Annual Technical Report on Patent Information Activities in 2022 submitted by Estonia
Please provide links to your website where the requested information can be found in English, French, or Spanish. Alternately, you may provide text responses instead of URLs if desired. If the information is not available on your website in an ATR language, then please provide text.
URLs in responses should meet the following requirements:
- Link to pages with information in English, Spanish, or French
- The URL will remain stable over time (at least three years, preferably more)
- Goes to the specific information requested, not to a general homepage
- If the URL goes to a long PDF document such as an annual report, please indicate which sections or pages contain relevant information.
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I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN PATENT INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Information on the following topics is desired:
- Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of patent information activities and expected time frames for their realization
In 2022, 15 patent applications, 43 utility model applications and 46 applications for supplementary protection of medicinal products and plant protection products were filed. Estonian applicants filed 10 patent applications and 35 utility model applications. Estonian applicants filed 1 international patent application for forwarding to WIPO. The Estonian Patent Office made 77 examination decisions (including 54 for supplementary protection of medicinal products and plant protection products) on patent applications and granted 9 patents. 49 examination decisions on utility model registration applications were made and 36 utility models were registered. The office made 54 decisions on applications for supplementary protection of medicinal products and plant protection products, and 37 supplementary protection certificates were granted. By 31 December 2022, the number of pending applications was 44 patent and 54 utility model registration applications and 111 applications for supplementary protection of medicinal products and plant protection products.
General info: https://www.epa.ee/en/patents-utility-models/patent/what-patent
- New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies and plans mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks
Employees of the patent department started to participate in the work of the EPO’s IT cooperation groups in 2020. In 2022, Raul Kartus participated in the EPO “Quality Management and Process Mapping” (QM&PM) working group and Tiina Lillepool in the “Cooperative Patent Classifier” (CPC) working group.
Employees of the patent department started participating in the work of the EPO’s working groups on the unification of procedural practice in 2020. In 2022, Aare Abrams participated in the work of the EPO working group WG-6 “Expertise practice with computer-related inventions (CII) and artificial intelligence (AI)”.
- Main areas of patent information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year
The Estonian Patent Office joined the international pilot program of Global Patent Prosecution Highway – GPPH. Under GPPH a patent examination system is applied where – upon the request of the applicant – a participating patent office uses the results of other participating offices that have examined the same patent application, resulting in faster examination of the application. By the end of 2022, the search results of Estonian examiners have been used 21 times (US – 16, AU – 2, DE – 2 and RU – 1) and the Estonian Patent Office has used the results of USPTO twice. The statistics are published on the web page of the Japan Patent Office.
On 1 January 2017 the Estonian Patent Office joined the WIPO Digital Access Service (WIPO DAS), an electronic system for accessing priority documents. The DAS system allows applicants to:
- add the first application document (priority document) to WIPO digital database via Estonian Patent Office as depositing Office;
- in case a priority exists, when filing an application, to present only an access code to the accessing Office to retrieve a document from WIPO digital database, not the document itself certifying the priority claim.
Service is applicable for national patent applications and utility model registration applications. Access to priority documents is only available to patent offices participating in WIPO DAS system. In 2022, 14 priority documents have been added to the WIPO DAS database upon the applicant’s request (7 patent applications and 7 applications for registration of a utility model).
- Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and grants with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes
https://www.epa.ee/en/office-news-contact/patent-office/statistics#2022
https://www.epa.ee/en/news/industrial-property-registration-statistics-2022 (trends 2021-2022: https://www.epa.ee/uudised/toostusomandi-registreerimise-statistika-2022-kohta)
- Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
Annual report: https://aastaraamat.epa.ee/en/annual-report-2022/inventions
II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Information on the following topics is desired:
- Information and support provided by the Office to applicants regarding filing on paper and/or e-filing (instructions, seminars, etc.) - URLs
https://www.epa.ee/en/patents-utility-models/patent/preparation-application
https://www.epa.ee/en/patents-utility-models/utility-model/preparation-application - Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
online.epa.ee - Electronic filing of a patent application, utility model registration application and an application for the enforcement of a European patent. - 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
https://www.epa.ee/en/patents-utility-models/search-databases/inventions-databases
- Other activities
III. SOURCES OF PATENT INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE
Information on the following topics is desired:
- 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)
https://www.epa.ee/en/patents-utility-models/registered-patents/estonian-patent-gazette
- Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URL), etc.
https://www.epa.ee/en/patents-utility-models/registered-patents/estonian-patent-gazette
- Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external collections and databases
https://www.epa.ee/en/patents-utility-models/search-databases/inventions-databases
https://www.epa.ee/en/patents-utility-models/search-databases/inventions-databases#others
- Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to external users, conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)
https://www.epa.ee/en/patents-utility-models/search-databases/inventions-databases
- 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
Information on the following topics is desired:
- Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements
Estonian Patent Office's IT has been consolidated to the Estonian IT Centre, which is responsible for all hardware, software, and servers.
- 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
Information on the following topics is desired:
- Patent library: equipment, collection management, network of patent libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign patent libraries
In Estonia, there is no institution such as a patent library, all patent-related activities have been centralized into the office
- Publications related to different business procedures and patent information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.
https://www.epa.ee/en/patents-utility-models/additional-info/instructions-and-brochures
- 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.
https://www.epa.ee/en/additional-info/free-consultations
https://melon.rik.ee/en/types-intellectual-property
https://www.epa.ee/sundmused - Other activities
VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF PATENT INFORMATION
Information on the following topics is desired:
- International exchange and sharing of patent information in machine-readable form, e.g., priority documents, bibliographic data, abstracts, search reports, full text information
https://avaandmed.eesti.ee/datasets/patendiameti-avalikud-andmed
EspacenetFederated European Patent Register
PATENTSCOPE
WIPO DAS
WIPO Authority files (https://www.wipo.int/standards/en/authority_file.html)
- Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to patent information
- Assistance to developing countries
- Other activities
VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS
Please include any other relevant information here.
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.