Annual Technical Report 2013 on Patent Information Activities submitted by Georgia (CWS/ATR/PI/2013/GE)

 

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. 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

In 2013 Sakpatenti continued to replenish its patent documentation collections by those received from various countries abroad, both on paper an electronic carriers. As concerns the search matters Sakpatenti mainly uses online databases along side with electronic carriers. In this regard upgraded internal database enables a user to conduct full text searches in national collections. A lot of work was carried out in terms of data exchange activities. Sakpatenti is planning to post the national collections data in the eminent worldwide patent database PATENTSCOPE both in English and Georgian languages.
Sakpatenti is planning to continue to render free of charge consultation services to the public, aiming at raising public awareness, conducting preliminary searches for the inventors, assisting in drafting patent applications and supporting innovation activities.

New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies and plans mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks

In 2013 a Powerful automated administration system of Intellectual Property titles was launched at the office, which is based on the modern technical means and software. The databases of the Intellectual Property titles previously used only by Sakpatenti examiners during patent procedures, have already become accessible to the external users as well via the Internet. The new administration system includes electronic filling capabilities as well.
The project was implemented with the the support and funding of USAID EPI program

Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and grants with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes

In 2013, 333 applications for inventions were filed with Sakpatenti, which is less than the number of applications filed in 2012. Of these, 114 applications were filed by local applicants, which is approximately 8% less as compared with the number filed in the previous year. The number of foreign applications for inventions filed with Sakpatenti under the PCT decreased: 199 applications instead of 219 applications filed in 2012.The amount of applications filed by foreign applicants directly with Sakpatenti increased, namely, 20 applications (16 applications were filed in the previous year).

In 2012, as in 2011, the majority of applications were filed from the United States of America.
As the dynamics of filing applications with Sakpatenti in 2009-2013 shows, the total quantity of foreign applications (the sum total of applications filed directly with Sakpatenti and international applications) in 2009 it increased by up to 3.4% as compared with 2010. The period of stable growth of the number of local applications covers only 2011 as in 2011 and 2012 the number of applications reduced.

The activity of the applicants from other countries (mainly European countries) remained at the level of the previous years, as in 2012, 2011 and 2010.
In 2013 US applicants with 64 applications , less than the number of the applications in 2012(occupy the second position. Local applicants filed 114 applications..
The analysis of the data corresponding to the breakdown of local applications according to branches (Sections of the International Classification) shows that the largest quantity of inventions was again in the branches corresponding to Section A (medicine and veterinary; food and foodstuffs; agriculture) is 41 Applications instead of 36 in 2012. All other important groups belong to the respective branches of B (19%)23 Applications,, F (14%)20 Applications, and C (11%) 16 Applications, E (6%) 4 Applications,, G (7%) 5 applications and H (8%) with 3 applications , sections (performing operations; mechanical engineering; chemistry and metallurgy; fixed constructions; physics; and electricity) and remain at about the same level. The quantity of applications with respect to other branches is insignificant. It should be noted that the number of applications linked with respective branches of Section E (fixed constructions - building; mining) decreased by about 5% as compared with the previous year, the number of applications related with respective branches of Section C (chemistry; metallurgy) increased compared with the previous years, whereas the number of applications belonging to Section H, namely, telecommunications branch, decreased by 34%.
Unlike local applications, most of the foreign inventions belong to the respective branches of Section C 50 %, and their majority (about 90 %), as in previous years, again represent organic substances used in pharmacology.
As regards Section A, its portion is 30 % (72 Applications), mainly in medicine again - about 90%. It is also noteworthy that the number of foreign applications belonging to telecommunications branch decreased sharply.
In 2013 Sakpatenti granted 286 Patents for inventions .The number of Patents granted to local and foreign applicants is about the same.
Utility Model
Unlike Inventions, applications for Utility Models are practically filed only by local applicants and their total number varies within 65. In 2013 local applicants filed 65 applications, which is more than the quantity of the local applications filed in 2012 with 49 applications
The analysis of the data corresponding to the breakdown of local applications according to branches:
Section A (medicine and veterinary; food and foodstuffs; agriculture) - 31 applications, Section B - 9 applications, Section C-3 applications, Section D- 1 Application, Section F-5 Applications, Section G and Section H- 0 Applications.

Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.

• provide information on legislation related to Patents and Utility Models.
• contain the Annual Report of the Office

http://sakpatenti.org.ge/index.php?lang_id=ENG&sec_id=25

http://sakpatenti.org.ge/index.php?lang_id=GEO&sec_id=19&lang_id=ENG

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

Number of seminars and workshops where conducted in 2013 to the Patent Attorneys and patent examiners in matters of electronic filling and paperless processing of applications via the newly introduced automated administration system. In 2013 Sakpatenti planned to introduce PCT applications electronic filling portal E-PCT which has been implemented by WIPO to encourage the local applicants to widely use this platform

Availability of the application dossier in electronic form

The newly implemented automated administration system allows the applicant to access his/her application dossier online.
http://efiling.sakpatenti.ge/

Classification1, preclassification2 (if applicable), reclassification3 activities; classification systems used (e.g., International Patent Classification (IPC)); matters concerning indexing of patent information

Bibliographic data and abstracts of all patent documents are translated from Georgian into English
All patent documents are classified by Sakpatenti only using IPC classification (core level). Other classifications are not in use.
Patent documents are reclassified in accordance with IPC8
It is possible to conduct searches in patent bibliographic data with the Office patent database. External databases which are accessible to the Sakpatenti examiners are consulted with the use of more advanced classification systems such as full level IPC, ECLA and CPC.

Abstracting, reviewing, and translation of the information contained in patent documents

Bibliographic data and abstracts of all patent documents are translated from Georgian into English. It is possible to conduct searches in patent bibliographic data with the Office patent database.
All Official Bulletins stored on CD discs (trilingual versions) are exchanged with various Intellectual Property Offices worldwide. These bulletins are stored in MS Word format. Priority documents are received on paper as well as through the Internet. All bulletins, starting from 2005, are published on the Office Website in PDF format.

Since 2008 the Office has been working on PCT electronic filing and exchange of documents online within the framework of WIPO PCT Cooperative Program. In 2013 we were planning to send National Patent Documentation

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)

Sakpatenti official web-page: www.sakpatenti.org.ge

Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online – URL), etc.

Official Bulletin (Paper and online version). IP Georgia

Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external collections and databases

Internal and 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.)

External users can benefit from the online sources of information (WWW.sakpatenti.org.ge ) and the library of Sakpatenti, equipped with the collections of relevant paper and online sources.

Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)

All normative acts are published on the website and updated regularly.

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

System Architecture
The system has fully web-based and service oriented three-tier architecture. Information exchange between different layers of the system, as well as different sub-systems and modules are organized based on SOAP standards. The system packages functionality as a suite of interoperable services that can be used within multiple separate systems from several business domains.
Operating System
End Users: Currently all end users of the system are using Windows XP/Vista/7 operating system. No prospective changes in end users environment are under consideration. Web-based end-users interfaces requirement could potentially eliminate the risk of changes in the end-user environment.
Internal and external end-user interfaces are fully functional and supported from most popular browsers (MS Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome).
Application Languages
Application and interfaces are available on the Georgian language. There are no requirements for the multilingual interface.
The system allows entering some information in both Georgian and English languages. It generally relates to information, related to international Applications, as well as some information, assumed to be published and/or distributed outside of the internal system (web portal).

Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office

Dell Systems server and storage is used for general database and application services. Canon Scanfront scanners are used for digitizing paper media

Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources

The internal database stores up to 13000 application dossiers that are permanently updated. Some of the data are extracted as XML files and posted into the Office webdatabases accessible to public free of cost.

Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file

The internal database is updated also by the data relating to the international patent applications under the PCT system

Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)

Inventions and Utility Model Register
Information about inventions and utility models are accumulated in this register. The register contains all obligatory fields, described below, plus system fields, necessary for system operation.
INID CODES FOR IDENTIFICATION OF BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA (obligatory fields):
(10) Number of publication for application, which has been examined
(11) Number of patent and kind of document
(21) Serial number of application
(22) Date of filing of the application
(23) Date of exhibition or the date of the earlier filing and the number of application, if any
(24) Date from which patent may have effect
(31) Number of priority application
(32) Date of filing of priority application
(33) Code of the country or regional organization allotting priority application number
(44) Date of publication of application not granted, but examined and number of bulletin
(45) Date of publication of registered document
(51) International Patent Classification Index
(54) Title of the invention
(57) Abstract
(60) Number of examined patent document granted by foreign patent office, date from which patent has effect and country code
(62) Number of the earlier application and in case of divided application, date of filing an application
(71) Name, surname and address of applicant (country code)
(72) Name, surname of inventor (country code)
(73) Name, surname and address of patent owner (country code)
(74) Name, surname of representative or patent attorney
(85) Date of commencement of the national phase of International Application
(86) Number and date of filing of international application
(87) Number and date of publication of international application

The system has one Audit interface, providing audit trail functionality and allowing searching, grouping and sorting information by cases, entities, operations, responsible units, executors, and etc. The system also has a comprehensive standard reporting interface, ad-hoc reporting preparation functionality as well as statistical reporting dashboard. The system also has administrative interface, allowing management of users and group of users, creating and editing classifiers and setting data visibility sets.

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

Different high school student lectures and promotion of the use of fully equipped library with different sources, books, databases

Publications related to different business procedures and patent information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.

All kind of information, books, internet publications, Sakpatenti publications, flyers, brochures.

Office’s initiatives on providing foreign patent information in the local language(s) (e.g., machine translation tools, translation of abstracts)

www.sakpatenti.org.ge

Cooperation with universities, research centers, technology and innovation support centers, etc.

Cooperation with Georgian Tech-transfer center and universities; provision of consultations and support in patent related information and searches.

Education and training: training courses, e-learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.

Availability of WIPO and other courses, seminars and exhibitions

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

Sharing relevant patent information

Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to patent information

Participating in international conferences, seminars and trainings.

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.