SCIT.ATR.PI.2008.RU

Annual Technical Report 2008 on Patent Information Activities submitted by Russian Federation (SCIT/ATR/PI/2008/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

As of January 1, 2008 Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation entered into force. It contains the provisions regulating legal relations in the sphere of intellectual property protection. As a result of the entry into force of that document a series of implementing legislation – administrative regulations, was produced in order to regulate the activities of Rospatent in performing the State functions entrusted to it. A number of administrative regulations were approved and came into force. The approval of the remaining package of documents is anticipated in 2009.

Trends or areas experiencing rapid changes with respect to the previous year

Table 1 (attached) shows the data for 2007-2008 for the filing of applications for and grant of RF patents for inventions.

The patents granted for inventions in 2008 were distributed according to the sections of the International Patent Classification (IPC) (see Table 2 attached.)

In 2008, the same distribution trends were preserved according to the sections of the IPC as in 2007. The largest number of patents for inventions in 2008 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 2008 constituted only 0.90 per cent of the overall number of patents granted for inventions.

In 2008, the positive trend in utility model applications received was preserved (growth - 9.13 per cent compared to 2007), and the number of certificates (patents) granted remained virtually at the level of the previous year (a slight fall of 0.86 per cent). See Table 3 attached.

In Table 4 are the data for the distribution of utility model patents (certificates) according to sections of the IPC.

The leading section of the IPC in 2008 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.

Table1 Table2 Table3 Table4

URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide statistics related to patents

Statistical information is provided on the Rospatent site, in relation to patents, in the following Sections:

- Statistics section, http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/regions/okrug2006.rtf, and http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/regions/otras12006.rtf;
- Provision of legal protection for intellectual property subject matter section of the Rospatent Annual Report, 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:

• 52,826 invention announcements, including 28,808 claims for invention patents, 23,731 claims for invention applications, and 289 claims for previously unpublished inventions;
• 9,673 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 gives information on the main types of Office communications in the field of patent information.

In 2008, an annual index to the gazettes for 2007 was issued:
• for the Inventions and Utility Models Official Gazette on paper - five volumes (eight parts).
In 2008, the 2007 Rospatent Annual Report was prepared and issued.

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.

Table5

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 2008, 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;

- From 2008 onwards, the publication of a new product - a description of utility models for RF documents providing protection for 1994-2008 began on DVD;

- Annual retrospective sets of invention descriptions for USSR author's certificates and RF patents for 1924-2007 on DVD (a total of 99 disks);

- An information search mechanism for descriptions of inventions in Russian and English for 1994-2008 on DVD - quarterly, cumulative;

- Title sheets of utility model descriptions for RF documents providing protection for 1994-2007 on DVD - one disk; for 2008 - one disk;

- Descriptions of patent inventions on paper - 25,000 units;

- Title sheets of utility model descriptions on paper - 10,000 units;

- Annual index for the Inventions and Utility Models Gazette on paper - five volumes;

- IPC, 2006 edition (IPC-2006), both core and advanced levels on CD-ROM, with the parallel paper edition;

- In 2008, 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 contains information on the Federal Institute of Industrial Property (FIPS) inventions and utility models databases, the number of documents contained therein, a retrospective and the frequency with which they are updated.

Table 7 contains data on open FIPS registers, the number of documents contained therein, a retrospective and the frequency with which they are updated.

In 2008, the most important stage in the creation of the PatSearch patent search system was completed for examination purposes, which resulted in the downloading and indexing of basic search arrays of PCT minimum national patent documentation.

At the current time, the basic information arrays in the system are:

• USSR invention descriptions for 1924-1993;
• Description of RF inventions from 1994 to the present;
• Abstracts of RF invention descriptions from 1994 to the present in English;
• Utility model claims from No. 1 to the present;
• Invention application claims;
• Unpublished invention applications;
• Abstracts of patent documents from leading countries of the world in English (DWPI);
• PCT minimum national invention descriptions, including
• PCT applications
• European Patent Office (EPO) documents
• USA documents
• Japan documents
• Germany documents
• Great Britain documents
• France documents
• PCT minimum documents from other countries
• Invention descriptions from CIS countries with abstracts in Russian (CISPATENT).
The possibility of searching the EPO Espace@net system is also provided.

Table6 Table7

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. 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.

(New) techniques used for the generation of patent information (printing, recording, photocomposing, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), etc.)

For the preparation of patent information, the following technology is used:

- PK FS P3-866 51 units
- PK Compaq P4-1.8 1 unit
- PK HP P4-2.6 3 units
- PK HP P4-2.8 32 units
- PK HP CD-2.83 5 units
- Fujitsu fi-5750 C scanner 1 unit
- Fujitsu fi-4220 C scanner 1 unit
- Fujitsu M 3099GX scanner 1 unit
- HP LaserJet 4250n printer 4 units
- HP LaserJet 4100n printer 1 unit
- HP LaserJet 4200n printer 1 unit
- SCANPORT handheld scanner 4 units
- CIPHERLAB handheld scanner 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 http://www.fips.ru/russite/dbs/dbs.htm; Classificators 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 subsections.

III. Matters concerning abstracting, classifying, reclassifying and indexing of technical information contained in patent documents

Abstracting, reviewing, translating

In 2008, 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 their work with foreign patent documentation, examiners have free access to electronic dictionaries in various areas of translation, supplied in the local and online versions.

Examiners’ workstations are connected to the automated text translation system PROMT to facilitate the process of information searching and analysis of the foreign patent documents found. Recommendations are devised for examiners concerning optimum use of specialized subject-related dictionaries, procedures for creating, updating and maintaining users’ dictionaries for an examiner, which are designed to enhance the quality of translation.

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 2008, the scientific and terminological processing of all amendments to all IPC classes for the core and expanded levels of IPC 2009 was completed. In this regard, the amendments to the expanded version of the IPC: 2008.01, 2008.04 and 2009.01 were taken into account.

Reclassification of the national collection of documents affected by the above changes was conducted. Patent documents with non-existent IPC indexes were reclassified in accordance with the expanded level. A corresponding list of documents was compiled. Information on reclassification according to the expanded level was added to the MCD database.

In 2008, the expanded level of 2008.01 and 2008.04 was used for the publication of patent documents. A Russian-language version of the expanded level of the IPC (2009.01) was prepared for publication in electronic form. The Russian-language version of the core level of IPC (2009) was prepared for publication on paper and in electronic form. Information on all amendments to the IPC was made known to examiners.

“Definitions” for IPC subclasses were prepared, which were approved or amendments were made thereto in the 2008 Working Groups.

In 2008, comments and proposals were prepared and sent to WIPO on drafts of:

- a revision of classification systems C452 (class B82) and C453 (sub-class G01M);
- removal of information references D104 (sub-class A61C), D105 (sub-class A61D) and D107 (sub-class A61J);
- maintenance of IPC M708 (sub-class G01T);
- preparation of definitions for drafts of D117 (sub-class G01Q) and D057 (sub-class G06F).

In 2008, at WIPO’s request work was done to align the Russian and English-language versions of IPC-8.

In 2008, assimilation of an original IPC classification index, received by FGU FIPS for invention applications, was continued, in order to send such applications to the corresponding examination department where they are examined substantively.

Hybrid system indexing

In 2008, FGU 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 also abstracts of invention descriptions in English are 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), as well as 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 2008, 344,200 copies of patent documentation on a paper carrier were received by the FPE, including 286,600 copies of foreign documentation and 57,600 copies of national documentation. The overall volume of FPE patent documents on a paper carrier stood at 19.8 million on January 1, 2009, of which more than two million were national, and also more than 82,000 scientific and technical books and journals. In addition, 78,600 copies of patent documents were received on optical disks, including 41,100 copies of foreign documents and 37,500 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, 2009, the foreign patent documentation collection on paper for examiners contained about 17.8 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 also WIPO, 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 and non-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)

In 2008, the main array of national and foreign patent documentation was available to examiners on line at their computerized workplaces. Where difficulties arise with searches or in case of the need to carry out searches of additional and fee-paying arrays of patent and non-patent information, examiners use two special search rooms.

In 2008, analysis continued of examiners’ use of databases on optical disks, which showed the virtual absence of the need for disks with patent information. Therefore, in 2008 only the remaining collection of the examination collection on optical disks was updated: 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. In the fourth quarter of 2008, the examination collection of optical disks contained 99 databases, stored on 9,310 CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs, containing information from 22 countries and four international organizations.

In December 2008, all databases on optical disks from the examination collection were transferred to the State Patent Collection (GPF) of the All-Russian Patent Technology Library (VPTB).

In search rooms, examiners may use 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.

In 2008, the most important stage in the creation of the information-patent search system PatSearch was completed, in the form of the downloading and indexing of the main search files for patent documentation. The system provides a search of PCT minimum national patent documentation and that of CIS countries through abstract arrays and collections of full descriptions.

The database array of expanded abstracts and bibliographies of the firm Derwent (Thomson Reuters) DWPI was downloaded – a total of 37 million documents. This array is the main source of the search index. Arrays of patent documentation from the PCT, EPO, United States of America, Germany, United Kingdom, France, English-language abstracts and facsimile copies of documents from Japan were downloaded. A total of more than 20 million patent documents are available in the original language.

An overview of full descriptions of patent documents, not yet downloaded into the system, but found according to the DWPI index, is provided in the system through the inbuilt online access to EPO files. A large portion of the files are provided in facsimile form of patent descriptions, as required by the huge volumes of memory to store several tens of technical databases.

At the same time, the task of providing the requisite productivity (service for up to 1,000 users) and rapidity (five to ten seconds for a typical search) of the complete documentation file was being resolved. For this purpose, server equipment, processor modules, data stores and switching equipment were acquired, and a management scheme for the production calculation infrastructure was configured. During the operating process, this infrastructure will be optimized.

Another important functional feature of the search system is the possibility for use of the automatic translation of selected documents from foreign languages by connecting to subject-based dictionaries. The system also provides the possibility of verifying the quality of an examiner’s work in conducting an information search.

Below are given consolidated lists of the main functions of the system.

Main functional possibilities of the system:

• searching selected arrays
• an overview of indexes when preparing a request
• analyzing a sample (statistics according to search results)
• an overview of documents (with explanation of search terms)
• dual-window overview of documents
• printing of documents
• export of documents
• taking into account reform of the IPC and subsequent reclassifications
• multilingual machine translation (including translation of an individual document fragment or whole document, individual system for request text translation)
• analytical processing of search results (including cluster analysis and construction of semantic networks)
• search of Espace@net

External databases

For information searches of applications for the grant of invention patents, FGU FIPS examiners basically use databases of patent offices, freely available on the Internet, and a number of databases containing non-patent documentation, which examiners may search from their workstations in sectoral divisions.

In 2008, a list of information resources freely available to examiners from their workstations was rechecked and updated.

In most cases, in addition to Rospatent databases, experts use the databases freely available on the Internet of the EPO (Esp@cenet), the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Patent Office of Japan, the Patent Office of Germany (Depatisnet), WIPO and the in-house search system of the EAPO (EAPATIS).

In 2008, access from a single terminal was maintained to the EpoqueNet database, from which qualified specialists conduct searches according to requests by examiners from the sectoral divisions of FGU FIPS.

Of the freely available databases of non-patent literature, in most cases examiners use databases from their workstations relating to medicine and pharmaceuticals of the United States National Library, PubMed, and the polythematic database ScienceDirect.

In addition to databases freely available for conducting searches of applications, FGU FIPS examiners are given the possibility to conduct complex searches of the following fee-paying commercial databases:

- 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);

Thomson Innovation patent databases. In addition to the databases of the patent offices of the leading countries of the world and the INPADOC database through Thomson Innovation, 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 FGU 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 2008, in one of the two search rooms alone more than 750 such complex searches were carried out in the field of chemistry. Most of them were conducted in the STN-CA (Chemical Abstracts) and REGISTRY network of databases.

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.

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 Database.

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 in real time.

In the UniVerse SU database 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 Database.

The Electronic Applications Archive is designed according to the principles of client server architecture and the operating modules provide:

• interaction with users of 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 therefrom;
• 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 2008, preparatory work was done to transfer the above software and databases to new technical formats, the main one of which is the Prime Power 1500 server, operating under the management of OS Solaris 10.2.9. Also planned is the transfer of programs and data from the Automated Database and the Electronic Applications Archive to the Universe ver.10.1 SU database environment.

Work was done to modernize part of the system software, required to receive fees based on the new Regulations on Fees, which came into force as of December 30, 2008.

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 1500 server
(OM – 32GB, processors – 10, external memory – 18TB)
HP DL380 server – 38 units
(OM – 4GB, processors – 2, external memory – 200GB)
HP DL580 server – five units
(OM – 8GB, processors – 4, external memory – 300GB)
HP P4, Fujitsu-Siemens workstations – 1320 units.
Switching equipment:
3Com CoreBuilder 3500; Cisco 6500, Cisco 4948, Cisco 2950
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 reference-search and other information.

The FGU FIPS VPTB provides free access without any restrictions to the TSPF and serves all categories of users in Russia (including examiners) and neighboring and other foreign countries.

The VPTB 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.

The basic sources for establishing the TSPF are official Rospatent publications and patent documentation received on the basis of an international exchange with patent offices of foreign countries and other information centers.

As of January 1, 2009, the TSPF had about 89.7 million copies of patent documents on various types of carriers, including a collection of foreign patent documentation –about 81.2 million copies, a collection of national patent documentation – about 5.8 million copies, a specialized collection of industrial design examinations from 19 countries and WIPO – 2.2 million copies, and a collection of patent-law, standard-setting and information-related, and reference literature – more than 76,600 copies; and a collection of national and foreign periodicals and abstracts – 467,900 copies of documents (on paper – 286,000 and on a microcarrier – 181,900).

In 2008, more than 4.6 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;
- patent documentation on microcarriers – in metal boxes in files-film libraries (microfilm) and in metal cupboards (microfiches);
- patent documentation on optical disks – in special cupboards;
- in automated databases.

Interlibrary lending, resource sharing, networks of patent libraries in the country

In 2008, as part of the interlibrary exchange 5,606 publications were received from eight major specialized libraries in Moscow, including 1,673 articles from scientific and technical journals in electronic form from online 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, under the jurisdiction of other ministries, which form patent collections at local level and make active use of the possibilities offered by the Internet.

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 20,400; in 2008, there were 1,500 newly registered readers and the annual number of visits was 91,600.

Users were granted around 34.5 million copies of patent documents, including on paper - about 7.8 million copies; on microcarriers - 12,600 copies and on optical disks - about 26.7 million copies of patent documents.

General and specialized reading rooms operate in the FGU FIPS VPTB for the comfort of readers who wish to work. These rooms provide:

- an information bibliography service;
- industrial designs;
- microcarriers;
- 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 2008 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 for remoter users at their request, 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 2008, for readers visiting the FGU FIPS VPTB directly and regional and foreign users by correspondence around 13,700 patent information services were provided, including 303,200 pages of copies of patent documentation, which were produced. Currently, more than 506 organizations and private individuals are remote subscribers to the FGU FIPS VPTB.

In 2008, patent information users were given 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.

In 2008, a new product - descriptions of utility models for RF documents providing protection from 1994 to 2008 - was made available to users on DVD.

In addition, in the interests of users the following information products were distributed:

• Annual retrospective sets of invention descriptions for USSR author's certificates and RF patents, from 1924 to 2007, on DVD (a total of 99 disks);

• An information search system for invention descriptions in Russian and English, from 1994 to 2008, on DVD - quarterly and cumulative;

• Title sheets of utility model descriptions for RF documents providing protection, from 1994 to 2007, on DVD - one disk; for 2008 - one disk;

• Patent invention descriptions on paper - 25,000 units;

• Title sheets of utility model descriptions on paper - 10,000 units;

• An annual index to the Inventions and Utility Models Gazette, on paper - five volumes;

In 2008, 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.

In 2008, 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.

Also on the Internet, users were granted free access to information on patent application filings in the Russian Federation for inventions and utility models. Information on the prosecution of applications is available for applications which were received after January 1, 2007.

On the basis of official information relating to inventions and utility models, thematic databases (on RF patent documents) relating to users' special orders are produced.


Users' work with 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, 130 organizations obtained free access to full-text inventions and utility models 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:

- an abstract database;
- 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 contains information on the number of inquiries made by internal and external users when choosing any inventions or utility models databases.

Table 9 contains data on the number of database inquiries for invention, utility model and published invention application registers.

Table8 Table9

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.

• 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;

• publication procedure – Administrative Regulations on the performance by the Federal Service of Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks of the State function relating to the keeping of registers of registered intellectual property subject matter, publication of information on registered intellectual property subject matter, applications filed, and patents and certificates granted therefor, validity, and termination and renewal of validity of legal protection for intellectual property subject matter, transfer of rights in protected subject matter, and official registration of intellectual property subject matter http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/adm_reestr.htm;
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, Databases http://www.fips.ru/russite/dbs/dbs.htm; Open registers http://www.fips.ru/cdfi/index.htm subsections; 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 Japan, the People’s Republic of China, Republic of Korea and United States of America, as well as the EPO and WIPO.

As part of the international exchange in 2008, the FGU FIPS VPTB received 6,205,600 copies of foreign patent documents and 1,772,800 copies of national descriptions of inventions were sent to foreign patent offices.

In 2008, 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 2008, as did the active replacement of all other types of information carriers with optical disks.

In 2008 the following were received from patent offices in foreign countries:

- three annual sets of invention descriptions on paper;
- 137 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);

- 55 annual sets of the Inventions and Utility Models Official Gazette (with full descriptions of inventions for RF patents).

Medium allowed for filing applications

In 2008, 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:

- DVD-R, 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 114 such applications in 2008, i.e. 13.9 per cent of the overall number of international applications filed.

As an international searching authority, Rospatent requests submissions on diskettes or CD for lists of 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 order to provide high-quality examination of applications for intellectual property subject matter and the documents providing protection granted therefor, Rospatent has envisaged adapting the current system of continuous training and retraining for FGU FIPS examiners to the new requirements of the continuous development of employees’ skills. The transition to a new three-level system of retraining began with training of junior FGU FIPS examiners on the level I program (250 study hours), intended to train examiners undertaking consideration of applications for inventions, utility models and industrial designs. As at the end of 2008, four groups of junior examiners (150 people) had been sent to RGIIS to study this program.

In 2008 Rospatent provided organizational support for the holding of distance-learning sessions in Russian on the WIPO Worldwide Academy program Foundations of Intellectual Property in Russia and other countries. In 2008, a total of 1,569 people were registered for such training, of which 743 successfully completed the training course and received WIPO Worldwide Academy certificates. The above form of training is popular among the Russian population and Russian-speaking citizens of CIS and other foreign countries (http://www.fips.ru/rupto/Region/dist.htm).

In 2008, a seminar was held at FGU FIPS for patenting specialists and entrepreneurs on the subject of the Use of Generally Accessible Databases on the Internet for Carrying out Patent Searches, in which 37 specialists participated, including 18 from Moscow and the Moscow region, and 19 from 16 regions of Russia (http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/sins/seminarDB.htm).

In 2008, FGU FIPS organized and held individual training courses on special programs for five specialists from the State Patent Office of the Republic of Uzbekistan and four specialists from the National Center of Intellectual Property of the Republic of Belarus.

In 2008, various kinds of practice were undertaken (familiarization, pre-diploma and production-related) at FGU FIPS headquarters for 119 students.

On May 12, 2008, at FGU FIPS a seminar was organized and held in order to exchange experiences, at which specialists from the Khim Rar Center for High Technologies produced scientific reports on the following issues: post-genome technologies for the discovery of medicines; post-genome medicine; the principles of combinatory chemistry; use of stem cell research technologies for diagnosing and treating various diseases, for example in oncology etc. The specialists in the FGU FIPS chemistry department held a visiting seminar in return for Khim Rar specialists in relation to patenting of the processes in question.

Promotional activities (seminars, exhibitions, visits, advertising, etc.)

In 2008, Rospatent organized and held 28 conferences and seminars on intellectual property issues in 19 regions of the Russian Federation, at which 48 officials from Rospatent, FGU FIPS, RGIIS and the FGU Patent Disputes Chamber presented reports. Within that number five WIPO officials presented reports at five regional seminars, organized and held by Rospatent jointly with WIPO.

More than 3,000 people attended conferences and seminars.

28 regional conferences and 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.

In Moscow, Rospatent annually holds conferences, seminars and roundtables with the participation of representatives of international organizations and other States. The main feature of the conferences and roundtables that took place in 2008 was the fact that they were held after the introduction, on January 1, 2008, of Part Four of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. Brief information is given below on the most important of these.

- from March 3 to 6, 2008, the Eighth Moscow International Exhibition of Innovations and Investments was held – the largest annual exhibition in the Russian Federation of enormous importance for the successful integration of Russian innovation potential into the country’s economy.

More than 600 exhibitors from 22 regions of the Russian Federation and 16 foreign countries participated in the exhibition: Hungary, Italy, Iran, Germany, Ukraine, Israel, Republic of Korea, Serbia, Belarus, Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jordan, Estonia, Belgium, USA and Chile. Participants in the exhibition included scientific centers and industrial enterprises, higher education institutes, technology parks, small and medium-sized businesses from the Russian regions, science towns, and centers of international scientific and technical and innovation cooperation.

As part of the Eighth Moscow International Exhibition of Innovations and Investments, a conference was held on State Policy in the Intellectual Property Sphere. The rapporteurs to the conference were the heads and specialists of the central Rospatent and FGU FIPS administrative authority. A roundtable also took place, devoted to the practice of protecting inventions, utility models, industrial designs and trademarks in the light of Part Four of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/sins/salonVIII.htm).

Representatives of 19 cities and regions of the Russian Federation took part in the work of the conference and roundtable, along with representatives of the Republic of Belarus (Minsk) and the Czech Republic (Prague). Conference participants included patent attorneys, representatives of legal and commercial organizations, as well as scientific research institutes and the press – a total of about 120 people.

From April 1 to 4, 2008, in Moscow the Eleventh Moscow International Exhibition of Industrial Property “Archimedes – 2008” was held.

685 Russian exhibitors (including 325 legal entities) participated in the exhibition. 1,126 exhibits, of which 287 from abroad, were presented. The exhibition was visited by 4,550 people. The highest level of representation came from: the automotive industry, road safety (86 exhibits); the fight against pollution and environmental protection (124 exhibits); medicine and health care (180 exhibits); land, sea and air transport (81 exhibits); radio, television and remote communications (136 exhibits); construction and equipment of residential and non-residential premises (88 exhibits); and energy (88 exhibits).

On April 2, 2008 in Moscow, as part of the Eleventh International Exhibition Archimedes – 2008, a conference and roundtable took place, organized by Rospatent and FGU FIPS, which were devoted to current issues relating to legal protection of intellectual property subject matter in the context of Part Four of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/sins/arh2008.htm).

Specialists from 22 cities in the Russian Federation, and also representatives of the Republic of Ukraine and Romania, took part in the work of the conference and roundtable. In total about 130 people participated in the work of the conference, including representatives of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Moscow Chamber of Trade and Industry, patent attorneys, and representatives of industrial enterprises and scientific organizations.

- On July 2, a meeting was held by the Head of Rospatent Mr. B.P. Simonov, with patent attorneys on the following subject: “Prospects for development of the patent system of the Russian Federation. Issues of mutual cooperation between patent attorneys and Rospatent, FGU FIPS and FGU PPS” (http://www.fips.ru/PPOV/meet.htm). Leading specialists from Rospatent, FGU FIPS and FGU PPS participated in the meeting, together with about 80 people representing various regions of the Russian Federation.

- On October 8 and 9, 2008, the Twelfth Scientific and Practical Conference on the Practice of Legal Protection for Intellectual Property Subject Matter in the Context of the Introduction of Part Four of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, was held on the premises of Rospatent and FGU FIPS (http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/sins/12conf.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, the FGU Patent Disputes Chamber and the Russian State Institute of Intellectual Property were widely represented.

A total of about 350 people took part in the work of the conference, including ten from other foreign countries, and 15 from neighboring foreign countries. The number of Russian regions represented was 39.

Studies to identify trends in new technology, e.g., by the use of patent statistics and preparation of monographs

As a result of the conduct of research by NIR on the development and practice of applications in examination of international classification systems: IPC and ICGS:

- an article by G.A. Negulyaev and G.S. Nenakhov, entitled Results of the IPC reform and how to develop it further, Parts 1 and 2, Patents and Licenses, 2008, Nos. 9 and 10;

- a textbook was produced and published for the examiners G.S. Nenakhov, E.M. Bril’, Z.E. Voytsekhovskaya, etc., entitled Choice of IPC indexes in the classification of patent document, – M. OAO INITS “Patent”, 2008.

According to the results of the research by NIR on innovation potential and prospects for development of the transport system of the Russian Federation, an information and analytical review of global trends in the development of transport and basic trends of technical developments relating to the transport industry was produced.

On the basis of the results of the research by NIR on the state of and prospects for development of oil and gas exploration on the shelf, using patent materials, a review containing systematized and the most effective ways to enhance oil and gas production while mastering the Russian shelf zone was prepared.

As a result of the research by NIR on problems of preparing packages of priority documents for inventions in electronic form with a view to exchange with the WIPO International Bureau, software was created for preparing packages of priority documents for inventions relating to PCT applications in electronic form, in formats allowing them to satisfy the requirements of the WIPO International Bureau, within the mutual exchange of priority documents.

As part of the research done by NIR on classification and other linguistic means providing searches of patent documents relating to nanotechnologies, recommendations on the publication of classification systems in Russian were devised. Articles were published as follows:

- “Nanotechnologies: publish, keep secret or patent?” (Patent Information Today, No. 4; 2008);
- “Nanotechnologies: certain problems of protection, examination and commercialization” (Patents and Licenses No. 12, 2008, Recommendations on the publication of classification systems in Russian).

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