips.ru/cdfi/reestr_rupatap.htm;
Register of Russian utility model applications http://www.fips.ru/cdfi/reestr_rupmap.htm
III. Matters concerning abstracting, classifying, reclassifying and indexing of technical information contained in patent documents
Abstracting, reviewing, translating
In 2007, abstracts continued to be published in Russian and English for RF patents granted for inventions as part of the Inventions and Utility Models Official Gazette with full descriptions of inventions for RF patents and English-language abstracts on electronic CD-ROM carrier with search system. In addition, abstracts in Russian are published as part of the publication Descriptions of inventions for RF patents on paper (identical to publications on electronic carrier).
In order to analyze foreign patent documentation, examiners are given the opportunity to use the PROMT means of automated text translation. As a result of the work done, all examiners’ workplaces provide access to this system.
Electronic dictionaries are freely available at each workplace. Moreover, examiners have access to the Lingvo and Muitilex dictionaries in the local and online versions, as well as other Internet dictionaries and translators.
Classification1, preclassification2 (if applicable), and reclassification3 activities; Classification system used, e.g., International Patent Classification (IPC), other classification (please indicate whether or not patent documents are classified by your Office and, if so, which classification is used)
In 2007, amendments were prepared to the expanded version of the IPC: 2007.01 and 2007.10.
The national collection of documents affected by the above amendments was reclassified.
Patent documents with non-existing IPC indexes were reclassified according to the expanded level. The corresponding list of documents was compiled.
Information on reclassification according to the expanded level was entered in the MCD database.
In 2007, the 2006.01, 2007.01 and 2007.10 expanded levels were used for the publication of patent documents.
Information on all amendments to the IPC was made known to examiners.
A Russian-language version of a collection of examples for study based on the IPC, as approved and corrected by the 2007 Working Groups, was prepared.
The Definitions for the subclasses of the IPC, which were approved or amendments to which were made by the 2007 Working Groups, were prepared.
An alphabetical and subject index was produced for the expanded level of the 2007.01 edition.
In 2007, comments and proposals were prepared and sent to WIPO on drafts of: M010 (misprints in the IPC), M101(C07B), M031, M032, M012 (C07D), A002(G05G), D096(C07B) and D109(A61M).
The original IPC classification index is allocated to an invention application arriving at the Institute so that it may be sent to the corresponding examination division for a substantive examination to be carried out.
Hybrid system indexing
In 2007, FIPS examiners provided full hybrid system indexes for national documents on all publications.
Bibliographic data and full-text processing
In the Inventions and Utility Models Official Gazette on electronic CD-ROM carrier with search system, bibliographical data and claims for inventions and utility models are published, together with notifications of the amended legal status of patents and other notifications.
In the Inventions and Utility Models Official Gazette on electronic CD-ROM carrier with search system with full descriptions, in addition to bibliographical data and claims full texts of invention descriptions with drawings, abstracts of invention descriptions and abstracts of invention descriptions in English are also published.
IV. Search file establishment and upkeep
File building
The structure and composition of the Patent Examination Collection (FPE) are determined by its purpose and by the tasks resolved on the basis of the Collection, and are governed by Rule 34 of the Regulations Under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), and also by bilateral interoffice agreements and conventions.
In structural terms, the FPE consists of current and retrospective portions of collections of national and foreign patent documentation, a collection of patent-related literature, including scientific and technical literature in the form of books and periodicals, and also a collection of patent-law, standard-setting and method-related, and reference literature. FPE patent documentation is arranged according to IPC groups, within headings by country, within countries by year of publication, and thereafter in numerical order.
FPE national patent documentation includes descriptions of inventions of the USSR (from 1924 onwards), descriptions of RF inventions and utility models (applications, patents and certificates), and the official gazettes of the USSR and Russian Federation.
National patent documentation is compiled in separate collections (documentation of the USSR, Russian Federation and a collection of descriptions for RF utility models).
Updating
The current portion of the Collection is updated annually both with national and foreign patent documentation. In 2007, 405,400 copies of patent documentation on a paper carrier were received by the FPE, including 354,300 copies of foreign documentation and 51,100 copies of national documentation. The overall volume of FPE patent documents on a paper carrier stood at 19.5 million on January 1, 2008, of which more than 1.95 million were national, and also more than 76,000 scientific and technical books and journals. In addition, 323,500 copies of patent documents were received on optical disks, including 300,200 copies of foreign documents and 23,300 copies of national documents.
Storage, including mass storage media
Patent documentation on paper is stored in cases on shelves and on optical disks in special cupboards.
Documentation from other offices maintained and/or considered part of the available search file
As at January 1, 2008, the foreign patent documentation collection on paper for examiners contained more than 17.5 million patent documents from various countries of varying depths, beginning from 1920, and included documentation files from the following countries: Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States of America, and WIPO, the European Patent Office (EPO) and the Eurasian Patent Office (EAPO), as well as patent documentation from CIS countries.
In their work, examiners also use foreign narrow-thematic, encyclopedic, reference and other patent automated databases on optical disks and the Internet.
V. Activities in the field of computerized and other mechanized search systems
In-house systems (online/offline)
As a result of Office computerization, examiners are now given access to national and foreign patent information online at their workplaces. Where difficulties arise with searches or in case of the need to connect to additional patent or non-patent information files or those incurring a fee, examiners use the CD-ROM room or the remote access room.
In this connection, in 2007 acquisitions for the CD-ROM examination collection were concluded only through the updating of the existing collection which contains the databases of the EPO, WIPO, OAPI, EAPO, Russian Federation and countries of the CIS, the Globalpat and PAJ databases, and a number of narrow-thematic databases.
At the end of 2007, the CD-ROM examination collection contained 99 databases stored on 8,407 disks (CD-ROM and DVD-ROM), containing information from 22 countries and four international organizations.
The existing collection for searching by examiners is used very rarely: in the case of searches for documentation from CIS countries, searches of narrow-thematic databases or searches for a specific document which, for various reasons, cannot be found online. Basically, databases on optical disks are required by colleagues conducting scientific research or those working with an automated system as information files.
In search rooms, examiners may use the commercial databases (incurring a fee), not accessible from their workstations, such as national (for example VINITI), foreign, and also specialized and narrow-thematic databases, databases on library Internet sites containing scientific and technical literature, and the Google, Rambler, Yandex etc. search engines.
External databases
For information searches of applications for the grant of invention patents, FGU FIPS examiners basically use online electronic databases.
Primarily, these are patent office databases freely available on the Internet and a number of databases with non-patent documentation, which examiners may search from their workstations in sectoral divisions. In 2007, an abstract database containing patent documentation from Taiwan with an English-language interface and a patent documentation database from the Republic of Korea with access to the full texts of documents in English were added to the list of such databases.
In most cases, examiners use databases freely available on the Internet, from Rospatent, the EPO (Esp@cenet), the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Japan Patent Office (JPO), the German Patent Office (Depatisnet), WIPO and the in-house EAPO search system, EAPATIS.
In 2007, experimental operation of the in-house Rospatent search system, PatSearch, continued in the FIPS examination divisions. The system has a user-friendly Russian-language user interface and broad possibilities for searching and reviewing documents. The PatSearch system currently contains all the USSR and Russian Federation patent documents, and also an English-language bibliography and abstracts of patent documents from leading countries of the world, downloaded from GlobalPat disks. Work began on expanding the entries to the PatSearch database using electronic files of patent documents from foreign countries.
In the reporting period, work was completed to re-establish access to a new version of the EPO in-house search system, EpoqueNet. Permanent access is currently available from one terminal to the EpoqueNet database and qualified specialists conduct searches of it according to the requests of examiners from FIPS sectoral divisions.
Of the non-patent literature databases freely available from examiners’ workstations, in most cases the medicine and pharmaceutical databases of the United States National Library, PubMed, and the polythematic database ScienceDirect are used.
In addition to databases freely available for application search purposes, FGU FIPS examiners are provided with the possibility to conduct complex searches of fee-paying commercial databases, including:
- patent and non-patent databases provided through the STN International network. In most cases examiners use databases on chemistry (REGISTRY, Chemical Abstract (CA), BEILSTEIN, CASREACT, CHEMCATS etc.), medicine (EMBASE, BIOSIS) and polytechnical databases (INSPEC, PASCAL, COMPENDEX);
- Delphion network patent databases. In addition to the databases of the patent offices of leading countries of the world and the INPADOC database through the Delphion network, FGU FIPS examiners use the Derwent World Patent Index (DWPI) patent abstract database.
- The database of patent documents of Japan in English, PATOLIS-e, of the company Questel-Orbit. The PATOLIS-e database has broader content than the JPO IPDL databases of Japanese patent documents freely available on the Internet.
Access for FIPS examiners to commercial databases is provided in two specially equipped rooms (with four and ten computerized workstations), with the participation of qualified staff, where necessary providing consultation and method-related assistance in conducting searches. Access for examiners to search rooms is usually provided in complex cases, i.e.: if the use of online resources is required for search purposes, access to which is not possible from examiners’ workstations or if an examiner does not have sufficient qualifications in carrying out searches of any database.
During 2007, more than 1,800 complex searches of that kind were carried out in the first search room. Most of them were conducted in the STN network chemistry databases – REGISTRY and CA databases. Access for examiners to the Delphion network databases is provided in both search rooms from eight workstations.
Staff in the search rooms identify and study online databases which can be useful for conducting information searches and prepare method-related guides for examiners on the use of these databases. In addition, room staff train examiners in how to use online databases.
In 2007, for substantive examination purposes the following non-patent narrow-thematic databases were analyzed and made available to examiners: the Public Library of Science of the United States of America (PLoS USA) site, the Swedish DOAJ database of scientific and technical journals, and scientific and technical literatures sites of leading electronic firms-producers.
Administrative management systems (e.g., register, legal status, statistics and administrative support)
The following administration management systems operate within FGU FIPS.
1. The FGU FIPS Automated Database
Since 1986 Rospatent has used an automated system for prosecuting applications for inventions, utility models and industrial designs – the FGU FIPS Automated System.
The system is intended to monitor the prosecution of applications for inventions, utility models and industrial designs, account for the payment of patent fees, draw up plans and reports relating to the activities of examination divisions, prepare data for publication, and receive reports on Rospatent’s activities, presented in the Annual Report of Rospatent and WIPO.
The system is used to enter and register application materials and incoming letters, prepare outgoing correspondence, monitor all processes in the life cycle of applications, beginning with the filing of an application and ending with an examination decision (grant, refusal, withdrawal).
The system operates on a real timescale.
In the UniVerse SUBD environment, the programming language BASIC, Web-Builder, DISI, RE screen editor and the WINNIX terminal emulator are used as means of processing.
The Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system and MS-Office 2000 program package are used for client workstations.
2. Electronic Applications Archive
Since 1997, application documents have been scanned and downloaded into the Electronic Applications Archive. In 2005-2006 software was devised for the management of documents and tasks for users in the Electronic Applications Archive, the means for preparing outgoing correspondence, the means of processing incoming correspondence and creating the Electronic Applications Archive for inventions and utility models. The Electronic Applications Archive system has a Web-interface and is closely linked to the FGU FIPS Automated System.
The Electronic Applications Archive is built according to the principles of client server architecture and the operating modules provide:
• interaction with users according to the NTTR protocol;
• formation of HTML pages to extract the required information;
• processing of users’ requests for the provision of information;
• interaction with the Automated Database and preparation of data on the basis of information from the Automated Database;
• verification of rights of access to requested information;
• management of downloading of new versions of application documents and separate components;
• management of entry of IK files in the Electronic Applications Archive.
In 2007, work was done towards the mutual updating of the functions of the Automated Database and the Electronic Applications Archive with the aim of subsequent transition to a means of electronic document exchange.
3. Open applications registers
At the beginning of 2007, the Applications section of the Rospatent site was expanded with information on the prosecution of applications for inventions, utility models and industrial designs. The aim of expanding this particular section of the site is to increase the openness of information from Rospatent for applicants and other external users. Interested persons can follow the prosecution of applications of interest to them and, after publication of invention applications, have access to information on published applications for Russian inventions, beginning from 1992. Access to the data on the site is through consecutive entry in the following sections: Information resources, Open registers and Applications Register.
Equipment used (hardware, including the types of terminal and network used, and software), carriers used
Equipment used:
RM600-E80 Server – two units
(OM – 1GB, processors – 3, external memory – 360 GB)
PrimePower server
(OM – 16Gb, processors – 6, external memory – 8TB)
Compaq DL380 server – 35 units
(OM – 2 GB, processors – 2, external memory – 200 GB)
Compaq DL580 server – four units
(OM – 8 GB, processors – 4, external memory – 300 GB)
Compaq P3/P4, HP P3/P4, Fujitsu-Siemens workstations – 1300 units.
Switching equipment:
SmartSWITCH 6000; 3Com CoreBuilder 3500; Cisco
Software:
SINIX, Solaris, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows 2003 operating systems.
Carriers used:
SDLT and Ultrium magnetic tapes.
VI. Administration of the industrial property office library, and information products and services available to the public (relating to facilities, e.g., for lodging applications, for assisting clients on searching procedures, for obtaining official publications and registry extracts)
Planning, administration, automation, security, buildings
The Central Patent Collection (TsPF) is supplied with national and foreign patent documents on all forms of industrial property subject matter, with both full-text descriptions of inventions relating to applications and patents, utility models and industrial designs, as well as abstract and bibliographical information; and also with search-reference and other information.
The FGU FIPS All-Russian Patent Technology Library (VPTB) provides free access without any restrictions to the TsPF and serves all categories of users in Russia, neighboring and other foreign countries (including examiners).
The Library premises are equipped with an alarm system and an automatic fire-fighting system.
Collecting, acquisitions, preparation
The TsPF includes national (from 1814) and foreign patent documentation collections of varying depths, abstracts and bibliographies covering all forms of industrial property subject matter, collections of patent-law, standard-setting and method-related, and reference literature, as well as an information search system for these collections.
As of January 1, 2008, the TsPF had about 85 million copies of patent documents on various types of carriers, including a collection of foreign patent documentation – about 76.6 million copies, a collection of national patent documentation – more than 5.6 million copies, a specialized collection of industrial design examinations from 19 countries and WIPO – 2.1 million copies, and a collection of patent-law, standard-setting and information-related, and reference literature – more than 74,500 copies; and a collection of national and foreign periodicals and abstracts – 465,300 copies of documents (on paper – 283,400 and on a microcarrier – 181,900).
In 2007, more than 4.5 million copies of national and foreign patent documents were received by the TsPF on optical disks. In this regard, paper acquisitions almost ceased completely.
Collection management, preservation
The main TsPF collections on paper are arranged along geographical-systematic-numerical lines.
The conditions for storing the collections are determined primarily by the type of format:
patent documentation on paper is stored in cases on shelves;
on microcarriers – in metal boxes in files-film libraries (microfilm) and in metal cupboards (microfiches);
in automated databases;
on optical disks - in special cupboards.
Interlibrary lending, resource sharing, networks of patent libraries in the country
In 2007, as part of the interlibrary exchange 5,325 publications were received from eight major specialized libraries in Moscow, including 1,418 articles from scientific and technical journals in electronic form from remote databases.
The Rospatent structure does not include a specialized network of patent libraries. All subjects of the Russian Federation have libraries and scientific and technical centers which form patent collections.
Information services available to the public (including computerized services and search files contained in libraries remote from your Office and patent information posted by your Office on the World Wide Web)
The FGU FIPS VPTB’s overall readership stands at 18,900. In 2007, 1,700 readers reregistered with the Library and in the past year 82,500 people visited the Library.
More than 31.9 million copies of patent documents were issued to users, including more than 9.5 million copies on paper, 10,000 copies on microcarriers, and about 22.4 million copies of patent documents on optical disks.
General and specialized reading rooms operate in the FGU FIPS VPTB for the comfort of readers who wish to work. These rooms provide:
- dictionary and reference literature, and foreign patent law publications;
- microcarriers;
- industrial designs;
- an information-bibliography service;
- optical disks and remote databases.
Visits to the Library and service for all categories of users are free of charge. In addition to conventional forms of service, in 2007 access for readers to automated databases in the FGU FIPS VPTB was extended and improved. More than 200 databases are currently fully installed and in use.
The FGU FIPS VPTB provides both a fixed service for information users and also a service for remote users, employing all forms of communication currently in existence: post, telephone, facsimile and electronic mail.
In order to simplify access to information resources, the VPTB provides patent-information services including a thematic selection of patent documentation, a search by systematic indexes, a search in automated databases, a search for patent-analogs and others, representing more than 30 designated services.
In 2007, for readers visiting the FGU FIPS VPTB directly and regional and foreign users by correspondence around 15,300 patent information services were provided, including 399,000 pages of copies of patent documentation, which were produced. Currently, more than 750 organizations and private individuals are remote subscribers to the FGU FIPS VPTB.
In 2007, the following information products relating to inventions and utility models were provided for patent information users:
• The Inventions and Utility Models Official Gazette on CD-ROM, with 36 issues per year. Alongside the Official Gazette, paper gazettes were published with the same frequency;
• Annual retrospective sets of invention descriptions for USSR author’s certificates and RF patents, from 1924 to 2006, on DVD (a total of 98 disks);
• An information search system for invention descriptions in Russian and English, on DVD – quarterly and cumulative;
• Title sheets of utility model descriptions for RF documents providing protection, from 1994 to 2006, on DVD – one disk;
• Patent invention descriptions on paper;
• Title sheets of utility model descriptions on paper;
• An annual index to the Inventions and Utility Models Gazette, on paper – five volumes;
In 2007, subscribers were offered the 2006 edition of the IPC (IPC-2006) with the core and expanded levels on CD-ROM, and also a parallel paper edition.
All products on CD-ROM and DVD were distributed with MIMOSA software, allowing all forms of patent searches to be carried out.
On the basis of official information on inventions and utility models, thematic databases according to users’ special requests are produced.
In 2007, publication of the Inventions and Utility Models Official Gazette continued on the Rospatent Internet site and the registers of Russian inventions and utility models were updated with details of their legal status being provided.
Users’ work with the information search system
Examiners are given the opportunity to work with all inventions and utility models databases. Access for external users to full-text inventions and utility models databases is granted on the basis of agreement.
As part of the Rospatent Program of Cooperation with the regions of the Russian Federation, 120 organizations obtained free access to full-text inventions databases.
External users are provided, free of charge, with access to:
on inventions:
- abstract databases in Russian and English;
- a future-oriented inventions database;
- a full-text database containing documents published in the last three Inventions and Utility Models Gazettes;
- the IPC database.
on utility models:
- a database containing documents published in the last three Inventions and Utility Models Gazettes;
- the IPC database.
The search system provides the possibility to carry out a search simultaneously in the databases of inventions, utility models, published applications and author’s certificates. Table 8 (attached) contains information on the number of inquiries made by internal and external users when choosing any inventions or utility models databases.
Table 9 (attached) contains data on the number of database inquiries for invention, utility model and published invention application registers.
URLs of web pages of the Office's website for electronic filing of patent applications
• application filing procedures – Formulation, filing and examination of an application subsection in the Inventions and Utility Models section http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/invention.htm;
heading Forms http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/blancs.htm;
Fees section http://www.fips.ru/potrf/index.htm;
Regulations on fees for patenting of inventions, utility models, industrial designs, registration of trademarks, service marks and appellations of origin, and grant of the right to use appellations of origin http://www.fips.ru/potrf/poshl.htm;
URLs of web pages of the Office's website that provide information on business procedures such as: filing, publication, examination and grant procedures related to patents; opposition and appeal procedures related to patents; etc.
• publication procedure – Regulations on official publications of the Federal Service of Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks in the Publications section http://www.fips.ru/izdan/pol.htm; Inventions and utility models subsection in the Electronic gazettes section http://www.fips.ru/el_bl/default.htm; http://www.fips.ru/el.bl/inv.htm; Databases section in the Information search system section http://www.fips.ru/russite/dbs/dbs.htm; Open registers section http://www.fips.ru/cdfi/index.htm; http://www.fips/ru/cdfi/reestr_rupat.htm; Inventions and utility models section in Catalog of publications and databases for 2008 in the Publications section http://www.fips.ru/izdan2008/pm_ofi.htm;
• examinations and grant of a document providing protection in relation to patents – Normative documents section – Recommendations on the examination of applications for inventions and utility models http://www.fips.ru/npdoc/vedom/recommend.htm; in the Normative documents section Office acts subsection http://www.fips.ru/npdoc/ved_doc.htm#2;
• procedures for filing objections and appeals relating to patents – Patent disputes chamber section http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/pat_palata.htm.
URLs of web pages of the Office's website that provide a description of information products and services offered by the Office (e.g., patent search service(s) and patent databases), as well as information on how to access and utilize them
• conducting a search – in the Information search system section: Services http://www.fips.ru/russite/uslugi/podp.htm subsections,
Databases http://www.fips.ru/russite/dbs/dbs.htm;
Open registers http://www.fips.ru/cdfi/index.htm; Inventions and utility models subsection in the Electronic gazettes section http://www.fips.ru/el_bl/default.htm; http://www.fips.ru/el_bl/inv.htm;
Collections section http://www.fips.ru/vptb/inf.htm#pat;
• patent databases – Databases subsection http://www.fips.ru/russite/dbs/dbs.htm in the Information search system section;
• information on access to resources and their use – in the Information search system section of the Support http://www.fips.ru/russite/support/m4.html;
and Instructions http://www.fips.ru/russite/documents/m1dop.html subsections.
VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of patent documentation and information
International or regional cooperation in the exchange of machine-readable information, e.g., bibliographic data, abstract and/or full text information
The FGU FIPS VPTB currently receives an exchange of documentation from 57 countries and six international organizations.
The volumes of acquisitions of foreign descriptions are determined by the scales of activity of national patent offices and international organizations. Leading positions in this field are occupied by Germany, Japan and the United States of America, as well as the EPO and WIPO.
As part of the international exchange in 2007, the FGU FIPS VPTB received 6,366,100 copies of foreign patent documents and 1,703,400 copies of national descriptions of inventions were sent to foreign patent offices.
In 2007, Rospatent received on optical disks information from the International Bureau of WIPO concerning international applications that had entered the national phase.
Medium used for exchange of priority documents
The exchange of patent documentation on various media (paper and optical disks) continued in 2007, as did the active replacement of all other types of information carriers with optical disks.
In 2007, the following were received from patent offices in foreign countries:
- four annual sets of invention descriptions on paper;
- 139 annual sets of invention descriptions on optical disks.
The following were sent to patent offices in foreign countries on optical disks:
- 17 annual sets of the Inventions and Utility Models Official Gazette (abstract-related information);
- 63 annual sets of the Inventions and Utility Models Official Gazette (with full descriptions of inventions for RF patents).
Medium allowed for filing applications
In 2007, paper media were used for the filing of applications with Rospatent under the national procedure. However, materials were also received on any machine-readable carrier, provided that one copy on a paper carrier was submitted.
The following are permitted as machine-readable carriers for the filing of applications:
- CD-R or CDFS format optical disks, with a maximum capacity of 650 MB.
Since January 1, 1999, as a receiving office Rospatent has accepted international applications using the functional possibilities of the PCT-SAFE software, PCT-EASY. Within PCT-EASY a specification and an abstract are filed on diskettes or CD. There were 110 such applications in 2007, i.e. 14.5 per cent of the overall number of applications filed.
As an international searching authority, Rospatent requests submissions on diskettes or CD of a list of the sequences of nucleotides and/or amino acids, if an international application contains the disclosure of one or more such sequences.
VIII. Other relevant matters concerning education and training in, and promotion of, the use of patent information, including technical assistance to developing countries (please indicate URLs of web pages of the Office’s website wherever appropriate)
Training courses for national and foreign participants, use of audiovisual means
In 2007, two distance learning sessions were held on the WIPO Worldwide Academy program Foundations of Intellectual Property in Russia and other countries in Russian. In 2007, a total of 1,632 people were registered for training, of which 762 successfully completed the training course and obtained WIPO Worldwide Academy certificates. The above form of training is popular among the Russian population and Russian-speaking citizens of CIS and neighboring foreign countries.
A training course on the School of examination of inventions and utility models program and a seminar on the Use of databases available on the Internet for carrying out patent searches were held. Training was undertaken by 109 external specialists (http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/sins/stage0507.htm).
In addition, in 2007 two patenting specialists from the open joint stock company patent attorneys firm INNOTEK and the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Design Office of Transport Machine Construction underwent training within FGU FIPS on individual programs.
In 2007, nine specialists from the National Center of Intellectual Property of the Republic of Belarus undertook a training course on individual programs.
Promotional activities (seminars, exhibitions, visits, advertising, etc.)
In 2007, Rospatent organized and held 41 conferences and seminars on intellectual property issues in 31 regions of the Russian Federation, at which 61 officials from Rospatent, FGU FIPS and the FGU Patent Disputes Chamber presented reports.
More than 3000 people attended conferences and seminars.
38 regional seminars were devoted to general issues of protection, defense and use of intellectual property subject matter in Russia, including inventions, utility models, computer programs and databases.
Rospatent participated in seven international inventions and innovations exhibitions with exhibits characterizing the activities of the Russian Patent Office.
So, for example, as part of the Seventh Moscow International Exhibition of Innovations and Investments (February 5 to 8, 2007, Moscow), an Inventions and Innovations Competition was held.
Moreover, at the Tenth Moscow International Exhibition of Industrial Property, Archimedes-2007 (March 27-30, 2007, Moscow), 1,102 industrial property subjects were presented, including inventions, trademarks, utility models and know-how. The number of exhibitors was 384 enterprises and organizations, of which 190 were from Moscow, 114 from 45 regions of Russia and 80 from 16 foreign countries.
Annually, Rospatent holds conferences, seminars and round tables in Moscow, with the participation of representatives of international organizations and other States. Brief information on the most important of these is given below:
- On March 28, 2007, as part of the Tenth International Exhibition Archimedes-2007 at Sokolniky’, conferences and a round table were held, devoted to current aspects of the theory and practice of protection and use of intellectual property subject matter (http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/sins/arh2007.htm).
Representatives of many towns and cities in the Russian Federation took part in the work of the conference and round table, along with representatives from the Republic of Serbia, Republic of Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine and Romania. The conference participants included patent attorneys, representatives of industry, military education institutes, scientific organizations and the press, a total of about 130 people.
- On July 17, 2007, a presentation was given of the ESPA@CENET Internet service on Rospatent premises, organized jointly by the EPO and Rospatent.
A total of about 130 people participated in the presentation, including representatives of the EPO, TSC VOIR, scientific research institutes, higher education institutions, etc.
- On October 10 and 11, 2007, the Eleventh Scientific and Practical Conference on Legal Protection for Intellectual Property Subject Matter in Conditions of Administrative Reform and the Entry into Force of Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation was held on the premises of Rospatent and FGU FIPS (http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/sins/conf11.htm).
Representatives of the following participated in the work of the conference: international organizations, a number of State bodies, public organizations and associations, the Russian Academy of Sciences, higher education institutions and scientific research institutes, industrial enterprises, administrative and management bodies, information centers and other organizations from a number of regions of the Russian Federation, and individual foreign organizations, companies and firms, including foreign patent attorneys and legal entities. The managers and specialists of the central administration of Rospatent, FGU FIPS, FGU Patent Disputes Chamber and the Russian State Institute of Intellectual Property were widely represented.
A total of about 450 people took part in the work of the conference, including seven from neighboring foreign countries and seven from other foreign countries. The number of Russian regions with representatives was 58.
Studies to identify trends in new technology, e.g., by the use of patent statistics and preparation of monographs
Scientific research was conducted on the following:
- State of and prospects for the development of the glass industry on the basis of current technologies for producing colored glass. The result of the research is the preparation of review information on patented technologies, intensifying the processes of glass making, production of new generation materials satisfying the requirement of energy and resource saving, high quality and competitiveness.
- Research into the innovation potential of priority national projects (along the lines of agricultural technologies). The result of the research is the information analysis review of worldwide trends in the development of transport and major directions in the technical products relating to the transport industry.
IX. Other general information related to the Office that is available on the Internet -- URLs of web pages of the Office's website that:
provide information on legislation related to patents
Inventions, utility models and industrial designs subsection in the Normative documents section http://www.fips.ru/npdoc/index.htm#2;
Normative documents subsection in the Inventions and utility models section http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/invention.htm;
contain the Annual Report of the Office
Reports, reviews, statistics section http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/reports.htm;
provide open source codes related to patent information systems
References section http://www.fips.ru/russite/search/search.html;
contain patent-related news regarding the Office
Main news section http://www.fips.ru/rospatent/index.htm,
News section http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/news.htm
X. Other relevant 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. |