Annual Technical Report on Patent Information Activities in 2016 submitted by the State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania
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 Patent Office of the Republic of Lithuania aims at development of patent information activities within cooperation with European Patent Office , World Intellectual Property Organisation . Within the above mentioned cooperation the Office implements new services as well as adapts and improves the existing services and tools provided by national intellectual property offices.
Main policies and plans of the State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania include supporting and highlighting the value of intellectual property created by universities and SME's. Those activities are implemented by improving academia's and SME's skills in patent information usage, especially in creating strategies of intellectual property while creating cooperation platform between scientific and business environment as well as platform for exchanging experience and knowledge.
New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies and plans mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks
In 2016 lectures on patenting and inventions were organized by the State Patent Bureau of Lithuania with Lithuanian centre of non-formal youth education. Senior class pupils of the centre attending biophysics, astronomy and ship modeling clubs with the expert of the State Patent Bureau Inventions department, discussed the patent application process, explained the differences of concepts "inventor" and "owner of invention” and actively discussed how to improve the previously patented invention in order improvements can be patented.
in 2016 the SPB assisted universities of Lithuania participating at Baltic State Pilot Project which aim is to asses current situation of universities regarding knowledge transfer and to identify their needs and potentials for promotion of IP.
On June, 2016, a three-day training for intellectual property experts of Baltic states universities "IP Marketing and Commercialization" organized by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in collaboration with the State Patent Bureau was opened in Vilnius.
Main areas of patent information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year
Improvements made to the Espacenet database allow performing searches in the national information collection using keywords from the invention name and description. It will be possible to perform search in all patent documents in the Lithuanian language.The key new functionality is the opportunity to search information directly in the servers of the European Patent Office (EPO), ensuring relevance of the information, accuracy and completeness of the search.
The new Espacenet database presents scanned documents of all patents valid in Lithuania forwarded to the EPO as part of the QualityatSource project.
Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and grants with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes
In 2016 he State Patent Bureau (SPB) received 5,6 thousand requests for registering industrial property objects. This number of patent applications, designs and trademarks filings remains unchanged compared to 2014. However, in 2015, there was a consistent increase of European patents taking effect in Lithuania (11%).
In 2016 the SPB granted 10% more national patents than in 2014. Almost half of them were targeted at meeting human needs. This is almost twice as many national patents oriented towards the same field as in 2014. A significant number of patents granted in 2015 involved processes in the fields of chemistry, metallurgy, mechanics, physics and various other technological processes.
In 2015, the number of European patents taking effect in Lithuania reached the highest point in the past five years. Of 1390 European patents, the majority are applied in the fields of chemistry and metallurgy or are targeted at meeting human needs. Almost half of the owners of the European patents taking effect in Lithuania are from the USA and Germany. The number of patents issued to Lithuanian owners in 2015 made up 6.4% of all the patents that had taken effect in Lithuania (7.17% in 2014.
Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
Statistics are accessed at the following URLs:
http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=en&n=321
Annual reports:
http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=en&n=318
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
The SPB information and support options in 2016 included:
1) Via website: http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?n=592&l=lt ;
2) via telephone: (+370 5 2780290);
3) via e-mail: info@vpb.gov.lt
Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
Classification1, preclassification2 (if applicable), reclassification3 activities; classification systems used (e.g., International Patent Classification (IPC)); matters concerning indexing of patent information
Abstracting, reviewing, and translation of the information contained in patent documents
Other activities
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)
Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URL), etc.
Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external collections and databases
Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to external users, conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)
Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)
Other sources
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
Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office
Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file
Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)
Other matters
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
Publications related to different business procedures and patent information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.
Office's initiatives on providing foreign patent information in the local language(s) (e.g., machine translation tools, translation of abstracts)
Cooperation with universities, research centers, technology and innovation support centers, etc.
Education and training: training courses, e-learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.
Other activities
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
Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to patent information
Assistance to developing countries
Other activities
VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS
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.