CWS.ATR.PI.2010.HR

Annual Technical Report 2010 on Patent Information Activities submitted by Croatia (CWS/ATR/PI/2010/HR)

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

Patent applications in 2010

National patent, applications
278 in 2010 -13% compared to 2009

International patent applications entering the national phase
14 in 2010 -73% compared to 2009

Foreign applications filed directly to SIPO
21 in 2010 -70% compared to 2009

Patent applications filed by resident applicants
257 in 2010 +2,8% compared to 2009

Extended European patent applications (designation fee paid)
422 in 2010 -85% compared to 2009

International applications filed at SIPO as a RO
39 in 2010 +11,4% compared to 2009

Granted national patents
82 in 2010 -46,8% compared to 2009

Granted European patents with HR as designated state
425 in 2010 + 12,4% compared to 2009

Consensual patents, registrations
129 in 2010 +13,1 % compared to 2009

Number of valid national patents
2168 in 2010 + 13,3% compared to 2009

Number of valid consensual patents
395 in 2010 +6,5 % compared to 2009

Valid patents in 2010 by field of technology

26,1% organic chemistry
20,1% preparation for medical, dental or toilet purposes
8,2% transportation

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

In 2010 a total of 278 patent applications were filed with the Office accounting for approximately 13% less than in the previous year.

The number of international PCT applications that entered into the national phase of procedure in the Republic of Croatia is significantly lower than in the previous years - 14 applications were filed by this route only. This presents a significant further decrease in proportion to a stabilised low number of PCT applications following its considerable fall resulting from the integration of the Republic of Croatia firstly into the system of extended European patent (in 2004) and afterwards into the European patent system (in 2008).

In the course of 2010 a total of 257 applications were filed by resident applicants, accounting for a slight increase in the number of applications (approximately 3%) compared to 2009 when such number was considerably lower as a result of the economic crisis. The number of resident legal entities (companies) having filed a patent application in 2010 compared to 2009 is lower by approximately 16%, whereas the number of natural persons as applicants slightly went up (by approximately 7%). However, resident natural persons prevail, accounting for even 86% of resident applicants.

Non-resident applicants filed 21 applications (70% less than in the year before) and 81% of those applicants are legal entities (companies).

The number of requests for the extension of European applications to the Republic of Croatia published in the official EPO Bulletin in the course of 2010 was 401 accounting for 10% of the 3961 requests in the last year. This is consistent with the expected trend of gradual declining of such a type of requests following the integration of the Republic of Croatia into the European patent system.

In 2010 the number of requests for the entry into the Register of extended European patents is 376, presenting an increase by 2% compared to the previous year, when there were 369 of such requests. The number of requests for the entry of European patents had an expected rising trend (from 3 to 77) the year 2010 being the second year since the integration of the Republic of Croatia into the European patent system.

In 2010, 39 international (PCT) applications were filed with the Office as a Receiving Office presenting an increase of 11% compared to 2009.

According to technical fields the majority of directly filed applications of non-resident applicants were in the IPC classes A61 (preparations for medical and dental purposes) and C07 (organic chemistry), a total of 38%.

A majority of applications by resident applicants was filed in the following technical fields according to the IPC classes: E01-E06 (fixed constructions) 11.3%, G01-G12 (metrology) 10.9%, B60-B68 (transportation) 9.3%, A61 (preparations for medical and dental purposes), F01-F04 (machines or engines) 7.4% and A41-A47 (household appliances and personal items) by 6.6%.

The largest number of patent applications filed directly with the Office by non-residents in proportion to the aggregate number of patent applications was from the EU Member States (3%), the United States of America (2%) and Switzerland (1%).

In the course of 2010 in the Republic of Croatia were in total 636 patents granted, of these were 211 (33.2%) granted through the national route - 129 consensual patents (20.3%) and 82 patents (12.9%) - and 425 (66.8%) were extended European patents to Croatia entered into the SIPO register.

At the end of 2010 in Croatia were in effect a total of 2,168 patents and 395 consensual patents entered in the Register of Patents of the Office. Compared to the previous year the aggregate number of patent rights went up by 12%.

According to technical fields a majority of patents belongs to IPC classes: C07 (organic chemistry) 26.1%, A61 (preparations for medical and dental purposes) 20.1% and B60-B68 (transportation) 8.2%.

In 2010 the number of requests for declaration of invalidity of a patent remained unchanged and low in proportion to the number of granted patents (4 requests).

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

The statistics are provided at the SIPO Croatia web-page (http://www.dziv.hr/en/about-sipo/ip-statistics/), as well as a part of the monthly official Gazette published on the same web page (http://www.dziv.hr/webcontent/file_library/izvori_inf/pdf/HGIV/Glasnici.asp)

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.)

Since the 2006 Official Gazette of the Office (joint Gazette including data on all types of industrial property) had been published monthly on paper and on digital carrier (upon order), and current issue (but not archive) had been available in electronic form free of charge on Office's web site (www.dziv.hr). Since May 2009 the Office no longer publishes the Gazette on paper but only electronically. Current issue and archive of all issues since May 2009 are available free of charge at the Office's web site. Upon order and against payment Office provides issues of the Gazette on digital carrier.
Official Gazette contains the following published information on patents: Patent Applications, Request for the Grant of a Patent on the Basis of the Implementation of the Substantive Examination Procedure of Patent Applications, Request for the Grant of a Patent on the Basis of the submitted Results of the Substantive Examination Procedure of Patent Applications, Request for the Grant of a Patent without the Substantive Examination of Patent Applications (Consensual Patents), Patents Granted, Consensual Patents Granted, Record of Changes to the Register of Patent Applications, Record of Changes to the respective Register, Lapse for Patents/Consensual Patents, Declaration of Nullity for Patents, Corrections of Data to Published Patent Applications, Requests for the Extension of European Patent Applications, Revoked Requests for Extension of the European Patent Applications, Extended European Patents, Lapse for European Patents, Corrections of Data to Published European Patents.

http://www.dziv.hr/en/e-services/the-croatian-intellectual/

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

Office notices are published in the Official Gazette, as well as on the Office’s web site.
In the Official Gazette (HGIV – Hrvatski glasnik intelektualnog vlasništva) SIPO publishes announcements of issued patent documents (bibliographic data and abstracts), and published European patent applications with extended to Croatia (bibliographic data).
The Annual Report of SIPO with statistics is bilingual and available on the Office’s web site.

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

The bibliographic data are stored in Ingres 9.3.1 database and patent documents are stored in a LINUX network file directory.
The Office maintains a complete history of its patent files in paper form and all information for patent applied from 2000 to date in electronic form.

Word processing and office automation

All staff use MS-Word 2003 for word-processing that is operating in a Windows XP Professional environment. They also have their own personal workstation on which numerous applications are available, including the most common MS-Office programs.

Outgoing letters and SIPO’s Gazette are fully automated and generated in MS Word. It is also possible to generate numerous automated reports in MS Excel or MS Word.

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

The bibliographic data are stored in the SIPO’s database via the application “Patent’s Register” (which is developed in INGRES OpenROAD application development tool). All patent documents and relevant images are stored on network discs in a doc and a pdf format (which are LINUX file directories).
Output documents and SIPO’s Gazette are produced from automated MS Word templates.
Almost each outgoing letter is a MS Word template that consists of permanent text. Data, which are changeable and depend on application/publication number, are retrieved from the SIPO’s database via ODBC (Open DataBase Connectivity).

All publishing data in SIPO's Gazette are formatted and followed by the INID codes according to the WIPO standards.

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

Current issue of the Office Gazette and archive of all issues since May 2009 are available at:

http://www.dziv.hr/en/e-services/the-croatian-intellectual/

Free of charge searchable data base containing published information on patents applied for or granted is available at:

http://www.dziv.hr/en/e-services/on-line-database-search/patents/

A range of search options is available, including: Publication Number; Title; Publication Date; IPC; Inventor; Applicant; Applicant(State); Title In English; Filing Date; Date And Number Of Earlier Application from the former FPO); Priority Number By State, Application Number And Application Date; International Filing Date; International Application Number; International Publication Date; International Publication Number; Attorney (Representative, Agent); Abstract.

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

Abstracting, reviewing, translating

Titles of all national applications are translated into English language and used for on-line database, offered by SIPO.

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)

Published patent applications and granted patents are classified by the Office according to the latest version of IPC advanced level.

The indexing schemes are not used by the examiners when classifying patent documents

The reclassification has been done regularly through the special tool developed in house. The content of the latest IPC Validity file (201101) is used for validating IPC symbols.

Bibliographic data and full-text processing

SIPO maintains on-line database containing bibliographic data and abstracts of all published patents in Croatian language. Up to now, there were no actions toward full-text processing.

IV. Search file establishment and upkeep

File building

Croatian search documents are sent to the EPO to be included into the EPO data systems. Examiners search national Register for national patent documentation. Outside customers can use Esp@cenet.

Updating

The search file is continuously developing and updating. Updates are sent monthly to the EPO.

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

EPO’s Epoque-system is the main source of foreign documentation.
The Office receives foreign patent document on CD and DVD. Official bulletins of foreign offices are available in electronic format.

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

In-house systems (online/offline)

Patent search is executed by electronic means. The database of the search system includes all national patent applications and granted patents, PCT, granted EP patents, and that is the only in-house system for searching.

External databases

The EPO develops and manages the patent search system Espacenet (http://hr.espacenet.com). This system, which is public and available free of charge on the internet, contains some 70 million patent documents from 90 countries. SIPO makes hr.espacenet version available through its website and manages the Croatian texts. On the start page, the Croatian help texts have been simplified and extended. A manual for performing searches in hr.espacenet was published as a brochure in 2008.

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

All applications are developed in INGRES OpenROAD. SIPO uses an INGRES database. An application “Patent’s Register” is used for filing all bibliographic data concerning the particular patent application or granted patent. All patent changes (change of ownership, change of name, address, etc.) are recorded and are maintained by patent Register user interface.

Since year 2000 SIPO has developed its own document management system in electronic form that covers office needs (all incoming and outgoing documents have been scanned in Adobe Acrobat).

MS Word is used for automatic generation of output documents. MS Excel is used for (automatic) generation of specific reports, which are used, for annual SIPO’s report, WIPO annual statistics and for other purposes (improving patent processes).

Published patent data (applications/grants) can be searched at the SIPO’s Internet site http://www.dziv.hr/digitallibrary through the SIPO's web-server application (MS Windows 2003 server and mySQL database).

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

- 10Mbit/s leased line used for Internet connection, CISCO Network Equipment (LAN based on Fast Ethernet - 1000/100/10 Mbit/s).

- MICROSOFT environment:
- Servers: Fujitsu Siemens-Primergy RX 300/ OS - Win SERVER 2003 St. Ed. ; IBM System x 3650 / OS - Win SERVER 2008 ; Fujitsu RX300 S5 / OS Win SERVER 2008 R2 Enterprise.
- Workstations: Desktop-PC Pentium IV with WIN XP PROF., Notebooks – OS – MS WIN 7.
- MS Exchange 2010 Server Enterprise, ISA 2004 (proxy).

- Linux (Red Hat 5 Enterprise Linux Advanced Platform) - two cluster application: database and file sharing. Two server nodes ( type of cluster is fail over ) on Fujitsu Siemens-Primergy RX 600 Servers.
- SAN (storage area network) connected with fiber channel switches to server nodes and backup device. SAN is
consists of two FiberCAT CX500 (EMC ) devices. Each of them has two-service processor and 10 disks in
RAID-5 system (9 x 146 Gb FC disks + 1 x 146 Gb FC hotspare disk).
- Backup software is Backbone NetVault 7.1. Backup device is a MTC – 9084-221 FC (tape library) with two LTO 2 tape drives and 21 slot tape robot connected to fiber channel switch. Also the library offers a mail slot for exchanging offsite/onsite tapes. Total capacity installed on MTC library is 4 Tb of uncompressed data.

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)

Planning, administration, automation, security, buildings

The SIPO library operates within the IP Information Centre (called INCENTIV). The collections contain over 1050 books, 70 Croatian and foreign periodicals available to the readers, all specialized in IP. The library is open to the public Monday to Friday from 8.00 am to 4.00 pm, except Thursday 10.00 am to 6.00 pm. A multifunctional public reading room is an integral part of the INCENTIV.

Collection management, preservation

Office's IP Information Centre (INCENTIV) is charged with the task of maintaining the library. The books and periodicals are catalogued in the internal database which is listed in the intranet of the Office (available to the staff only).

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)

Office's Intellectual Property Information Centre (INCENTIV) - a member of the EPO Patlib centres network - provides a range of patent information services. This includes free of charge customer support such as:
• information concerning patent applications filing,
• general legal matters regarding patents,
• details of registration procedures,
• telephone queries,
• procedural information etc.

Customer support is available by phone, e-mail or personal visit. In the library reading room customers can search public (free of charge) patent databases, whereby support by INCENTIV staff is available. Registry extracts, as well as copies of the file contents, are available upon written request and payment. Information can be requested also by e-mail (info@dziv.hr). Commercial patent information search services (upon charge) by Office specialists are also available upon order. Since 2010 Office,s IP Information centre offers new patent search services such as novelty search, FTO (freedom to operate) search, infringement search, tehnology and competition watch. IP pre-diagnostic service for SMEs was implemented in 2010 as a pilot service and will be further developed.
Since 2010, SIPO operates public patent database hr.espacenet (as a national portal to the EPO's Espacenet service) at its web-site. General information on IP and related services are available at:
INCENTIV - Intellectual Property Information Centre
Phone: +385 1 610 98 25; fax: +385 1 611 20 17;
e-mail: info@dziv.hr

http://www.dziv.hr/en/sipo-information-services/information-centre/

The Office's website provides a wide range of information on IP, including basic information on IP rights, filing and registration instructions, fee information and full texts of legal documents. Access to the free of charge public database of the IP registrations at the Office is also available The Office provides a wide range of brochures and guides free of charge. They can be downloaded in PDF format from the Office's web site, picked up in the Information centre or sent upon request.

URLs of web pages of the Office's website for electronic filing of patent applications

Not applicable, no electronic filing of patent applications is available. The office is in the final stage of implementation of the system for e-filing planned to be launched in 2011.

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.dziv.hr/en/intellectual-property-protection/patents/the-application-process/ (in English)


http://www.dziv.hr/hr/intelektualno-vlasnistvo/patenti/ (in Croatian)

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

Information on Commercial Search Services:
http://www.dziv.hr/en/sipo-information-services/search-services/


Searchable free of charge Database:
http://www.dziv.hr/en/e-services/on-line-database-search/

VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of patent documentation and information

International or regional cooperation in the exchange of machine-readable information, e.g., bibliographic data, abstract and/or full text information

The Office sends bibliographic and legal status information of patent applications and patents to the EPO monthly.

Medium used for exchange of priority documents

Priority documents can be exchanged only in paper form.

Medium allowed for filing applications

Applications can be filed in paper form only. The office is in the final stage of implementation of the system for e-filing planned to be launched in 2011.

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)

Training courses for national and foreign participants, use of audiovisual means

Through the dedicated Section for education and development of IP use (IP Academy), the Office provides a range of internal and external training activities, organized in collaboration with national and international organizations.

Main training events organised in 2010:
• European Patent Office Seminar about amendments to EPC Implementing Regulations and the new EPO procedures concerning patenting field of pharmacy/galenics, SIPO, Zagreb, 11.10.2010.
• Third WIPO Summer School on Intellectual Property in Croatia, in collaboration with WIPO (academic institutions, R&D, young professionals), Dubrovnik, 30.05.-11.06.2010.

SIPO also held several presentations on patent protection for domestic applicants, inventors, academic institutions and industry outside the Office premises.

Assistance to developing countries (sending consultants and experts, receiving trainees from developing countries, etc.)

The assistance is provided to the countries with the economies in transition from the region. Trainings organised in 2010:
• EPO extension agreement system - Study visit for the delegation of IP Office of the Republic of Moldova, SIPO Zagreb, 17.06. 2010.
• Patent procedures - Training for the employees of IP Office of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and IP Office of the Republic of Montenegro, SIPO Zagreb, 27.09.-01.10. 2010.
• Patents: legislation, organization and statistics, Training for the employees of IP Office of the Republic of Montenegro, SIPO Zagreb, 04.-05.10. 2010.

Promotional activities (seminars, exhibitions, visits, advertising, etc.)

SIPO organizes different promotional activities according to the annual plans. Among others, it provides lectures and workshops at universities and national fairs to increase general IP knowledge in order to facilitate an efficient use of industrial property rights in the practical business, and to inform future decision makers about the instruments of intellectual property. SIPO also organizes information stands at major fairs and exhibitions of innovations. In cooperation with different partners it also organizes public exhibitions aimed at promoting inventiveness and creativity

Lectures organized in 2010:

Patent granting procedure, Lecture for students of the Law faculty-Rijeka, SIPO Zagreb, 22. 01. 2010.

Lecture Survey on IP Teaching in High Education. Tempus project workshop, Open University towards Society: Linking Education-Research-Innovation, University of Zagreb, 18-19 02 2010.

Workshop “Searching and using of IP information“
Faculty of chemical engineering and technology, Zagreb, 22.-23.02. 2010.

Lecture “Registered IP and its role in the development of innovation”
ARCA 2010 - Exhibition of innovations, Zagreb, 30.09.-02.10. 2010.

Intellectual Property in business environment, IP4INNO Seminar, Zagreb, 08.-09.11.2010.


Public events in which SIPO participated in 2010.


• ARCA 2010 - Exhibition of innovations, Zagreb, 30.09.-02.10. 2010.

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.dziv.hr/en/ip-legislation/national-legislation/patents/

contain the Annual Report of the Office

http://www.dziv.hr/en/about-sipo/annual-report/archive/

contain patent-related news regarding the Office

http://www.dziv.hr/en/news/

X. Other relevant matters