Annual Technical Report 2008 on Trademark Information Activities submitted by Russian Federation (SCIT/ATR/TM/2008/RU)
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.
I. Evolution of registration activities
Changes experienced in terms of application filings and registrations with respect to the previous year
As of January 1, 2008 Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation entered into force. It contains the provisions regulating legal relations in the sphere of intellectual property protection. As a result of the entry into force of that document a series of implementing legislation – administrative regulations was produced in order to regulate the activities of Rospatent in performing the State functions entrusted to it. A number of administrative regulations were approved and came into force. The approval of the remaining package of documents is anticipated in 2009.
Trends or areas experiencing rapid changes with respect to the previous year
Table I below shows that the overall number of trademark registration applications filed in the Russian Federation in 2008 remained virtually at the level of 2007. The total reduction is 0.26 per cent, owing to a fall of 4.69 per cent in the number of applications received from Russian applicants. In comparison with 2007, the number of applications filed by foreign applicants was 5.16 per cent higher.
As regards trademark registration, the positive trend in this area was preserved (growth of 19.18 per cent in comparison with last year).
The examination of a large volume of applications and the work done on trademark registration became possible as a result of a series of measures being conducted, aimed at reducing labor intensity by means of automation, the improvement of technological procedures and organization processes for examinations and the registration of rights.
URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide statistics related to trademarks
Statistical information on trademarks is provided at the following Rospatent site web page addresses:
- Statistics section: http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/regions/okrug2007.rtf and http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/regions/otrasl2006.rtf; (information on use of intellectual property subject matter for federal regions of the Russian Federation), http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/regions/otras12007.rtf (information on use of intellectual property subject matter for forms of economic activity);
- Provision of legal protection for intellectual property subject matter section of the Rospatent Annual Report. http://www.fips.ru/rep2007/R1.htm#1.
II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, and distribution of secondary sources of trademark information, i.e., trademark gazettes
Publishing, printing, copying techniques
During the reporting period the following were published in the Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette on electronic CD-ROM carrier with search system:
- 27,640 announcements of trademark registration;
- seven announcements of registration of appellations of origin;
- 17 announcements of the issue of a certificate for the right to use an appellation of origin.
Documents providing protection were prepared and sent to rights owners in relation to all forms of industrial and intellectual property subject matter.
All the information on trademarks, service marks, appellations of origin and certificates for the right to use an appellation of origin was published in the Rospatent Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette on electronic CD-ROM carrier with search system.
Main types of announcements of the Office in the field of trademark information
Rospatent trademark publications are cited in Table 2 attached.
In 2008, annual indexes were issued for the following gazettes from 2007:
• the Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette on paper - three parts.
The Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette on electronic CD-ROM carrier with search system and the corresponding paper gazette are distributed by subscription. The last two Gazettes are available on the Rospatent site.
Mass storage media and microforms used
Data are stored on paper, diskettes and optical disks, as well as in the form of databases or files. Below are given a list and short description of the means of storing data files:
- the Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette on CD-ROM, with 24 issues per year. Alongside the Official Gazette on CD-ROM, a paper edition of the Gazette is published;
- sets of information on trademarks for 2005 to 2007, each on one DVD;
- a retrospective file of trademark information for 1991 to 2004, on one DVD;
- the ICGS (ninth edition) on CD-ROM and paper;
- the annual index to the Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Gazette was issued on paper.
All the products on optical disks were distributed together with the ISS MIMOSA software, providing a search of bibliographical data, ICGS indexes, verbal elements of a mark and also combinations thereof.
In 2008, the Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette was published on the Rospatent Internet site and registers of Russian trademarks, service marks and appellations of origin, trademarks well known in Russia, applications for Russian trademarks and service marks, and international trademarks with the indication Russia, including details of their legal status, continued to be kept.
In 2008, as part of practical operations on the Office site information began to be inputted daily on current registrations of trademarks, service marks, appellations of origin, well known trademarks, and also notifications of changes made to the State Register of Trademarks prior to their publication in the Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette.
Information on the FGU FIPS database concerning trademarks, appellations of origin and well-known trademarks, as well as the number of documents contained therein, a retrospective collection and the frequency of updating is given in Table 3. The search system and open registers databases coincide fully (see Tables 3 and 4).
Word processing and office automation
Paperless technology for preparing and transferring data for daily publication of information on registered trademarks on the Internet has been devised and introduced by the Office.
Techniques used for the generation of trademark information (printing, recording, photocomposing, etc.)
To generate information on trademarks the following technology is used:
- PK HP P4-2.8 16 units
- PK FS P4-2.6 4 units
- Fujitsu fi-4220-с scanner 1 unit
- Scamax 2600М scanner 2 units
- HP C7716A scanner 1 unit
- HP LaserJet 4050tn printer 1 unit
- HP LaserJet 4100n printer 1 unit
- HP LaserJet 2300n printer 1 unit
- SCANPORT handheld scanner 2 units
- Metrologic handheld scanner 1 unit
CD-ROM disks with the Official Gazette are printed by a firm specializing in the production of such products.
Paper editions are produced using an FGU FIPS polygraphic base:
- by polygraphic means on Romajor-314, GTO 52-2 and QM-46-1-1 (for the preparation of printed forms an Inter Plater 66 P developing machine - one unit, a Bacher Platemaker 3071 copying frame – one unit, a photo composition device for proofreading and editing originals – two units and one ITEK-617S processor for producing argentiferous offset printed forms) are used;
- by electrographic means on a Docutech 6100 operational printing system.
All printing materials are transferred electronically in PDF format.
URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide access to online trademark gazettes and to other sources of trademark information, including download of bulk trademark data
Web page addresses on the Office site provide access to:
• online gazettes – Trademarks and Appellations of Origin subsection in the Electronic Gazettes section http://www.fips.ru/el_bl/default.htm;
• other trademark information sources, including the downloading of the main trademark data file – in the Information Search System section of the Databases http://www.fips.ru/russite/dbs/dbs.htm; Classificators http://www.fips.ru/russite/classificators/classificators.htm#tz; Register of Russian Trademarks and Service Marks http://www.fips.ru/cdfi/reestr_rutm.htm; Register of Russian Appellations of Origin http://www.fips.ru/cdfi/reestr_rugp.htm; List of Trademarks Well Known in Russia http://www.fips.ru/cdfi/reestr_wktm.htm; Register of International Trademarks with the Indication Russia http://www.fips.ru/cdfi/reestr_rom.htm; Register of Russian Trademark and Service Mark Applications http://www.fips.ru/cdfi/reestr_rutmap.htm; and the Daily Publication of Information on Registered Trademarks and Appellations of Origin http://www.fips.ru/el_bl/days_tm.htm subsections.
III. Matters concerning classifying, reclassifying and indexing of trademark information
Classification and reclassification activities; Classification systems used, e.g., International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (Nice Classification), International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks (Vienna Classification), other classification (please indicate whether goods and services for the registration of marks and whether the figurative elements of marks are classified by your Office and, if so, which classification(s) is (are) used)
The ICGS for the registration of trademarks, version 9, is used in the Russian Federation as the basic classification system in official trademark documents and publications.
In 2008, work continued on the further enhancement of the ninth edition of the ICGS as part of the activities undertaken by the International Bureau of WIPO.
The figurative elements of trademarks are classified by the Office in accordance with the Vienna Agreement Establishing an International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks.
The recommended WIPO Standard ST60 is used to index blibliographical data.
Use of electronic classification systems to check the classification symbols furnished by an applicant and which are contained in the lists of goods and/or services
The accuracy of the classification of goods and services indicated in a trademark registration application is verified according to the electronic version of the Ninth Edition of the ICGS.
The electronic version of the LEXINTU classificator (an extension of the ICGS) is also used, which includes ICGS goods/services, grouped together in terms of similarity and uniformity, together with a large number of terms not contained in the ICGS but indicated in application and registration materials.
Obligation for applicants to use pre-defined terms of the classification applied
For the unambiguous evaluation of the scope of rights of registered trademarks in descriptions of goods/services, applicants are recommended to avoid using undefined or general expressions and to follow the terminology of the current edition of the ICGS or the LEXINTU classificator.
For the correct classification of each specific good or service, applicants are recommended to use directly lists of goods and services, and the corresponding explanations for each class, since class headings indicate in general terms only the fields to which goods and services may in principle relate and do not contain the names of specific goods or services.
Applicants are not, however, obliged to use only the terms indicated in the ICGS or LEXINTU.
Bibliographic data and processing
The dual entry of bibliographical data with the possibility of comparison with previously introduced data at the third input is carried out within the TM-ADMIN electronic document-exchange system.
Bibliographical data are processed for search purposes with the aid of a number of automated search systems (ASS) as part of the Russian Federation Trademarks Automated System.
The composition of the data published on registered trademarks and changes to registration is defined by the Regulations on Official Publications of the Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks.
IV. Trademark manual search file establishment and upkeep
When conducting an examination of a claimed designation, a search is performed relating to the identity and similarity with the use of automated search systems, therefore the collection is not kept or maintained on paper in the current form.
V. Activities in the field of computerized trademark search systems
In-house systems (online/offline)
For the purposes of searching verbal and figurative elements of trademarks, a search subsystem of the Russian Federation Trademarks Automated System is used. A search is conducted in three stages (offline): preparation of the search model of a trademark and search specification; launch of search specifications on the server; and review of search results by an examiner.
Rospatent uses a database of published trademarks on optical CD-ROMs entitled Trademarks of Russia, in which an enhanced version of the MIMOSA 5.0 software is used.
In 2007, work was completed to devise the new software for work by the LEXINTU classificator with the expanded trilingual version of ICGS-9, integrated with an automated search system for trademarks, TM-EXAM-SEARCH (TMES), which is part of the TM-ADMIN electronic trademark document exchange system.
In 2008, work to devise the software continued, allowing lists of goods and services to be processed in two ways: as a package and individually. The result of the work must be the creation of a link between the goods and services in the trademark applications/registrations with expanded ICGS terms, thereby allowing search results to be obtained in the future with pinpoint accuracy.
In 2008, the Rospatent Internet site provided access to:
• a register of trademark applications filed in 2005-2008, updated with information on prosecution of the applications filed in 2008 (contains information on more than 157,000 applications; updated daily);
• the Rospatent Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette.
Rospatent’s Internet resources include the following databases:
• a database of Russian trademarks from 1925 to 2008 inclusive;
• a database of international trademarks with the indication Russia from 1980 to 2008;
• an Appellations of Origin database;
• a Trademarks Well Known in Russia database;
• an ICGS database.
External databases
In 2008, internal and external users performed more than 3,783,000 inquiries through the information search system devised on the Rospatent site, and nine per cent of the total number of inquiries were inquiries to the trademarks and appellations of origin databases.
In 2008, internal and external users of registers on the Rospatent site made more than 8,971,000 inquiries, and 50 per cent of the total number of inquiries were inquiries to trademarks and appellations of origin registers.
Site users have been provided with free access to Rospatent gazettes published from 2005 to 2008. In 2008, more than 237,000 user inquires to Rospatent gazettes were registered.
Examiners use external databases freely available on the Internet:
WIPO: the Madrid Express database (http://www.wipo.int/ipdl/en/search/madrid/search-struct/jsp) and the Romarin database (http://www.wipo.int/romarin/); and
the World Health Organization (WHO) – the International Nonproprietary Names (INN) database.
Administrative management systems (e.g., register, legal status, statistics and administrative support)
The Office uses the following prosecution systems in the field of trademark information:
• the Russian Federation Trademarks Automated System for prosecuting applications for trademarks and appellations of origin;
• the unified Agreements Automated System for prosecuting agreements on industrial property subject matter, relating to the powers of the Office, including in relation to trademarks.
• the Amendments to Trademark Registrations Automated System for prosecuting applications received after trademark registration (for example extension, change of owner, termination of validity);
• the Prosecution of International Registrations Automated System;
• Madrid-2007 Automated System – prosecution of international trademark registrations.
• an electronic exchange of data with WIPO takes place for international trademark registrations using MECA technology. Preliminary and final refusal decisions are sent to WIPO electronically;
• in 2008, the system containing the electronic State Register of Trademarks and Service Marks of the Russian Federation, State Register of Appellations of Origin and List of Trademarks Well Known in the Russian Federation (Electronic State Register Automated System) was devised and prepared for being brought into operation;
• in 2008, the industrial operation of the TM-ADMIN electronic trademark document exchange system, as part of the program of preparation for the full transfer to paperless technology for the processing of trademark and appellation of origin documents, continued. A number of processes for the production of paper and electronic documents were carried out in parallel.
As part of the conception of a smooth transition to using electronic document exchange when examining trademark applications, it was necessary to devise special software to synchronize data and processes for examining applications simultaneously in the old and new systems of prosecution.
A modernized version of the system for the electronic filing of trademark and service mark applications was devised, allowing issues relating to the compilation of application documents and attributes, electronic-digital signatures, the dispatch by an applicant or his representative of application materials and incoming correspondence, registration of an application and incoming correspondence, the dispatch of outgoing correspondence by examiners, access for applicants by means of the Internet to their application materials.
Equipment used (hardware, including the types of terminal and network used, and software), carriers used
Equipment used:
PrimePower 1500 server
(OM - 32GB, processors – 8, external memory – 10TB)
HP DL380 server – 20 units
(ОM – 4GB, processors - 2, external memory – 200GB)
HP DL580 server – two units
(ОM – 8GB, processors - 4, external memory - 300GB)
HP P4 and Fujitsu-Siemens workstations - 650 units.
Software:
SINIX, Windows 2000, Windows XP and
Windows 2003 operating systems.
Media used:
SDLT and Ultrium magnetic tapes.
VI. Administration of trademark information products and services available to the public (relating to facilities, e.g., for lodging applications, registering trademarks, assisting clients with search procedures, obtaining official publications and registry extracts)
Planning, administration, automation, security
The Central Patent Collection (TSPF) contains national and foreign patent documents on all forms of industrial property subject matter, including trademarks and abstract and bibliographical information, as well as search-reference and other information.
The FGU FIPS All-Russian Patent Technology Library (VPTB) provides free access without any restrictions to the TSPF and serves all categories of users in Russia (including examiners) and neighboring and other foreign countries.
The Library’s premises are equipped with an alarm system and an automatic fire-fighting system.
Collection management, preservation
The trademarks collection is held at the VPTB both on paper and optical disks, and includes:
- Rospatent Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazettes;
- patent gazettes from foreign countries and international organizations, both special gazettes and also general industrial property gazettes with sections devoted to trademarks;
- databases including trademark information from foreign countries and international organizations.
Collections, both on paper and electronic carriers, are arranged along geographical, systematic and numerical lines.
Information services available to the public (including computerized services and search files contained in libraries remote from your Office and trademark information posted by your Office on the World Wide Web)
In 2008, the trademarks gazettes issued to all countries constituted about 22,700 storage units on paper and users consulted about 27,800 optical disks.
In 2008, users were provided with the Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette on CD-ROM, of which 24 issues were published during the year. Alongside the Official Gazette on CD-ROM, a paper Gazette was published.
Also in 2008 users were supplied with sets of information on trademarks for 2005-2007, each on one DVD, and also a retrospective set of information on trademarks for 1991-2004 on one DVD.
In 2008, users were supplied with the Ninth Edition of the ICGS on CD-ROM and paper.
All products on optical disks were distributed together with the MIMOSA information search system software which provides searches of bibliographical data, ICGS indexes, verbal elements of a mark and also combinations thereof. Documents found during a search may be consulted and printed in full.
An annual index was issued on paper for the Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Gazette.
In 2008, the Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette was published on the Rospatent Internet site and registers of Russian trademarks, service marks and appellations of origin, trademarks well known in Russia, applications for Russian trademarks and service marks, and international trademarks with the indication Russia, with details of their legal status, continued to be kept.
In addition, users are granted free access, through the open registers, to information on applications for the registration of a Russian Federation trademark and service mark with a date of receipt after January 1, 2005.
As part of the operations in 2008 on the Office site, information began to be displayed on a daily basis concerning current registrations of trademarks, service marks, appellations of origin, well-known trademarks and also notifications of changes made to the State Register of Trademarks, prior to their publication in the Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette.
On the basis of official information relating to RF trademarks, thematic databases are produced according to users' special orders.
Users' work with information search system:
Examiners are given the opportunity to work with all databases on trademarks, appellations of origin, national trademarks, trademark applications and international trademarks with the indication Russia.
Access for external users to databases, apart from the databases of applications and national trademarks, is provided by mutual agreement. Searches of the trademarks applications database for external users are currently unavailable.
Organizations of the Federal Customs Service received 18 passwords providing free access to trademark databases.
External users are provided, free of charge, with access to:
- databases containing documents published in the last two Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Gazettes;
- the Trademarks Well Known in Russia database; and
- the ICGS database.
Table 5 (attached) contains data on the number of database search system inquiries.
The search system provides the opportunity to carry out a search simultaneously of the trademarks, appellations of origin, national trademarks and trademarks applications (for examiners) databases.
Table 5 contains general information on the number of database inquiries made by internal and external users.
Table 6 (attached) contains data on the number of database inquiries for trademarks, appellations of origin, national trademarks, international trademarks and trademarks applications registers.
URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide information on business procedures such as: filing, publication, examination and registration procedures related to trademarks; opposition and appeal procedures related to trademarks; etc.
There is as yet no procedure for the electronic filing of applications, therefore the Office site does not have any web pages for the electronic filing of a trademark application.
The web page addresses on the Office site, which provide information on commercial procedures relating to trademarks etc. include the following:
• Application filing procedure - Rules for compiling, filing and examining an application subsection in the Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin section http://www.fips.ru/npdoc/VEDOM/PR_TZ00.HTM; Forms subsection http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/trmark.htm; Regulations on fees for the patenting of inventions, utility models, industrial designs, registration of trademarks, service marks and appellations of origin, and grant of the right to use an appellation of origin subsection
http://www.fips.ru/potrf/poshl.htm; http://www.fips.ru/potrf/poshl.htm#tz;
• publication procedure - Administrative Regulations on the performance by the Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks of the State function relating to the keeping of registers of registered intellectual property subject matter, publication of information on registered intellectual property subject matter, applications filed, and patents and certificates granted therefor, validity, and termination and renewal of validity of legal protection for intellectual property subject matter, transfer of rights in protected subject matter, and official registration of intellectual property subject matter http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/adm_reestr.htm; Regulations on official publications of the Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks in the Publications section http://www.fips.ru/izdan/pol.htm; Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin subsection in the Electronic Gazettes section http://www.fips.ru/el_bl/default.htm; http://www.fips.ru/el_bl/tm.htm; Databases section in the Information Search System section http://www.fips.ru/russite/dbs/dbs.htm; Open Registers section http://www.fips.ru/cdfi/index.htm; http://www.fips.ru/cdfi/reestr_rutmap.htm; Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin section in the Catalogue of Publications and Databases for 2008 in the Publications section http://www.fips.ru/izdan2008/tz_ofi.htm;
• Examination and grant of a document providing protection - in the Normative Documents section, Office Acts subsection http://www.fips.ru/npdoc/ved_doc.htm#3;
• procedure for filing objections and appeals - Patent Disputes Chamber section http://www.fips.ru/npdoc/vedom/n22.htm
URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide a description of information products and services offered by the Office (e.g., trademark search service(s) and trademark databases), as well as information on how to access and utilize them
The web page addresses on the Office site, which give information on information products and services supplied by the Office are:
• conducting a search – in the Information Search System section: Services http://www.fips.ru/russite/uslugi/podp.htm, Databases http://www.fips.ru/russite/dbs/dbs.htm; Open registers http://www.fips.ru/cdfi/index.htm subsections; Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin subsection http://www.fips.ru/el_bl/default.htm; http://www.fips.ru/el_bl/tm.htm; Collections section http://www.fips.ru/vptb/inf.htm#pat;
• Trademarks Database – Databases http://www.fips.ru/russite/dbs/dbs.htm; http://www.fips.ru/russite/dbs/tm.htm subsection in the Information Search System section;
• information on access to resources and their use – in the Information Search System section Support http://www.fips.ru/russite/support/m4.html; and Instructions http://www.fips.ru/russite/documents/m1dop.html subsections.
VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of trademark documentation and information
International or regional cooperation in the exchange of trademark information, e.g., in the form of official gazettes
Within the framework of international exchange in 2008, Rospatent sent 52 annual sets to 50 foreign countries of its Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin Official Gazette on optical disks.
The VPTB Division receives trademark information both in the form of special gazettes and also sections of general industrial property gazettes from 49 countries and three international organizations.
In 2008, the following were received on all types of carriers from WIPO, Germany, Japan, Republic of Korea, United States of America and other countries: 2,005 copies of trademark gazettes (including: on paper – 409 copies; on optical disks – 490 copies; and 1,106 copies downloaded from the Internet).
Exchange of machine-readable information
Data are exchanged electronically with WIPO on international trademark registrations using MECA technology. In 2008, decisions were sent electronically to WIPO concerning preliminary and final refusal.
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)
Promotional activities (seminars, exhibitions, visits, advertising, etc.)
In 2008, the subjects of 10 conferences and seminars, held in different regions of the Russian Federation, and the Second Specialized Exhibition of Trademarks and Industrial Design – 2008 held in Moscow, were devoted to the problems of trademark registration.
Rospatent holds in Moscow on an annual basis conferences, seminars and roundtables with the participation of representatives of international organizations and other States. Brief information on the most important of those events is given below.
• From March 3 to 6, 2008, as part of the Eighth Moscow International Exhibition of Innovations and Investments, a conference entitled State Policy in the intellectual property sphere was held. Heads and specialists of the central administration of Rospatent and FGU FIPS participated in the conference as rapporteurs. A roundtable was also in operation, devoted to the practice of protection for inventions, utility models, industrial designs and trademarks, in the light of Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/sins/salonVIII.htm).
Representatives of 19 towns and regions of the Russian Federation, along with representatives of the Republic of Belarus (Minsk) and the Czech Republic (Prague), took part in the work of the conference and round table. The conference participants included patent attorneys, representatives of legal and commercial organizations, scientific research institutes and the press - a total of about 120 people.
• As part of the Eleventh Moscow International Exhibition of Industrial Property Archimedes – 2008, a “best trademark” competition was held.
In addition, on April 2, 2008 in Moscow, as part of the Eleventh International Exhibition Archimedes – 2008, a conference and roundtable, organized by Rospatent and FGU FIPS, were held, devoted to current issues of legal protection of intellectual property subject matter in the context of the introduction of Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/sins/arh2008.htm).
Specialists from 22 towns and cities in the Russian Federation, along with representatives of the Republic of Ukraine and Romania, took part in the work of the conference and roundtable. In the work of the conference a total of about 130 people participated, including representatives of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Moscow Chamber of Trade and Industry, patent attorneys and representatives of industrial enterprises and scientific organizations.
• On October 8 and 9, 2008 the Twelfth Scientific Practical Conference on the Practice of Legal Protection of Intellectual Property Subject Matter in the Context of the Introduction of Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/sins/12conf.htm) was held.
About 350 people in total took part in the work of the conference, including: from other foreign countries – 10 and from neighboring foreign countries – 15. The number of regions of Russia represented was 39.
• From December 10 to 12, 2008, the Second Specialized Exhibition of Trademarks and Industrial Design – 2008 was held in Moscow (http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/sins/tz_2008.htm). As part of the exhibition, conferences and a roundtable were held on problem issues of law-enforcement practice in the field of trademarks and industrial designs, within the introduction of new legislation.
Heads and specialists of the central administration of Rospatent and FGU FIPS participated as rapporteurs in the conference. Representatives from 19 towns and regions of the Russian Federation, State bodies, legal and commercial organizations, patent attorneys etc. participated in the work of the conference. A total of about 55 people took part in the work of the conference.
A round table was held as part of the conference, at which issues were discussed relating to the procedure for use of and access to trademark databases, the enhancement of normative trademark acts, the keeping of accounts relating to trademarks, the state of affairs with administrative regulations, the fight against counterfeiting and other issues.
Training courses for national and foreign participants
In 2008, FGU FIPS organized and held individual training courses relating to special programs for one specialist from the State Patent Office of the Republic of Uzbekistan and six specialists from the National Center of Intellectual Property of the Republic of Belarus.
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 trademarks
Trademarks, service marks and appellations of origin subsection in the Normative documents section http://www.fips.ru/npdoc/index.htm#3; Normative documents subsection in the Trademarks, service marks and appellations of origin section http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/trmark.htm;
contain the Annual Report of the Office
Reports, reviews, statistics section http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/reports.htm
provide open source codes related to trademark information systems
References section http://www.fips.ru/russite/search/search.html;
contain trademark-related news regarding the Office
Main news section http://www.fips.ru/rospatent/index.htm, News section http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/news.htm