Annual Technical Report on Patent Information Activities in 2020 submitted by EAPO
I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN PATENT INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of patent information activities and expected time frames for their realization
The following three main areas are covered by the Eurasian Patent Office (EAPO) policies of advancing the office’s automated information systems:
- enhancement of paperless workflow and publication of Eurasian applications and patents;
- development of Eurasian patent information space;
- automation and information support for the EAPO internal workflow.
The main priorities of 2020 for the EAPO with regard to automation and informatization were:
- improving the timeliness of the patent procedure and publication of Eurasian patents;
- transition to instant publication of descriptions of the Eurasian applications and patents, and of notifications on the change of their legal status;
- expanding features and increasing volumes of electronic interaction with the users of the Eurasian patent system, Eurasian patent attorneys and national IP offices;
- upgrade of the suite of EAPO automated information systems (AIS) to ensure the possibility of filing, registration, examination of applications for the grant of Eurasian patents for industrial designs, as well as granting Eurasian patents for industrial designs, registering changes in legal status and publishing Eurasian applications and patents for industrial designs;
- development of means for conducting patent search and quality control thereof as preparation to the operation as International Searching Authority (ISA) and International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA) under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT);
- revamping of the existing AIS and information technologies (IT) to ensure the sustainable operation of the Eurasian Patent Office in the context of the transition of a number of employees to work remotely, due to the spread of COVID-19.
New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies and plans mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks
Feasibility study for implementation of WIPO-OCR technology for digitizing Eurasian patent documents
EAPO experts studied the potential of the technology provided by WIPO for the OCR-processing of patent documents and the applicability of this technology in EAPO. The Eurasian Patent Office has carried out a test processing of 3,500 pages of Eurasian applications with WIPO-OCR tool, acquired a license for ABBY FineReader Engine for 100,000 pages per year and prepared a draft description of the technology for using patent documentation optical recognition tools based on WIPO-OCR software.
Researching the potential of using AI tools and technologies
During 2020, a study was carried out at EAPO on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to search for «similar» patent documents. The team has developed a methodology for preparing data and evaluating the quality of searches, and assessed the applicability of the results obtained for conducting patent searches and for classifying Eurasian applications. Based on the results of the experiment, an analysis was prepared on the prospects for the use of AI tools and technologies in the EAPO technological processes. A toolkit for the automated selection of IPC classes according to the full text of the Eurasian application based on AI methods has been developed and put into test operation.
Main areas of patent information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year
In 2020 the following main areas of patent information activities were in the focus of attention in the EAPO:
- implementation of paperless technologies in the patent procedure;
- development of online publication of official patent information including full specifications and legal status data;
- electronic exchange of patent documentation, announcements and legal status information between examination and publication divisions of the EAPO;
- development of online filing tools functionality and tools for the electronic filing of Eurasian applications via patent attorney firms;
- conversion of application and patent dossiers into electronic form, development of electronic dossier functionality;
- technical cooperation with national IP offices of the EAPC Contracting States;
- development of the Eurasian Patent Information System EAPATIS.
Electronic filing
In 2020 the receipt of the Eurasian applications electronically was carried out using EAPO-ONLINE electronic filing and exchange system. The number of EAPO-ONLINE users entirely relying on electronic communication with the EAPO continues to grow. By the end of 2020, as many as 49 Agreements on correspondence exchange in electronic form were in effect.
During the reporting year, the share of documents received through the EAPO-ONLINE system also increased. In total, 125,311 documents were received in electronic form through the EAPO-ONLINE system in 2020, or 77.9% of the total.
Automation of patent procedure
The EAPO maintains record keeping on Eurasian applications and patents using administrative and informational accounting tools for operations on Eurasian applications and patents, which include the SOPRANO administrative information system (supplemented by a number of additional modules) and a set of statistics implemented on the basis of SAP BusinessObjects.
Direct work with documents in electronic form in the EAPO is carried out using the electronic dossiers system on ePHOENIX (EDS ePHOENIX).
AIS SOPRANO and EDS ePHOENIX are integrated with EAPO-ONLINE for electronic filing and electronic exchange.
Electronic collection of Eurasian patent files
In 2020, the electronic collection was replenished with current publications. All electronic folders for Eurasian patents uploaded to ePHOENIX are available along with other documents, including Eurasian applications. In total, as of 31/12/2020, the electronic collection contained materials from 60,759 Eurasian applications and patents.
HIVE publication processing system
The maintenance and development of HIVE system and its functional modules for processing of patent information at the stage of the preparation of EAPO official publications have proceeded. In total, 6,464 descriptions for Eurasian applications and patents were prepared for publication in the HIVE system.
EAPATIS
EAPATIS was developed as one of the core tools for Eurasian Patent Office examiners and users from EAPC Contracting States to access the global collection of patent documents. The audience also includes national IP offices examiners, users from leading universities, libraries, centers of science and technology who benefit from free access to EAPATIS as part of the Eurasian Patent Office initiative since 2011 to promote innovation in the EAPC Contracting States.
84 million documents have been uploaded to the system as of 31/12/2020, more than 170 organizations are given access to the system.
The set of patent documents for the Eurasian region has been reorganized. A single collection was formed, supplemented by translations of abstract and bibliographic descriptions into English, made using a machine translation system.
EAPATIS saw important upgrades in 2020 to meet the needs of EAPO examiners and the requirements for information support of patent search applied to International Searching Authorities under the PCT.
Eurasian Publication Server
Eurasian publication server provides access to primary publications (including full descriptions of inventions to Eurasian applications and patents), and to information published in the notifications related to applications and patents in the EAPO Gazette, as well as to information on legal status of patents. Access to the server is provided for general public on the EAPO web portal. Since its commissioning on 01.01.2014, the appearance of the information about Eurasian patent documents in this information system shall be considered as their official publication. To replenish and update the information system with data an IT was developed for publication of materials of Eurasian applications and patents from HIVE system on the Eurasian Publication Server.
In 2020, the interfaces of the main information retrieval systems of the EAPO web portal - the Eurasian publication server and the Eurasian Patent Register - were translated into English.
RAW DATA
The Eurasian Patent Office provides official publications as Raw data allowing the stakeholders to download complete descriptions of Eurasian applications and patents in XML, TIFF and PDF formats for subsequent loading into to their own information systems.
Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and grants with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes
Compared with the previous year, in 2020 the number of filed applications decreased by 3.1% (3377 applications), the number of granted Eurasian patents increased by 1.4% (2735 patents).
In 2020, the distribution of Eurasian applications by technical field has not changed significantly in comparison with the previous year. The largest number of filed Eurasian applications related to organic chemistry, drugs and medicines.
Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
Annual Reports:
Annual Report 2020 (English): https://www.eapo.org/ru/publications/reports/report2020/index_en.html
Annual Report 2020 (Russian): https://www.eapo.org/ru/publications/reports/report2020/index_ru.html
Annual reports for some recent years (English): https://www.eapo.org/en/?publs=reports
Annual reports for some recent years (Russian): https://www.eapo.org/ru/?publs=reports
News and press releases:
in Russian: https://www.eapo.org/ru/index.php?newspress=arhiv
in English: https://www.eapo.org/en/index.php?newspress=arhiv
Social networks:
Twitter (Russian): https://twitter.com/EAPO_official
Facebook (Russian): https://www.facebook.com/eapo.official
Facebook (English): https://www.facebook.com/eapo.official.en
II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Information and support provided by the Office to applicants regarding filing on paper and/or e-filing (instructions, seminars, etc.) - URLs
In Russian:
https://www.eapo.org/ru/getpatent2018/ - Brochure "How to Get a Eurasian Patent"
https://www.eapo.org/ru/getpatentpct/ - Brochure "Obtaining a Eurasian Patent under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) Procedure"
https://www.eapo.org/ru/application2019/ - Brochure "How to File a Eurasian Application"
https://www.eapo.org/ru/inventors02.html - Five Steps to Eurasian Patent
https://www.eapo.org/ru/inventors01.html - To patent or not to patent?
https://www.eapo.org/ru/feature.html - Main features of the Eurasian patent procedure
https://www.eapo.org/ru/?documents=eapo - General questions of the functioning of the Eurasian Patent Organization
https://www.eapo.org/ru/?documents=inventions - Legal protection of inventions
https://www.eapo.org/ru/?documents=designs - Legal protection of industrial designs
https://www.eapo.org/ru/?documents=blanks - Application forms
In English:
https://www.eapo.org/en/attorneys.php - Database of Eurasian patent attorneys
https://www.eapo.org/en/feature.html - Main features of the Eurasian patent procedure
https://www.eapo.org/en/?documents=eapo - Basic normative legal acts
https://www.eapo.org/en/?documents=inventions - Legal protection of inventions
https://www.eapo.org/en/?documents=designs - Legal protection of industrial designs
All registered users of EAPO-ONLINE e-filing system have access to a detailed user manual.
The EAPO also provides a hotline for applicants via telephone and e-mail to handle questions on filing and the subsequent examination procedures.
Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
The application dossier is available in electronic form in the EAPO, but it can be accessed only by the authorized staff of the Office.
Classification1, preclassification2 (if applicable), reclassification3 activities; classification systems used (e.g., International Patent Classification (IPC)); matters concerning indexing of patent information
EAPO patent documentation is included into PCT Minimum Documentation and patent documents are classified and reclassified in the International Patent Classification (IPC) on the publication stage. Since 2019 Eurasian patent documents are additionally classified in accordance with the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC).
Information about published Eurasian patent documents including classification data is sent to the EPO for public access.
The EAPO does not reclassify the back file of published Eurasian patent documents; reclassification is going to be launched since 2022.
Abstracting, reviewing, and translation of the information contained in patent documents
Eurasian patent applications are filed with the EAPO in Russian only. When patent application is filed, an applicant or a representative provides abstract in required format in accordance with filing procedure. This abstract is published with bibliographic data of the application in the EAPO Gazette and on the Eurasian publication server, on first pages of application and corresponding patent. Translation of bibliographic data and abstracts of Eurasian patents into English is carried out by the EAPO; translations to published patents are available for information purposes in EAPATIS.
Other activities
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III. SOURCES OF PATENT INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE
Main types of publications of the Office (patent applications, full text, first pages, abstracts, bibliographic data, granted patents, etc.), medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URLs)
In 2020, the EAPO issued the following publications and provided the following on-line publication services in the field of patent information:
- EAPO Gazette (bibliographic data, abstract or claims, announcements); web portal: https://www.eapo.org/ru/?publs=bulletin
- Eurasian Publication Server (full descriptions of published applications and granted patents, first pages, bibliographic data, abstract or claims, announcements); web portal: https://www.eapo.org/ru/publications/publicat/publicat.php
- Descriptions of inventions in Eurasian patent documents (full descriptions of published applications and granted patents including first pages, in PDF format, bibliographic data, abstract or claims, full texts of patents, translations of bibliographic data and abstracts into English for patents in XML format); ftp server of the EAPO
- Legislative, normative-methodical and reference documentation of the EAPO:
- General questions of the functioning of the EAPO: https://www.eapo.org/ru/?documents=eapo
- Legal protection of inventions: https://www.eapo.org/ru/?documents=inventions
- Legal protection of industrial designs: https://www.eapo.org/ru/?documents=designs
Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URL), etc.
In 2020, the EAPO published in its official Gazette the following procedural announcements in the field of patent information:
Applications:
Event code | Event description |
BZ1A | Eurasian application published without a search report (A2 publication) |
BZ2A | Eurasian application published with a search report (A1 publication) |
EZ2A | Separate publication of a search report (A3 publication) |
FA9A | Withdrawal of a Eurasian application |
FC9A | Refusal to grant Eurasian patent |
HC1A | Change in the name of an applicant in a Eurasian application |
HH9A | Reprint of the description of invention in a Eurasian application (list of corrections applied, A9 publication) |
HK9A | Corrections to EAPO Gazette related to published Eurasian application |
HM1A(2A) | Change in composition of inventors in a published Eurasian application |
HZ9A | Reprint of the description of invention in a Eurasian application (front page only, list of corrections applied, A8 publication) |
NF9A | Restoration of lapsed Eurasian application |
PC1A | Registration of transfer of right to a Eurasian application by assignment |
PD1A | Registration of transfer of right to a Eurasian application by succession in title |
PZ1A | Registration of pledge of right to a Eurasian application |
Patents:
Event code | Event description |
FG4A | Eurasian patent for invention (B1 publication) |
LC4A | Eurasian patent for invention for which administrative decision of partial revocation was made (+ B2 publication) |
LD4A | Eurasian patent for invention for which a decision of limitation was made on the basis of proprietor’s request filed with EAPO (+B3 publication) |
MA4A | Revocation of a Eurasian patent at the proprietor’s request filed with EAPO |
MC4A | Administrative revocation of a Eurasian patent in full |
MD4A | Opposition filed against grant of a Eurasian patent |
MF4A | Contracting State decision on invalidation of a Eurasian patent in full |
MH4A | IP right maintained in amended form following invalidation procedure in a Contracting State |
MK4A | Eurasian patent expired after termination of the term of validity |
MM4A | Lapse of a Eurasian patent in a Contracting State due to non-payment within the time limit of renewal fees |
ND4A | Extension of term of validity of a Eurasian patent |
NF4A | Restoration of lapsed right to Eurasian patent |
NG4A | Rejection of opposition against grant of a Eurasian patent |
NZ4A | Termination of opposition procedure |
PC4A | Registration of transfer of right to Eurasian patent by assignment |
PD4A | Registration of transfer of right to Eurasian patent by succession in title |
PZ4A | Registration of pledge of right to a Eurasian patent |
QB4A | Registration of a license/sublicense/franchise agreement in a Contracting State |
QC4A | Termination of a license/sublicense/franchise agreement in a Contracting State |
QM4A | Decision on invalidation of a license/sublicense/franchise agreement |
QZ4A | Registered amendments and supplements in a license/sublicense/franchise agreement |
RH4A | Grant of a duplicate of a protection certificate |
RL4A | Decisions of a court or other competent authority in respect of Eurasian patent |
RQ4A | Decisions of competent authorities related to the use of Eurasian patent |
TB4A | Change in the composition of inventors in a published Eurasian patent |
TC4A | Change in name of a patent proprietor in a Eurasian patent |
TH4A | Reprint of the description of invention in a Eurasian patent (list of corrections applied, B9 publication) |
TK4A | Corrections to EAPO Gazette related to published Eurasian patents |
TZ4A | Reprint of the description of invention in a Eurasian patent (title front page only, list of corrections applied, B8 publication) |
In 2020 the official EAPO Gazette was published monthly on the EAPO web portal at https://www.eapo.org/ru/?publs=bulletin (HTML and PDF versions are available).
Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external collections and databases
The provision of EAPO examiners with reference patent and non-patent documentation indicated in the international search report for Eurasian applications was carried out using the automated search report processing (SRP) system. In the reporting year, the selection of reference documents was carried out for 2,344 Eurasian applications. Of the 11,674 reference documents contained in the applications, 11,268 electronic documents were provided to examiners, including 8,977 patents and applications and 2,291 non-patent documents. The level of provision of experts with reference documents was 96.5%.
When conducting patent searches, examiners used EAPATIS, EPOQUE (EPO), Reaxys (ELSEVIER) information retrieval systems, as well as freely accessible ones (Espacenet, USPTO database, PATENTSCOPE, etc.). In 2020 an Agreement was signed with ELSEVIER for access to Reaxys Medical Chemistry database and Embase.
The EAPO uses an independently developed virtual patent-information depository comprising of local and external databases of patent documentation and non-patent literature integrated with each other. Access to databases and search therein is realized on the basis of a "one stop shop” policy via EAPATIS. Currently EAPATIS contains over 27 constantly updating databases. Since 2003 the access to the system via the Internet is granted for the EAPO Member States. In 2004-2005 access was provided also to patent offices of Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Georgia. Local databases are formed by extracting information from optical discs received by the EAPO as well as by downloading data from the respective Internet resources of international organizations and national patent offices with subsequent data conversion and arranging it in a unified format, indexing and loading into the database.
The EAPO continued its work on development and creation of a single Eurasian patent information space expanding and updating of the EAPO storage with patent documents belonging to the PCT Minimum Documentation, as well as documents issued by the EAPO and national patent offices of EAPС Contracting States. Expansion of the databases was implemented through processing of information from the CISPATENT discs, and databases of national patent offices under the exchange program.
During the reporting period EAPATIS processed approximately 876,7 thousand search queries, including more than 163,7 thousand queries from examiners of the national patent offices and more than 126,6 thousand queries from the EAPO examiners.
Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to external users, conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)
In 2020 the following patent information products and collections maintained by the EAPO were available to external users:
- EAPATIS (www.eapatis.com)
Guest use (open for general public): Detailed searches in guest mode were only possible in arrays of the Eurasian (searches in English and Russian) and CISPATENT (searches in English) patent documents. Patent documents of other countries and international organizations could only be searched by their publication number.
Full use: All EAPATIS databases are available for search and retrieval in full mode. Full use is subscription-based for external users. Free access is provided to national IP offices of EAPC Contracting States and to a number of public libraries, higher educational institutions, academies of sciences and scientific/technical centers in the EAPC Contracting States.
- Collection of Eurasian Patent Documentation on Espacenet and PATENTSCOPE – online, free of charge;
- Eurasian Publication Server https://www.eapo.org/ru/publications/publicat/publicat.php) – online, free of charge;
- EAPO Gazette (https://www.eapo.org/ru/?publs=bulletin) - online, free of charge.
Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)
Legal status information is stored and processed in the administrative system of the EAPO. This detailed legal and procedural status information is available for the authorized staff of the EAPO. External users may access the following legal status information sources:
- Eurasian Patent Register (https://www.eapo.org/ru/?patents=reestr)
The Register contains information about all published legal status events related to Eurasian patents, as well as the patent validity table by each EAPC Contracting state.
- Eurasian Publication Server (https://www.eapo.org/ru/publications/publicat/publicat.php)
The Server contains information about all published announcements related to Eurasian applications and patents with corresponding codes in accordance with WIPO standard ST.17.
- INPADOC database (EPO)
The EAPO delivers to the EPO on regular basis the information about published announcements related to Eurasian applications and patents with corresponding codes in accordance with WIPO standard ST.17.
Other sources
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IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements
№ Software
1 SUSE Linux
2 Novell eDirectory
3 Double-Take
4 Citrix VDI in a box
5 Crystal Reports
6 IBM DB2
7 IBM Http server
8 JIRA
9 Lotus Notes
10 Microsoft Exchange Server
11 Microsoft SQL Server
12 Windows Servers
13 Linux Server
Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office
Servers similar to HP, Dell, SUN, Cisco, Lenovo from 50 to 100 pcs.
Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
The patent information depository of EAPATIS contains information from international and regional organizations (WIPO, EPO, EAPO), from countries of the PCT Minimum Documentation (USA, Japan, Germany, UK, etc.) of different back file coverage, from national patent offices of the CIS countries, including EAPC Contracting States. Link to the coverage page of EAPATIS databases: http://www.eapatis.com/help/ru/db_eapatis.php
EAPATIS is capable of conducting searches additionally in Espacenet, PATENTSCOPE, and USPTO databases. It is also able to redirect the user to view information about the found documents directly on the websites of national patent offices or international organizations - EP Register, RU Register, PATENTSCOPE and other registers and databases accessible via the Internet. The J-PlatPat automatic translation system of the Japanese Patent Office can be used to translate documents in Japanese.
More information about EAPATIS is available under the point “Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external collections and databases” of this report.
Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file
EAPO continued to update search DBs of patent information included in the PCT Minimum Documentation, as well as patent information of the EAPO and the national IP offices.
The replenishment of the CIS database was based on the processing of CISPATENT data, and the database of the world patent documentation fund was updated based on information received by the EAPO within the framework of exchange programs. In 2020, the database was replenished with more than 3 million patent documents, including information on over 67 thousand national patent documents in the region. The total number of documents in the database exceeded 84 million. The database was accessed using the EAPATIS system.
In 2020, information from 637 sources was loaded into the electronic data storage system, work was carried out to optimize its storage.
Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)
The EAPO currently uses AIS SOPRANO as an administrative management tool. The system comprises examiner’s workplace, patent register update functions and legal events processing functions. The database of AIS SOPRANO also serves as a data source for various administrative statistics generated and visualized by SAP BusinessObjects and Crystal Reports.
The database of the Eurasian Patent Register is formed with data extracted from SOPRANO. Access to the database is provided to internal and external users. Legal status data on patents is contained within the Register.
Other matters
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V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF PATENT INFORMATION
Patent library: equipment, collection management, network of patent libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign patent libraries
The internal EAPO web site accumulates in-house legal, regulatory, organizational documents, instructions, reference materials, and minutes of meetings. The internal library of periodicals, received in electronic format from the publishers, subscriptions and publications of EAPO personnel are also posted on the web site. Users may conduct searches over publications by author's name, titles, and key words. The internal EAPO web site was further improved and maintained in 2020. All office employees are able to access this site from their workstations.
In 2020, the EAPO received specialized magazines, books, brochures covering various aspects of patent activity. To provide examiners with reference materials the EAPO cooperates with BEN (Library of Natural Sciences), VINITI (Library of the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information), VPTB (All-Russian Patent and Technical Library) and others.
All collections of patent documents are stored electronically and available in EAPATIS.
Publications related to different business procedures and patent information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.
The EAPO web portal provides access to a number of documents, publications and guides intended for applicants and patent information users, e.g.:
- General information about Eurasian patent procedures
- Brochure "How to File a Eurasian Application"
- Brochure "How to Get a Eurasian Patent"
- Brochure "Obtaining a Eurasian patent under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) procedure"
- Up-to-date collection of legal texts
- Comment of Eurasian Patent Legislation
- Explanatory statements of the EAPO on certain procedural aspects
- Guidance materials
- User manuals, help files for patent information systems (EAPATIS, Espacenet, EAPO-ONLINE, etc.)
Office's initiatives on providing foreign patent information in the local language(s) (e.g., machine translation tools, translation of abstracts)
In 2020 an array of abstract and bibliographic descriptions from the patent documentation of the Eurasian region was translated into English using TAPTA machine translation system.
Cooperation with universities, research centers, technology and innovation support centers, etc.
The EAPO makes its feasible contribution to the innovative development of its Member States by means of providing a free access to EAPATIS to national IP offices, public libraries, higher educational institutions, academies of sciences and scientific/technical centers of those countries. Totally, more than 173 organizations had access to EAPATIS as at the end of the year under review.
Education and training: training courses, e-learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.
The epidemiological situation in 2020 did not allow to carry out the planned trainings of examiners of national IP offices of the EAPC Contracting States in the headquarters of the Eurasian Patent Organization, as well as training of IT-experts of the offices in Moscow training center.
Other activities
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VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF PATENT INFORMATION
International exchange and sharing of patent information in machine-readable form, e.g., priority documents, bibliographic data, abstracts, search reports, full text information
In 2020, exchange of patent documentation was carried out with the three international organizations and 52 national patent offices by sharing disc images and information as Raw data via FTP.
The following data deliveries, based on the cooperation agreements, were carried out by the EAPO in 2020:
- PATENTSCOPE (WIPO) – bibliographic data and full descriptions of Eurasian applications and patents, regional phase entry information for PCT applications;
- Espacenet/DOCDB/BNS (EPO) - bibliographic data and full descriptions of Eurasian applications and patents;
- Inpadoc (EPO) – legal status information;
- CISPATENT (FIPS) - bibliographic data and full descriptions of Eurasian patents.
Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to patent information
In the framework of implementation of the Agreements on granting of access to EAPATIS to scientific organizations, public libraries and higher educational institutions, they have received access to EAPATIS for free in 2020. In the past year more than 173 organizations have already been connected to EAPATIS under this project.
The EAPO participates in the CISPATENT regional project. CISPATENT is a joint patent information product containing information on inventions of the CIS countries and Eurasian patents. The EAPO finances the participation of the EAPC Contracting States in the project.
As a participant of international patent documentation exchange, the EAPO provides complete descriptions of Eurasian applications and patents, and makes its Gazette available to 52 countries and international organizations.
Assistance to developing countries
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Other activities
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VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS
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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.