CWS.ATR.PI.2011.BR

Annual Technical Report 2011 on Patent Information Activities submitted by Brazil (CWS/ATR/PI/2011/BR)

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

Applications for BR patents and PCT national phase entrance increased from 28.052 in 2010 to 31.897 in 2011 (+ 14 %), although data for 2011 is not final because of PCT national phase and because the number of applications done by residents.
Patents granted increased from 3.620 in 2010 to 3.806 in 2011 (+5 %).

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

Statistics related to Brazilian patents applications are available at http://www.inpi.gov.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=461&Itemid=240.
http://www.inpi.gov.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=124:publicacoes&catid=106:notas&Itemid=142

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.)

(1) Paper Patent Documents
Published patent applications documents are prepared by the Center of Dissemination of Technological Information (CEDIN), a division of the Directorate of Cooperation for Development (DICOD) that is responsible for maintaining and divulging the technological information. With respect to granted patents, the Directorate of Patents (DIRPA) is responsible for digitalizing them.
Patent of Invention applications documents are published with a letter code “A”, Patent of Utility Models are published with a letter code “U” and the Addition Certificates are published with a letter code “E”. Letter codes “B1”, “Y1” and “F1” refers to, respectively, granted Patents of Invention, Patents of Utility Models and Addition Certificates.
Copies of all published patents are sent to the search files.

(2) Industrial Property Gazette
Since April 2005, official notices and selected bibliographic data relating to BR patent applications and granted patents are internally generated and published in the official weekly electronic Brazilian Official Gazette (Revista da Propriedade Industrial - RPI). Official gazettes are available on the Brazilian Patent Office website in PDF and TXT format, at http://revistas.inpi.gov.br/rpi/, and all published officials gazettes are stored in the library available to the public.

(3) Internet
Bibliographic data of Brazilian patents are available for consultation at an internal database (SINPI) and at internet (www.inpi.gov.br). Keywords searches in titles or abstracts are available only in Portuguese. Brazilian patent documents’ first pages contain bibliographic data, according to WIPO standards.
INPI sends to the European Patent Office the bibliographic data and electronic copies of the whole patent applications and granted patents, as soon as the domestic publication occurs, to be part of EPOQUE system and of the searchable websites at Espacenet database (worldwide.espacenet.com) and Latipat database (lp.espacenet.com). In 2011, 961.593 pages of patent documents were digitalized and sent to EPO.
Brazilian documents also compose Patentscope database.

Main types of announcements of the Office in the field of patent information

INPI's website (www.inpi.gov.br) plays an increasingly important part in the dissemination of notices regarding to patents, as well as informing the public and the community of users all the information concerning training activities, events and legal information concerning intellectual property.

Besides, the official gazette weekly provides users all the information concerning INPI's decisions on patent matters. More information about an application which appears in the gazette is available on-line, such as its search/technical report or/and the final document of a granted patent.

Mass storage media used (paper, microforms, optical storage, etc.)

INPI has a collection of DVD and CD-ROM containing published or granted US, Benelux, WO, EP, DE, ES, FR, JP, KR,OA CH, GB and TR patent documents, and paper copies of entire documents can be provided for internal or external demands.

Brazilian Office has also a paper collection of BR, US, WO, EP, AU, CA, NL, DE, CH, GB and FR patent documents classified according to the IPC and a microform patent document collection from BR, ES, US, FR, GB, DE and CH. This collection has been frozen since the implementation of search systems. Internal users access CD-ROM, DVD, Epoque, Dialog, Internet and SINPI (internal database), whereas external users access CD-ROM, DVD and Internet.

Word processing and office automation

INPI has access to Microsoft Windows and BrOffice softwares, which provide an integrated and extensive network of applications that are available to all staff. All personal have their own workstation on which numerous applications are available. Word processing can be carried out using Microsoft Word and BrOffice Writer; PowerPoint, Excel, BrOffice Impress and BrOffice Calc are also available. All the staff have access to Internet and the Office’s intranet and has their own official e-mail addresses.

The current version of the IPC is available for consultation in Portuguese and English at http://ipc.inpi.gov.br/IPCpubPrep/Full-BR/index.php a neural network is used for a new application to identify which technical area (division) should be in charge of it;
1. Translating new symbols: a user friendly interface is used to translate each symbol of the new IPC version, used internally among examiners that are selected for that;
2. Reclassification: reclassification generated because of a new IPC version is used aimed by an on-line internal tool.

Search tools, including EPOQUE, DIALOG and online access to commercial databases, are available to technical staff, patent examiners and technical personal performing patent information activities to external users. There is also a corporate mainframe database (Integrated System of Industrial Property - SINPI), for processing the life of a BR patent application, where searches can also be performed.

The Office's intranet contains a large collection of useful information for INPI’s staff.

Copies of the documents cited in the search reports are produced in-house to supply the applicants. This information, nowadays, is available at the Internet for all public. In addition, the final document of a granted patent (final description, claims, drawings and abstract) is also available at the Internet for all public. All these information is electronically certified by the government.

Still in an training period, data and documents related to a selected group of patent applications are available at the Internet.

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

INPI’s website provides online access to the patent applications and granted patents. Patent gazettes can be accessed in http://revistas.inpi.gov.br/rpi/. Brazilian patents database is available through Internet at
http://pesquisa.inpi.gov.br/MarcaPatente/jsp/servimg/servimg.jsp?BasePesquisa=Patentes

Search and technical reports are found at http://eparecer.inpi.gov.br.

Letter patents are found at http://ecarta.inpi.gov.br

All data and documents related to an application are found at http://evista.inpi.gov.br

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

Abstracting, reviewing, translating

No service of translation, abstracting and reviewing is conducted by INPI.

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)

The only classification system used is the IPC. Classifying a document for the first time or during search/examination is done by examiners using the IPC in Portuguese/English available at http://ipc.inpi.gov.br/IPCpubPrep/Full-BR/index.php.

INPI preclassifies an application by allotting an administrative unit, i.e. a technical area, using automated means (neural network algorithm). All administrative units are automatically ranked for every application and the application is then routed to the first technical area ranked. If this first choice is incorrect, the application can be rerouted to another unit, usually the second one ranked.

Reclassification is done by a tool developed in house, called IPCReclass. It is an environment where all documents that need to be reclassified are shown and where examiners can do the task. It can be found at http://ipc.inpi.gov/ipcreclass. This tool is also used by other Offices, as MX and CA.

Bibliographic data and full-text processing

Bibliographic data processing is used for search using the internal system (SINPI) and through Internet (http://pesquisa.inpi.gov.br/MarcaPatente/jsp/servimg/servimg.jsp?BasePesquisa=Patentes).

IV. Search file establishment and upkeep

File building

File building and updating of search files, classified under the IPC is centralized. BR patent documents collection is arranged according to the IPC.

In 2011 Brazilian patent collection increased 29.150 documents.

Updating

Administrative staff carries out updating of search files centrally.

Documentation from other offices maintained and/or considered part of the available search file

Paper collection contains US, WO, EP, AU, CA, NL, DE, CH, GB and FR patent documents.

CD-ROM and DVD collection contains US, WO, EP, DE, ES, FR, JP, OA CH, GB and TR patent documents.

Either paper or digital documents are available through search techniques, for internal patent examiners and external users.

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

In-house systems (online/offline)

The SINPI database (Integrated System of Industrial Property) is the in-house system available for searching. Technical searching can be carried out using the IPC code or indexing terms, combinations of terms from the same or different headings for searching patent documents, legal status or other parameters. Brazilian patent applications database is available through Internet at http://pesquisa.inpi.gov.br/MarcaPatente/jsp/servimg/servimg.jsp?BasePesquisa=Patentes.

External databases

Since 2005 patent examiners from INPI/BR have access to EPOQUE (European Patent Office Query) system in order to perform their examination searches. Their tasks became faster using this tool.

Besides EPOQUE they also have access to the databank DIALOG and other specialized databases (chemical, biotech, etc.) in order to carry out searches in patent documents or other publications. INPI staff access these databases using a number of online hosts that the Office subscribes to. The official policy is that a worldwide online search should be carried out as whole or part of every patent search or examination done in this Office. Workstations with CD or DVD drivers are used by the technical staff for information purposes and also by the external searchers.

They also access free online patent databases that are available through internet
and non patent literature databases that are available through EPOQUE, DIALOG and internet.
Relating non patent literature, INPI has an agreement with CAPES (promotion agency for research in Brazil that acts in the expansion and consolidation of post-graduate studies (masters and doctorate in all states of the country). In this agreement the INPI examiners have access to the following databases: ACS - American Chemical Society, AAAS – Science Magazine, Cambridge University Press, Gale, JSTOR, Nature, Sage, Science Direct, Springer and Scopus

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

Register, legal status and administrative support information are stored on the SINPI database.

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

Servers IBM and HP are used to support Internet, Internal Databases, E-mail and Intranet. The internal network uses a client-server arrangement on an Ethernet LAN running Informix Netware. The PCs used by all staff performing patent and information activities are Pentium 4, 2.8 GHz, machines with 17" and 21" screens and DVD drivers.

Existing online thesauri; their structure, presentation and usefulness for computerized searches

INPI does not use online thesauri.

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

INPI has an internal library that is conducted by the Center of Dissemination of Technological Information (CEDIN). The library collection contains technical books, pamphlets, manuals, some legal reports, name and subject-matter indexing books, periodicals and official gazettes from many different countries. The collection is located in the office’s main building in a securely manner, and the consultation can be done via intranet (INPI staff) or locally (INPI staff and external users).

Collecting, acquisitions, preparation

All INPI staff is free to suggest additional material for inclusion in the library collection, and the administrative manager periodically asks for suggestions.

In 2011 the library staff received approximately 3.028 requests from researchers and 4.564 copies of articles or technical information were demanded by the internal and external researchers. The library was updated with 2.038 new books, pamphlets etc.

In 2011 the library published 22 Bibliographic Alerts that list new publications available in the library and helps to divulge matters concerned to intellectual property. The Bibliographic Alerts are available through INPI intranet.

Collection management, preservation

The Center of Dissemination of Technological Information (CEDIN) is in charge of maintaining the library.

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

The library provides external services to customers. They provide copies of articles, technical searchers, and have a close contact with other specialized libraries from over Brazil and abroad. It can be accessed through the e-mail biblioteca@inpi.gov.br.

The library has become a reference for graduate courses in Library Science from the University of Rio de Janeiro – UNIRIO and from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro – UFRJ, and has received groups interested in knowing the processing methodology used by the library, as well as the collection and specialized services designed to INPI.

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 Patent Office's Search and Advisory Service continues to promote its activities in providing priced patent investigations. In 2011, 606 patent searches were processed.

INPI has developed a service (Central Enquiry Unit) to provide answers to customers’ doubts, available at INPI's homepage (http://faleconosco.inpi.gov.br/faleconosco/).

INPI sends to the European Patent Office the bibliographic data and electronic copies of the whole patent applications and granted patents, as soon as the domestic publication occurs, to be part of the searchable website at Espacenet and Latipat.

Information about a patent application can be found at http://eparecer.inpi.gov.br for search and technical report, at http://ecarta.inpi.gov.br for letter patents and, still for just a selected group, at http://evista.inpi.gov.br for all data and documents related to an application.

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.

http://www.inpi.gov.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=60&Itemid=96

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

Patent search services and Patent databases::
http://pesquisa.inpi.gov.br/MarcaPatente/jsp/servimg/servimg.jsp?BasePesquisa=Patentes

PCT application guide:
http://www.inpi.gov.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=116&Itemid=141

E-Patent Letter:
http://www.inpi.gov.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=64&Itemid=99

E-Patent Examination Report:
http://www.inpi.gov.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=64&Itemid=99

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

INPI makes use of all relevant WIPO standards. In 2011, 36.003 published Brazilian patent applications were sent to foreign patent offices in a cooperation exchange. In 2011, INPI has sent the Brazilian patents applications (PI – patent invention, MU- utility model, C- additional certificate) and/or industrial designs documents (DI) in paper to ARIPO (PI, MU, C – without priority); SU (PI, C – without priority); GB, CU, DE (PI, MU, C – without priority) and PY (PI, MU, C, all the documents applied in Brazil).

Medium used for exchange of priority documents

Paper. The full certified copies of documents must be requested to INPI through an specific form.

Medium allowed for filing applications

Patent applications are accepted only on paper form. An online system for electronic filing of patent applications is been developed to be implemented at the second half of 2012.

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 accordance with the Brazilian Innovation Law, INPI has began an extensive training program, including seminars and courses, aiming to prepare managers and technicians staff in different aspects of intellectual property.

By the end of 2011, INPI has trained managers and technicians from Universities, Institutions of Research and Development and Institutions supporting small and medium-sized enterprises.

In 2011, INPI’s team of tutors trained under an agreement with WIP customized the on-line course DL101BR to Brazilian regulations. The tutors functioned in two editions of the DL101P, which was administrated by the Academy of Intellectual Property, Innovation and Development of INPI.

Assistance to developing countries (sending consultants and experts, receiving trainees from developing countries, etc.)

The Brazilian Patent Office has an active bilateral and cooperation programs with different countries, including a number of developing countries. In 2011, the Search and Advisory Service carried out 1 free patent search with WIPO to Uruguay under the Program of Patent Information Services for Developing Countries, and 89 free patent searches to Paraguay under a bilateral cooperation.

INPI also delivers seminars and lectures in different places including developing countries.

A system to promote collaboration among patent examiners of countries in South America was developed and can be accessed at http://inpi.gov.br/epec.

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

The Directorate of Cooperation for Development (DICOD) continued to promote in 2011 INPI's presence at many exhibitions or seminars, and conducted visitors to the Office.

The Academy of Intellectual Property, Innovation and Development of INPI organized the IV Academic Meeting on Intellectual Property, Innovation and Development (IV ENAPID) and seminars on IP Issues. These events are directed to the community involved in research and development projects relating to intellectual property and innovation. At the IV ENAPID INPI launched the Scientific revue called “Intellectual Property and Development”, which can be seen at https://academia.inpi.gov.br/revista/index.php/pidesenvolvimento

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

Programs and Studies Coordination (CEPRO), a coordination of the Center of Dissemination of Technological Information (CEDIN), is in charge of preparing programs and studies using bibliographic and technological information available in patent documents in order to provide statistical information to monitor the trends in patent activity.

In 2011 INPI published the studies “Main Applicants of Patent Applications in Brazil with Brazilian Priorities” and “Patenting by Non Academic Research Institutions between 1990 and 2007”. All the published studies, including the old ones, are available at
http://www.inpi.gov.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=124:publicacoes&catid=106:notas&Itemid=142.

In 2011 INPI published 22 Technological Alerts consisting of a survey of the technology published worldwide on strategic affairs of the Federal Government, including Bio-fuel, Stem Cell, Nanobiotechnology, Fuel Cell, Wind Energy, Solar Energy, Nuclear Energy, Nanotechnology, Technology Related to Hearing Impaired, Technology Related to Visual Impaired and Technology Related to Motor Disabilities. For each subject there will be a semiannual publication. All published Technological Alerts are available at
http://www.inpi.gov.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=124:publicacoes&catid=106:notas&Itemid=142.

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

Information on legislation related to patents is available at http://www.inpi.gov.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=110&Itemid=125.

contain the Annual Report of the Office

The Annual Report of INPI is available at
http://www.inpi.gov.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=124:publicacoes&catid=106:notas&Itemid=142

contain patent-related news regarding the Office

Patent-related news regarding to the Office is available at
http://www.inpi.gov.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=50&Itemid=146.

X. Other relevant matters

After being accepted in 2007 as an International Searching Authority (ISA) and an International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA), INPI started to prepare all the administrative and technical needs for the execution of this new task. Brazilian Patent Office began to act as ISA and IPEA in August, 2009. In 2011, 424 international applications have chosen Brazil as the competent ISA. INPI has a working group responsible for the Quality Control System of patent applications examined in the context of ISA/IPEA.

In 2011 INPI continued with the Innovation and Intellectual Property Academy activities. The Professional Master Degree Course in Intellectual Property and Innovation received students from different areas (lawyers, engineers, managers etc).

Brazilian National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) and National Institute of Metrology (INMETRO) continued working in close collaboration, in order to establish the Brazilian Center of Biological Material. The final objective of this project is not only to provide the necessary infrastructure for supplementation with the biological material of patent applications in biotechnology field, but also to contribute for the organization of services, which will allow the offering of certificates for research and development, according to international requirements of safety. The Center will be located at Xerém, in Rio de Janeiro, and will be divided in two sections: one for materials in secrecy conditions and another for materials capable of being used in research.

In 2011 the Program of Automatic Supplying of Technological Information (PROFINT) gave support to 30 institutions. INPI sent to these institutions 79.167 front pages of patent documents in 2011. These documents are selected in the IPC fields that the institutions have chosen. INPI has a signed contract with each one of these institutions. In 2011 INPI continue to offer training activities to technical staff of the institutions associated to the Program in order to help them to select and analyse the information received.

The Technological Observatory of INPI (OBTEC), created in 2010, conducts monitoring of specific sectors of the world technological development, gathering data and formatting information from the access of patent documentation databases and technological information in general. At the beginning of 2011 the activities of the Observatory encompassed two agreements, one with the Research Institute of Applied Economy (IPEA) and the other with the Brazilian Enterprise of Agronomic Research (EMBRAPA), and other partnerships to be established with governmental institutions.