Annual Technical Report 2007 on Industrial Design Information Activities submitted by The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (SCIT/ATR/ID/2007/MK)

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The expression "industrial designs" covers industrial designs and models. Offices which issue design patents should report their design patent information activities in this series of Annual Technical Reports.

I. Evolution of registration activities

In the course of 2007, 1031 applications for industrial designs were filed with the State Office of Industrial Property of the Republic of Macedonia. The total number of the filed applications for industrial designs in 2007, compared with the previous year was increased by 27.6%. In the total number of filed applications for industrial design with the Office, the number of national ones in 2007 compared to the previous year, marks an increase of 21.9%, and the foreign ones an increase of 333.3%. In the total number of filed applications, 52 were filed with the Office, and 979 through the Hague Agreement for international registration of industrial design, 359 of which were new, and 620 were industrial designs for which the validity was extended for the territory of the Republic of Macedonia.
Typically for the designs, with one application for granting industrial design right, protection for several designs of products can be requested (multiple application), with all the designs on the application necessary classified in the same class of the International Classification (Locarno Classification). Given this, of the 52 applications filed with the Office, most are multiple, with a total of 167 industrial designs.
In 2007, the Office reached 37 decisions for granting industrial design right, 34 of which were national and 3 were foreign. Of that, 979 were international registrations, filed under the Hague Agreement, 359 (of the total 1.948 industrial designs) were newly registered industrial designs on the territory of Republic of Macedonia, and 620 were extensions of the industrial designs validity. A total number of granted industrial designs in that year were up for 24.7%, resulting from the increased number of internationally registered industrial designs.
Granted industrial designs by origin in 2007, Switzerland has the biggest share in the total number of industrial designs valid on the territory of the Republic of Macedonia, with 202 registered industrial designs or 51.0%. Next are: Germany with 72 or 18.2%, Macedonia with 37 or 9.4%, Italy with 16 or 4.0%, Netherlands with 15 or 3.8%, Turkey with 13 or 3.3%, Belgium and France, each with 10 registered industrial designs or 2.5% , and the rest of the countries (Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Estonia, Croatia and Hungary) participate with 5.3%.
According to the International Classification (Locarno Classification) in the State Office of Industrial Property of the Republic of Macedonia in 2007, industrial designs of the class 9 and the class 6, account for the biggest share of 56.8% and 18.9%. The industrial designs of class 9 refer to the packing and goods transportation containers, due to the increased development of the packing production, thus an increased market competition. Industrial designs of class 6 refer to the furniture production and specifically production of benches, due to the rise in the arrangements of the central city area, the parks and the surrounding. Other classes account for 24.3% of the total number of granted industrial designs (class 8 covers tools and small metal goods, class 12 refers to the means for transportation and lifting load; class 20 refers to the sales and marketing equipment; class 25 refers to the buildings and building materials) etc.
For the foreign filed under the Hague Agreement, the highest position be-longs to the industrial designs of class 10 (41.8%) which refers to the clocks and watches and other measuring instruments, checking and signaling instruments, followed by class 11 (7.8%) articles of adornment; class 12 (7.0%) related to the means of transport or hoisting; class 9 (5.3%) related to packaging and transport containers class 23 (3.4%) related to fluid distribution equipment, sanitary, heating, ventilation and air-conditioning equipment, solid fuels; class 21 (2.8%) refers to games, toys and sporting articles; class 14 (2.2%) refers to apparatus for registration, telecommunication or data processing. Other classes account for 29.7% of the total number of granted industrial designs.
In the course of 2007, 11 industrial designs applications were rejected, 6 decisions on filed opposition were issued, 14 decisions for changes, 7 decisions for extension of validity and 4 applications were refused.

II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, and distribution of industrial design documents and of secondary sources of industrial design information, i.e., official gazettes

State Office of Industrial Property of the Republic of Macedonia issues the official gazette “Glasnik” in paper form. In 2007 this system was replaced by publication in CD-ROM format and on the Office Internet site. There are advantages of the new system, it is cheaper, and there are no additional costs for publication of the color industrial designs. The Gazette is issued four times yearly, every three months. This official gazette contains data concerning:
-Industrial design applications
-Industrial design registration
-Industrial designs renewals
-Cancellations of national industrial designs
-Change of data concerning industrial design owners
-Official decisions,
and information regarding other activities of the Office, in the country and abroad. There are very often commentaries of actual activities in protection of the industrial property rights. The Office issues Annual Report for its activities from the previous year. In this Report there is basic data for industrial designs.

III. Matters concerning classifying, reclassifying and indexing of industrial design information according to the classification systems applied

In The State Office of Industrial Property, industrial designs are classified according to the International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification, last edition).
WIPO Standard ST.80 is used for bibliographic data coding.

IV. Search file establishment and upkeep

Industrial design files are kept in paper form in the library, and they are updated continuously.

V. Activities in the field of computerized search systems for industrial designs

This was the third consecutive year since the implementation of the IPAS software in the Office of both Trademarks and Patents, started and for Industrial Designs, but for Industrial Designs the IPAS software is not complete yet.
-Administrative management system:
IPAS Software

VI. Administration of industrial design information products and services available to the public (relating to facilities, e.g., for lodging applications, registering designs, assisting clients with search procedures, obtaining official publications and registry extracts)

The Office library has industrial designs data from the bulletins for international registration of industrial design through Hague Agreement concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs, which are supplied by WIPO, "WIPO International Designs Bulletin" on CD-ROM, as well as industrial design data supplied by exchange of official gazettes with Slovenia, Poland, Serbia, Croatia, Moldavia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Estonia, Germany, etc., which are available to all interested persons.
The Office provide computerized searches in the industrial designs database. Additional information (as application procedures and such) is available at the Office Web-site:
http://www.ippo.gov.mk.

VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of industrial design documentation and information

The Office sends and receives gazettes in CD-ROM form. The official gazettes, as well as the Annual Report are distributed to the next countries: AR, AZ, AU, RS, HR, SI, BG, CZ, PL, DE, SE, TR, AT, AL, BA, BY, BR, BX, BE, CA, CY, RO, IT, IL, LV, LU, LT, KR, FR, HU, CH, UA, GB, GR, GE, US, JP, PT, KP, RU, SK, SM, EG, EE, ES, MD and FI. The Office is receiving gazettes and annual reports from the next countries: AT, BG, ES, EE, BA, BY, DE, MD, LT, PL, HU, UA, FI, CZ, RO, RU, SK, JP, RS, HR and SI.

VIII. Matters concerning education and training, including technical assistance to developing countries (please indicate URLs of web pages of the Office’s website wherever appropriate)

During 2007, the educational and training activities of the employees of the Industrial designs Department were as follows:
- WIPO Seminar – Hague System of International Registration of industrial designs.

IX.Other general information related to the Office that is available on the Internet -- URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that:

X. Other relevant matters

In accordance with the decision of the Government of the Republic of Macedonia for introducing regulatory guillotine of rules, a reassessment of the justification of the legal and supplementary provisions in the industrial property sector was carried out, as a whole and separately by decisions of the provisions. Within the framework of the regulatory guillotine the tariff rates of the Office’s Tariff were cut down by 50%.