SCIT.ATR.PI.2002.MD

Annual Technical Report 2002 on Patent Information Activities submitted by Republic of Moldova (SCIT/ATR/PI/2002/MD)

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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

During the year 2002, the AGEPI has received 269 applications, of which 258 refer to inventions and 11 to plant varieties, which is a decrease of 3% as compared with 2001. The level recorded in 2002 corresponds to the general tendencies of the last 6 years, with the exception of the year 2001 when the national inventors benefited of the facility to file up to 3 applications without paying the prescribed fees. In 2002, the ratio between the number of applications filed by natural and legal persons, constituting 39,4% to 60,6%, was radically modified. In the year 2002, this ratio was of 56,6% to 43,4%.

In 2002, the AGEPI received for national examination (national phase) under the PCT, 11 international patent applications, with 3 applications more than in 2001.

In the year under review, the AGEPI issued 230 patents for inventions (in 2001 - 226), of which 203 (88,3%) were granted to national applicants and 27 (11,7%) to foreign applicants, being in principle the ratio recorded in 2001. From the total number of patents granted in 2002, 72,2% were at the responsibility of the applicants (in 2001 + 81%) and 27,8% - with the examination as to substance (in 2001 – 19%).

2 applications for Eurasian patents have been filed by national applicants. In 2002, the AGEPI issued 936 Eurasian patents for invention.

In 2002, the Agency has registered 19 applications for the registration of utility models (in 2001-13) and all applications belong to national applicants. A total number of 11 utility model certificates have been granted. From the total number of applications, 10 have been filed by natural persons and 9 by the legal entities. 5 applications for the registration of utility models have been transformed into patent applications.

In 2002, most patent applications filed under the national procedure were related to the following Sections: “A” (Human necessities) – 86, “C” (Chemistry and Metallurgy) – 50 and “B” (Performing operations. Transporting) – 34.

II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, distribution and use of primary and secondary sources of patent information

The AGEPI publishes information on applications and registered patents.
In 2002, the AGEPI produced 230 invention-related publications (patent claims and applications) and 14 utility model claim publications.

The most important publications in the field of patent documentation are the following:
 The Official Bulletin on Industrial Property Protection (BOPI), monthly issue.
 The Patent Register,
 The Patent Application Register,
 The Utility Model Application Register,
 The Utility Model Register;
 Patents – in extenso
 Alphabetical index to the owners of patents for invention granted in the Republic of Moldova;
 CD-ROM optical disks “Inventions of the Republic of Moldova, 1963-1992” (bibliographical data) and “Inventions of the Republic of Moldova, 1993-2002” containing official information on patent applications and patents in the Republic of Moldova (bibliographical data, claims, abstracts in Romanian, Russian and English versions, texts of the descriptions with graphs and tables). It is destined to examiners, inventors, applicants and councilors in industrial property, as well as to all persons interested in searches for patents on inventions protected in the Republic of Moldova;
 CD-ROM optical disks “Legislation of the Republic of Moldova in the field of industrial property”;
 The periodical publication of inventors and researchers “Intellectus”, four issues yearly;
 The periodical publications “Invention Bursa inventiilor”, “AGEPI Consulting”, “AGEPI Revue” and “AGEPI Expo”, which include consultations and practical recommendations in the field on industrial property protection;
 Annual Report AGEPI - 2001 (in Romanian, English and Russian versions).

BOPI is still an information source of prime value for documentary searches. It is published on paper-support since 1993, being sent monthly upon publication to Patent Offices worldwide. From January 2000, it is monthly placed on the AGEPI web site. Section I of BOPI contains:
 Applications on inventions (bibliographic data and abstracts),
 Granted patents on inventions (bibliographic data and abstracts),
 List of patents on inventions issued
Section II contains:
 Applications for the grant of variety patent
Section II contains:
 Registered utility models
 List of certificates on utility models registration granted
Section VII contains:
 List of amendments
 List of assignment agreements
 List of expired patents
 Invalid patents on inventions
 List of rejected applications on inventions
 Errata
Section VIII contained
 Oppositions examined with the Appeal Board of the AGEPI.
Russian and English translations of abstracts of applications and titles of protection are provided in BOPI.

The beginning of the year was marked by the issuance of the common CD-ROM “CISPATENT” by the State Agency on Patents and Trademarks of the Russian Federation (ROSPATENT). The established management of the AGEPI prepare and send to the ROSPATENT the necessary informational array for publishing, monthly. The said CD-ROM permits the users to carry out searches on the published applications, on the decision to grant a patent and on patents issued in CIS countries (AM, BE, GE, MD, RU, TJ, UZ, UA, EA). The CD-ROM also contains information on bibliographic data, drawings, descriptions, abstracts and claims.

In the year under review, 54 book titles and periodicals have been published with the AGEPI. It is worth to mention the book “Researchers and inventors of the Republic of Moldova” – first volume of the mini-encyclopedia of inventors of the Republic of Moldova. The collection “The AGEPI’s Library of Intellectual Property” was completed, in 2002, with the pamphlets “How to protect a plant variety in the Republic of Moldova?”, “How are topographies of integrated circuits protected in the Republic of Moldova?”, “Current tendencies on the protection of certain industrial property objects,” etc.

Starting with 1997, publication, i.e., the whole process of publication, is carried out in-house (for both publication on paper and on CD-ROMs), as well as text setting, editing and desktop publishing, printing and delivery).

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

The AGEPI published the abstracts in BOPI in three languages: Romanian, Russian and English.

The abstracts in Romanian, Russian and English are available to the interested public through the Patent Search Database of the AGEPI via Internet (www.agepi.md).

The Agency classifies all the patent documents exclusively by using the International Patent Classification.
The AGEPI uses the 7th IPC edition currently.
The Agency reclassified the national documents according to the 7 IPC edition.

IV. Search file establishment and upkeep

The current patent documentation (from 1992 up to present) is stored in the AGEPI Library and is divided into a national and a foreign patent documentation Collection.

The retrospective portions of the patent documents collection (author certificates of the former URSS) from 1924 up to 1992 is stored within the National Technical Scientific Library and includes 12,454,037 documents.

The national patent documentation Collection is stored on paper and on CD-ROM and includes full descriptions of inventions and utility models (applications, patents and certificates) of the Republic of Moldova.

The collection of foreign patent documentation is stored by country, by year of publication (within the countries) and in numerical order only on CD/DVD-ROM.

The patent Collection is updated annually both for national and foreign patent documentation.

On December 31, 2002, the patent collection included 15,535,526 copies of patent documents on CD-ROM: 2430 national and 15,533,096 foreign documents (7,244,575 patents and 8,290,951 patent applications).

A new addition in 2002 was the Regional Data Base on CD-ROM with patent documentation from CIS countries “CISPATENT”.

At the user’s disposal, there are 39 databases in the field of patents.

The patent documents stored with the AGEPI Library can be seen in the attached Table I.

TabelI - The attached Table I provides the list of all patent documents stored in the AGEPI Library on CD/DVD-ROM

V. Activities in the field of computerized and other mechanized search systems

In-house systems (online/offline)

The management of the patent applications is based on the “Patent” search database procedure program, developed by the AGEPI specialists. The database thereof is employed in conducting the examination process, publication and dissemination of information.

The AGEPI “Patent” Search database, which is opened to the public, can be used by examiners and other interested persons for electronic search through the published applications and granted patents in the Republic of Moldova, also the Eurasian patents. The search could be done by requiring the bibliographic data, abstract (RO, RU, EN), claims and descriptions.

The automated system for the variety patent applications examination has been completed with the “Plant Variety” database procedure program and with the procedural fee recording program. The automation of the operations relating to the procedure was based on the international standards in the field and on wide-known and accepted criteria.

External databases

- VINITI (patent associated literature- bibliographic data), managing by the VINITI Institute of the Russian Federation (www.vinini.ru);
Other databases in the Internet:
- ESPACE-NET
- Other databases in the Internet, made available by other industrial property offices.

Administrative management systems (e.g., register, legal status, statistics, administrative support, etc.)

The technical base of the AGEPI network has been consolidated due to the change of two servers and additional installation of three others. The administration system of the Active Directory domain based on Windows 2000 Server was elaborated and implemented.

To ensure the stable functioning of the Internet-server, the Linux RedHat 8.0 server with the e-mail antivirus protection was installed.
Several work stations were modernized, thus offering from a technical point of view, sufficient possibilities of homogenizing the working environment, the operation and application soft used within the Agency, namely the installation of the Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional and the MS Office 2000 Professional.

Equipment used (hardware, including the types of terminal and network used, and software), carriers used

- Dual processor Servers: 1 - HP NetServer LC - I I; 1 - HP NetServer E60; 2 – HP Kayak XU800
- One processor Servers : 5 - HP Kayak XU800
- Dual Processor workstation Compaq AP500 with Xerox DocuImage 6205 for scanning documentations and images
- Data storage solutions - Promise UltraTrak SX8000 about 1000 Gb in RAID
- Backup System - HP StorageWorks Ultrium 460 tape drive
- More than 130 PCs based on various Intel and AMD processor systems (Intel Pentium I,II,III; AMD Athlon, Duron )
- 5 scanners
- 5 network printers (Xerox, HP )
- Ethernet 100Mb UTP network set on star topology with the central scalable mount rack with 5 HP and CNet switches
- Dedicated line for Internet connection 96 kbps
- 2 servers based on Linux operating system for Internet gateway, mail and web servers.
- Workstations operating systems : Windows 95/98, Windows 2000, Windows XP
- Software specific of the CD-ROM collections namely Mimosa , Diapat, etc

The AGEPI administrates the Patent Collection and renders services to the public (for applications, assistance on patent search, etc.).

VI. Administration of the industrial property office library 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 AGEPI library, as an AGEPI division, functions simultaneously as an in-house and public library, open to a wide range of patent information users of the Republic of Moldova.

The library specialists are available to assist the public in all aspects of their work with catalogues, CD-ROMs, books, etc. The AGEPI Library is available to the public 6 days a week (except Sunday) from 9:00 to 16:00.

Collecting, acquisitions, preparation

The main information sources of the Patent Collection are the official publications of the AGEPI, patent documentation and patent associated literature received through international exchange with Patent Offices worldwide and other information centers, purchase or subscription. All the received documents are registered, classified and grouped for storage purpose.

On December 31, 2002, the Library collection included 15,5 million of documents (in 2001 - 15,7 million). The transfer of a number of documents to the AGEPI representative in Balti County caused the decrease in the total number of documents stored in the AGEPI Library.

The number of documents on electronic support (DVD-ROM, CD-ROM) collected on the basis of bilateral agreements with Patent Offices from 26 countries and 4 international organizations have increased. In this way, 1228 optical disks have been obtained in 2002. At present, the Library Documents Collection on electronic support constitutes 7784 disks.

39 databases in the field of patents are at the users' disposal. During the year 2002, 2772 periodicals of national and foreign publications on a large range of issues in the field of Industrial Property have been acquired by the AGEPI (by bilateral exchange and subscription), as well as 873 books, especially dictionaries, encyclopedias, juridical literature, handbooks etc., have been purchased.

A new addition in 2002 was the Regional Database on CD-ROM with patent documentation from CIS countries “CISPATENT”.

Collection management, preservation

The Library collections are arranged along geographical-systematic-numerical lines. The conditions for storing collections correspond to the types of information carriers used:
- patent documentation on paper is stored in cassettes on shelves;
- on CD-ROM – in catalog racks;
- in automated databases.

The AGEPI Collection available to the public is shown in the attached Table II.

The collection on CD-ROM is available for search by both the internal users and the public.

TableII - The attached file provides the list of the AGEPI Library Collection on CD/DVD-ROM

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

The AGEPI exchanges documents with the National Library and the National Technical Scientific Literature Library, which have a complete collection of the official bulletins and relevant literature in the field published by the AGEPI; the Agency also exchanges documents with other national offices and regional organizations.

The AGEPI Library cooperates intensively with 22 territorial Libraries to which the patent information and other literature in the field is furnished regularly for further dissemination in the territory.

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 AGEPI Library has a general and a specialized reading room, comfortably arranged for readers. Anyone may find there patent documentation, access the CD-ROM databases and be provided with information-bibliography services, such as thematic selection of patent documentation, search for patent analogues, search in automated databases, etc.
Visits to the patent Library and services offered to all categories of readers are free of charge.

The Library also provides, by payment, such services as copying the documents from CD-ROM/DVD-ROM on paper (in 2002 – 2235 pages) or on CD / DVD-ROM (in 2002 – 861 documents), copying the documents form the Library paper Collection; selling the AGEPI editions.

The main features regarding the library-information services rendered in 2002 are the following: readers- 512; visits – 5986; borrowed documents – 56174, including: books – 8019, periodicals – 20955, patents -6041, CD-ROM – 13528, BOPI – 7631.

During the year 2002, the AGEPI has rendered to the economic agents of the republic 734 consultations in the field of obtaining titles of protection of industrial property objects, organized 200 visits to the enterprises; it rendered a double volume of information/retrieval services in the IPP field as compared with the previous year.

With the view of promoting the patent collection, 81 actions have been organized during the year, including book and document exhibitions: “New acquisitions”, “Industrial Property Protection in the Republic of Moldova”, “AGEPI Publications,” etc.

Information about the new acquisitions in the library collection is systematically offered on the AGEPI web site. The information provided on the AGEPI web site – www.agepi.md – covers all general topics concerning patents (national and international legislation, preparation of application, office procedures, application forms).

VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of patent documentation and information

Moldova continues to supply data to EPIDOS for the INPADOC database in machine-readable form. Moldavian applications are filed in paper form.
In the year 2002, the process for completion and development of the literature and document collection in the industrial property protection field continued on the basis of a bilateral exchange with 44 foreign patent and trademark offices. The acquisition of literature in the field via libraries, publications and book exhibitions, by subscription to periodical publications from the country and from abroad also continued on the basis of periodicals published by the AGEPI - in total over 80 sources.

The Official Bulletin (BOPI) was received in 2002 by bilateral exchange from 31 countries in paper form and from 6 countries on CD-ROM (in total 528 Official Bulletins); 1228 CD-ROMs have been acquired in 2002 by bilateral exchange from 16 countries, as well as, 873 books and 2772 periodicals.

The Agency has furnished to 26 Industrial Property Offices and other related international institutions 26 CD-ROMs (AGEPI Annual Report 2002, Legislation in the field), 684 BOPI, 24 periodicals (“Intellectus”).

VIII. Other relevant matters concerning education and training in, and promotion of, the use of patent information, including technical assistance to developing countries

During the year 2002, the AGEPI organized 18 national and 2 international seminars on industrial property protection matters, where the experts of Patent Direction have been involved.

Concomitantly, the AGEPI staff delivered specialized courses for judges of different courts, for councilors in industrial property and managers of economic units of the republic, the experts of Patent Direction being responsible of conducting the Patent subjects.

At the same time, special courses, thematic seminars, upgrading probations were organized for the AGEPI employees in order to improve their professional skills and extend the knowledge spectrum.

In 2002, the AGEPI staff, including the specialists of the Patent Direction, have participated in 47 international events such as trainings, meetings, seminars, symposia, works, consultations etc. in the field.
In particular, it is worth to mention the Conference for Young Professionals on Industrial Property Issues that was held in Kyrgyzstan, the seminar „Legal Protection of Inventions in Current Conditions”, organized by the Patent Office of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the EAPO, the EPO International Academy Seminars “Examination and documentation in biotechnology”, “Patents in electronics, computer technology and telecommunications” and “International Forum on protection of computer-related and business model inventions”, the Conference “Patent-informational medium of Russian Federation” and the 6th Scientific-Practical Conference organized the ROSPATENT. Two patent experts participated in the training course at the Federal Institute of Industrial Property, ROSPATENT. The experts also participated in 13 national exhibitions.

IX. Other relevant matters