SCIT.ATR.PI.2008.UA

Annual Technical Report 2008 on Patent Information Activities submitted by Ukraine (SCIT/ATR/PI/2008/UA)

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

Statistical evolution concerning:

Inventions
Applications filed:
in 2007 – 6163, in 2008 – 5697, i.e. 8% decrease with respect to the previous year.
Patents granted:
in 2007 – 4060, in 2008 – 3832, i.e. 5,6% decrease with respect to the previous year.

Utility models
Applications filed:
in 2007 – 8870, in 2008 – 9600, 8% increase.
Patents granted:
in 2007 – 9215, in 2008 – 9282, 0,7% more than the previous year.

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

During the last few years, including 2008, none of the trends or areas of technologies experienced rapid changes resulting in fast increase of the number of applications. However, some areas and fields were clearly defined as stable leaders in application filing, in particular:

“Organic chemistry” – IPC Class C07 (10.9% in 2007, 12.9% in 2008); “Medical or veterinary science; hygiene” – IPC Class A61 (11.5% applications filed in 2007, 12.6% in 2008); “Agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry…” - IPC Class A01 (4.8% in 2007, 4.7% in 2008); “Measuring, testing” – IPC class G01 (4.7% in 2007, 4.7% in 2008).

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

http://www.sdip.gov.ua/en/plans_reports.html
http://www.ukrpatent.org/en/statistics.html

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.)

Patent information of Ukraine concerning patents and utility models is published in the following official publications of the State Department of Intellectual Property (further - the State Department): the Official Bulletin “Industrial Property” (“Promyslova Vlasnist”) and Ukrainian patent and utility model specifications. Methodological literature is also published.
Like in the previous year, the Official Bulletin was issued twice a month. In 2008, 24 issues of the Bulletin were published with the total amount of 1832.72 sheets and the circulation of 100 copies, and the Annual Index to the Bulletins for the previous, 2007 year, in 2 volumes with the total amount of 201.19 sheets and the circulation of 65 copies.
13112 patent specifications were published during the reporting period.
The Official Bulletin “Industrial Property” (“Promyslova Vlasnist”) and patent (utility model) specifications of Ukraine were issued both on paper and electronic carriers with the same frequency.
During the reporting year the Official Bulletin “Industrial Property” (“Promyslova Vlasnist”) on CD-ROM was sent to 108 organizations, and CD-ROM “Inventions in Ukraine” was sent to 71 organizations, including provision free of charge to 20 bodies of the National Scientific and Technical Information System and some other organizations of Ukraine and foreign IP offices in the framework of the international exchange of patent documentation.
The official web-portal of the State Department (http://www.sdip.gov.ua) and the web-site of the State Enterprise “Ukrainian Industrial Property Institute” (further – the Institute) (http://www.ukrpatent.org) contain a number of databases and information and reference systems (IRS) on inventions (utility models):
- interactive databases (DB): “Inventions (Utility Models) in Ukraine”, “Information about Invention Applications Accepted for Examination”, “Electronic Version of the Cumulative Official Bulletin “Industrial Property” (http://base.ukrpatent.org/searchBul/), “Promising Inventions of Ukraine”;
- interactive information and reference systems (IRS): “Invention and Utility Model Applications Proceeding State”, - IRS “Information about Patents of Ukraine for Inventions (Utility Models) Acknowledged Invalid and about Expired Patents”, “International Patent Classification. Core level (2006)”, “Ukrainian Version of the International Patent Classification 2008.04”.
During the reporting year works on enhancing of the DBs and IRSs were carried out in order to improve the performance of their search engines, in particular, the speed of response of the DBs and adequacy of search results to the query. Significant attention was paid to the improvement of the DB and IRS interfaces.
At the beginning of 2008 the second edition of the manual “Patent Documentation of Ukraine” was published, revised and updated according to the changes that had taken place in the regulatory and legal framework concerning industrial property during the two years since the publication of the manual’s first edition.
Within the framework of international cooperation with WIPO, according to the agreements signed between WIPO and the Institute, works were continued on translating into Ukrainian, editing and publishing WIPO booklets for children of the series “Learn from the Past, Create the Future”: the booklet “The Arts and Copyright” was translated and edited, the booklet “Inventions and Patents” was published with circulation of 2,000 copies. As provided for by the above-mentioned Agreement, 10 copies were sent to WIPO.

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

Information concerning inventions and utility models is published in Book 1 of the Official Bulletin “Industrial Property” (“Promyslova Vlasnist”) in the following sections: “Information about Applications for Inventions Accepted for Examination”, “Information about Granting of Patents of Ukraine for Inventions”, “Information about Granting Declarative Patents of Ukraine for Inventions”, “Information about Granting of Patents of Ukraine for Utility Models”, in the indexes to each section and in the “Notifications” section.
Information about inventions on electronic carriers contains bibliographic data, abstracts, invention claims, invention specifications, drawings, legal status information.

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

Mass storage media for information about inventions and utility models in the Institute are servers of electronic databases, Storage Area Network disc data storage systems, optical DVDs and magnetic tapes.

Word processing and office automation

The whole set of operations of the application proceeding is implemented by the means of the “Inventions” AS. At the filing stage applications are scanned, all the documents are converted into electronic format and placed into the “Inventions” AS database.

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

Preparation of the layout pages of publications is carried out automatically with the help of the “Inventions” AS software. The prepared layout of the publication is forwarded to the printing office for replication.

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 on-line publications of patent documents are accessible from the web pages of the web-portal of the State Department and the web-site of the Institute:

http://www.ukrpatent.org/en/bases.html
http://www.sdip.gov.ua/en/info_resurses.html

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

Abstracting, reviewing, translating

In 2008, software and hardware tools were prepared for scanning the back file collection of patent documents and placing it into the electronic archive.
In the course of 2008, 12,000 abstracts for the back file collection of patent documents were prepared, translated form Ukrainian into Russian and English and placed into the electronic archive.
During 2008, bibliographic data and abstracts of registered currently patents for inventions and utility models were, in monthly batches, translated from Ukrainian into Russian and English.
Altogether, during 2008, 700,000 documents were placed in the Institute’s central electronic archive, and as of the end of the year, the archive contained above 2 million electronic documents concerning inventions, utility models, trademarks and industrial designs.

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 International Patent Classification (IPC) is used for classifying patent documents of Ukraine. Since 2006, from the moment of implementation of the reformed, 8th edition of the IPC, the core level of the IPC-8 is used for classifying patent documents of Ukraine. Also, according to the “List of technical fields in which patent documents are to be classified according to the advanced level of the 8th edition of the International Patent Classification” (the List), the advanced level of the IPC has been partially used. Considering this state of affairs, according to the Order of the State Department of 3 October 2007 №122, a Ukrainian version of the IPC was established, consisting of the core level extract of the currently effective official text of the IPC for classification symbols not included in the List, and the extract of the currently effective IPC edition for classification symbols and indexing codes included in the List. According to the respective Orders of the State Department, during 2008, the core level of the IPC (2006) and the Ukrainian version of IPC 2008.01 and IPC 2008.04 were used.
Within the “Inventions” AS, a software system for checking classification symbols is operative. It includes classification guides and specialized software for checking the allotted classification symbols and reclassifying.
In 2008, the complete collection of applications for inventions and utility models was reclassified according to the current IPC version.

Hybrid system indexing

The Ukrainian version of the IPC used for classifying national patent documents includes hybrid systems; in particular, above 700 indexing codes of indexing schemes are used together with classification symbols.

Bibliographic data and full-text processing

For the convenience of search, bibliographic data, abstracts, claims and specifications are placed in separate fields of the database structure.

IV. Search file establishment and upkeep

File building

For search purposes in the course of examination of applications for IPRs the following resources were used by the Institute:
the national database of the “Inventions” in-house AS ;
the Institute’s central electronic document archive;
the foreign patent documentation on CD-ROM/DVD received in the course of international co-operation and exchange;
the database of EPOQUE Net Service of the European Patent Office (full access);
foreign patent databases accessed through the Internet (esp@cenet, USPTO, JPO, Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), GenomeQuest etc.)

Updating

Updating of the database of the “Inventions” AS and the central electronic document archive is implemented routinely by scanning incoming documents, converting them into electronic format and loading to the databases.

Storage, including mass storage media

The means of mass storage of data on inventions and utility models used at the Institute are the servers of the electronic databases, Storage Area Network disc data storage systems, optical DVDs and magnetic tapes.

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

The foreign patent documentation on optical media received by the Institute in the framework of international co-operation and exchange of patent documentation includes, in particular, the publications of WIPO, the EPO, the USPTO, the Russian Patent Office, the JPO and patent documentation of the former SU Patent Office.

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

In-house systems (online/offline)

In 2008, automation of the general record keeping for the State Registration Division and the Division of Examination of Applications for Inventions, Utility Models and Integrated Circuit Topographies was going on.
The in-house computerized search systems for inventions and utility models comprise those of the “Inventions” AS, the incoming applications register, the “Indicators” AS, the central electronic documents archive.
A technology of forming electronic registration dossiers for secondary documents submitted to the State Registration Division was developed and set in operation in the environment of the “Inventions” AS.

External databases

For information supply of the public at large, the following interactive DBs accessible via the Internet, and optical data carriers (CD-ROM) were used:

- Specialized DB “Inventions (Utility Models) in Ukraine”;
- Collective access DB “Information about Invention Applications Accepted for Examination”;
- DB “Electronic Version of the Cumulative Official Bulletin “Industrial Property” (“Promyslova Vlasnist”);
- DB “Promising Inventions of Ukraine”;
- IRS “Invention Applications Proceeding State”;
- IRS “Information about Patents of Ukraine for Inventions (Utility Models) Acknowledged Invalid and about Expired Patents”;
- IRS “International Patent Classification. Eighth Edition (2006). Core Level”;
- IRS “Ukrainian Version of the International Patent Classification 2008.04”
- CD-ROM “Official Bulletin “Industrial Property” (“Promyslova Vlasnist”);
- National CD-ROM “Inventions in Ukraine”.

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

Administrative support and maintenance of the State Register are realized by the registry database and the specialized workstation of the State Registry functioning in the environment of the “Inventions” AS. The legal status data are captured in the said database. The statistical indicators are collected by the special software.

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

The “Inventions” AS functions in the LAN environment under the operating system Windows 2003 Server. Up-to-date personal computers with operating system Windows XP Professional are used as workstations.
During 2008, 20% of the computer hardware stock was renovated. The examiners’ workstations were fully equipped with new liquid-crystal displays (TFT) with 19-22 inch diagonal screen.
The storage area network is built on the basis of Fiber Channel technology.

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

In order to accelerate searching, avoid errors when forming search requests and provide reference information, electronic dictionaries are integrated into the “Inventions” AS. They include: information about patent attorneys, patent classifications, tables of the valid IPC symbols, reference lists of the classification titles, classifiers of the incoming and outgoing documents (letters, requests, demands etc.), classifiers of the kinds of fees, normative, reference and ancillary information.

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)

Collecting, acquisitions, preparation

With the aim to satisfy public needs for patent information in Ukraine, The Public Patent Documentation Collection (PPDC) functions within the structure of the Institute’s branch “Ukrainian Centre of Innovatics and Patent Information Services” (further – the Branch). The PPDC is the most comprehensive patent library in Ukraine available for the public. PPDC is constantly supplied with national and foreign patent documentation. It contains patent documentation of 65 countries and 4 international and regional organizations (WIPO, EPO, EAPO and OAPI). Official bulletins on paper or electronic carriers, abstracts and specifications are acquired within the framework of international exchange with foreign patent offices and international cooperation with WIPO and the EPO. By the end of 2008, the PPDC numbered over 19,5 thousand copies of official bulletins and 284,2 thousand patent specifications on paper, and the collection of patent documentation on optical discs exceeded 14,1 thousand items. Information about the content of the PPDC and its updates is posted in the “Information Resources” section of the web-portal of the State Department (http://www.sdip.gov.ua) and the web-site of the Institute (http://www.ukrpatent.org).

Collection management, preservation

The management of the contents, coverage and structure of the document collection was carried out with the due consideration of the users’ needs.
During the previous years (including 2008) a large-scale replacement of the information collection hardware by up-to-date computer equipment suitable for operating with advanced software on CD-ROM and DVD used by patent offices of different countries was implemented. The information was transferred from discs and concentrated on the network management server, which significantly accelerated the searching speed.
Great attention was paid to the popularization of the collection: subject collections of patent documentation on topical issues of industrial property and a digest of annotations of publications on topical issues of intellectual property protection in our country and abroad were published. Publications of prominent specialists from various patent offices – books and magazine articles received to update the collection – were annotated.
With the aim to preserve the collection, modern technologies of protecting library funds from theft, damage etc. are used. Video surveillance, ventilation and air conditioning is continuously in operation, fire safety (fire alarm, fire notification, fire fighting) is ensured.

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)

Forming, management and organization of use of the PPDC is the task of the Information Search Division of the Branch. It makes patent and normative documentation available to all those interested in creation, legal protection and use of IPRs. On users’ requests, the Division carries out different kinds of patent information and documentation searches concerning inventions, utility models, industrial designs, marks for goods and services (bibliographic data, full specifications to patents, abstracts, images etc.). The Information Search Division provides services on qualified drawing up of search order, i.e. defining the subject of the search, information sources and classification entries of the International classifications of the IPRs. The Division’s staff, having a good command of several foreign languages, carries out searches on CD-ROM and in remote patent documentation databases on the Internet. Besides, the Division also provides the following services:
- consultations on the content of the PPDC, the efficient ways of carrying out information search, the reference and search tools exploitation;
- free use of the PPDC reading halls and information materials of free access. These, in the first place, include national patent documentation (official bulletins and specifications to patents of Ukraine), bulletins of foreign patent offices, patent information periodicals, normative, scientific and methodical literature, subject and alphabetical catalogues.

The list of services provided by the Institute to the general public is presented in the document on the Institute’s web-site at:http://www.ukrpatent.org/en/perelik.html.
The main sources of computerized services and search systems are:
- the Official Bulletin “Industrial Property” (“Promyslova Vlasnist’) on optical discs complete with a search system;
- Specialized DB “Inventions (Utility Models) in Ukraine”;
- Collective access DB “Information about Invention Applications Accepted for Examination”;
- DB “Electronic Version of the Cumulative Official Bulletin “Industrial Property” (“Promyslova Vlasnist”);
- IRS “Invention Applications Proceeding State”;
- IRS “Information about Patents of Ukraine for Inventions (Utility Models) Acknowledged Invalid and about Expired Patents”;
- IRS “International Patent Classification. Eighth Edition (2006). Core Level”;
- IRS “Ukrainian Version of the IPC 2008.04”.
The above-mentioned information resources can be found on the Internet at:

http://www.sdip.gov.ua/en/publicom_baza.html
http://www.ukrpatent.org/en/bases.html

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.ukrpatent.org/ua/inventions.html
http://www.ukrpatent.org/ua/acts.html

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

http://www.ukrpatent.org/en/publications.html
http://www.ukrpatent.org/en/perelik.html
http://www.ukrpatent.org/en/bases.html
http://www.ip-centr.kiev.ua

VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of patent documentation and information

Medium used for exchange of priority documents

In the framework of the international exchange of patent documentation the Institute, appointed by the law as the centre of international exchange of publications, sent in 2008 the national patent documentation, in particular the Official Bulletin “Industrial Property” (“Promyslova Vlasnist”) on CD-ROM to 45 foreign patent offices, and the national CD-ROM “Inventions in Ukraine” – to 20 foreign patent offices. In its turn, Ukraine received patent documentation from 52 foreign countries and 2 regional intellectual property organizations.
Besides, in the reporting year the Institute was sending to the EPO the data of the patents of Ukraine (bibliographic data, abstracts in English), including those provided under the Agreement on full access to the EPOQUE Net service, which ensured a solid foundation for successful bilateral cooperation with this leading office.

Medium allowed for filing applications

Applications for inventions are filed on paper carriers.

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)

Assistance furnished by offices to facilitate the changing over of receiving offices to electronic data carriers for the exchange of patent documents (see also fourth sub-item of item VI, above)

In the reporting year the educational institutions in Ukraine continued training, upgrading and improvement of qualification of specialists in the sphere of intellectual property. Specialist training of educational and qualification degrees of specialist and master on the speciality “Intellectual Property” was carried out by 16 of the country’s educational institutions. As of 01.10.2008 its total license scope amounted to 1480 persons, including training (upgrading) of 910 persons for the specialist’s degree and 570 persons – for the master’s degree.
Altogether, in 2008 in Ukraine, 446 persons finished the respective training course, among them 192 persons acquired master’s degree and 254 persons – specialist’s degree. Particularly, in the State Institute of Intellectual Property (further - SIIP), 153 intellectual property specialists – 48 masters and 104 specialists - were trained. Besides, in 2008 SIIP began training masters in specialities “Consolidated Information” and “Innovative Activity Management”.
In 2008, SIIP, with the assistance of the State Department, finalized the development of distance learning modules on different aspects of intellectual property, using the experience of the Academy of the World Intellectual Property Organization. During the reporting year 14 students of higher education institutes upgraded their qualification in the sphere of intellectual property through this form of training.
Besides, in 2008, around 700 persons – state employees, scientific and pedagogical staff, specialists from industry and various organizations – upgraded their qualification through different forms of training (conferences, seminars, refresher courses) organized by SIIP.
During 2008, with the aim of scientific and methodological support of the training process, SIIP’s Printing Centre published 20 titles of scientific and methodological materials (lectures summaries, manuals, textbooks etc.) with the total run of approximately 3250 copies.
An efficient means of exchanging experience and timely information on the matters of intellectual property protection is organization of conferences, seminars, “round tables”, meetings etc.

In 2008 the State Department organized and held 6 conferences, among them 3 international, and 26 seminars, including 2 regional ones, on the current problems related to the acquisition, exploitation and enforcement of IP rights, including:
- XIII International Scientific and Practical Conference “Actual Problems of Intellectual Property”, organized by the State Department in cooperation with WIPO, the EPO, the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the Employers’ Federation of Ukraine. The programme of the Conference covered such significant matters as formation of the intellectual property market in Ukraine, development of the regulatory and legislative framework and improvement of the examination body operations, enforcement of intellectual property rights and their rightful disposal. 230 participants were registered for the conference, including, in particular, intellectual property specialists and managers from a large number of foreign intellectual property offices and international organizations – WIPO, the EPO, the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM).
- regional scientific and technical conference “Information Integration: Research, Development, Intellectual Property”;
- seminars: “Peculiarities of Examination of Applications for Industrial Property Rights in Ukraine”, “Implementation of Electronic Filing of the Materials of Applications for Inventions Using Electronic Signature in Ukraine”, “Ukrpatent’s Databases and Information and Reference Systems. Information Searching and Viewing Means”. In 2008, in order to upgrade the qualification level of the Institute’s examiners, two training seminars were organized conducted by the specialists of the Federal Institute of Industrial Property (Russian Federation) and the EPO, namely: “The Practice of the Federal Institute of Industrial Property (Russian Federation) in Examination of Applications for Inventions in the Field of Computer Technologies”, “STN Databases in the Fields of Pharmaceuticals, Chemistry and Metallurgy” respectively.
In 2008, the IV International Show of Inventions and New Technologies “New Time” (“Noviy Chas”) took place, where the State Department acted as a co-organizer. 27 schoolchildren and students of youth organizations from Ukraine and other countries were awarded by medals and prizes of the Show. Participation in the work of the jury of the Show enabled the State Department to study the inventions and latest technologies of 24 participant countries, select the best among them and inform the participants about the activities of the state system of intellectual property legal protection in Ukraine.
Furthermore, the Ukrainian delegation took part in the Moscow International Industrial Property Show “Archimedes”, where expositions of the Institute, its branch “Ukrainian Centre for Innovatics and Patent Information Services”, as well as patented developments of Ukrainian inventors were presented.
The Ukrainian Centre of Innovatics and Patent Information Services took part in the specialized exhibition “Bank-Development-2008” within the framework of the international forum “Financial Ukraine” and in the I Specialized Exhibition “Nanotechnologies-2008” within the framework of the International forum “High Technologies”.
The Internet-site of the Ukrainian Centre for Innovatics and Patent Information Services (www.ip-centr.kiev.ua) provides access to the Internet-based Industrial Property Exchange (information about patented inventions available for licensing or sale, requests for development of new products and technologies) as well as information about legislative acts in the sphere of intellectual property, consultations, the list of services, announcements of events concerning intellectual property, information about All-Ukrainian contests of inventive activities. A separate Internet-resource for creative youth, “Factory of Ideas”, was launched.
It is worth noticing that in 2008 the State Department carried out significant work on encouraging creativity. Detailed information about it can be found in the relevant section of the Annual Report – 2008 of the State Department at: http://www.sdip.gov.ua/t/docs/zvit_en8.pdf

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

http://www.sdip.gov.ua/en/normative_acts.html
http://www.ukrpatent.org/en/legistation.html

contain the Annual Report of the Office

http://www.sdip.gov.ua/t/docs/zvit_en8.pdf

contain patent-related news regarding the Office

http://www.sdip.gov.ua
http://www.ukrpatent.org
http://www.ip-centr.kiev.ua

X. Other relevant matters