Annual Technical Report on Patent Information Activities in 2023 submitted by the Eurasian Patent Office (EAPO)

I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN PATENT INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Development of patent information activities is addressed as part of the following strategic documents: EAPO Development Program for 2023–2028 (Section 3, “Digitalization of Eurasian Patent Office.”), The EAPO Digitalization Concept until 2030, Comprehensive plan for interaction on information technology issues with the national IP offices of the EAPO Member States for 2023–2028.

The area of patent information will also be significantly boosted by the creation of the Integrated Information System (IIS) of the EAPO, which should replace most of the digital tools currently engaged in the processing of patent data. Among the expected outcomes it is planned to adopt patent data extraction in accordance with WIPO Standards ST.96 and ST.27.

The following three main areas are covered by the Eurasian Patent Office (EAPO) policies of advancing the office’s automated information systems:

  • enhancement of digital services for users;
  • development of Eurasian patent information space;
  • automation and information support for the EAPO internal workflow, including examination and publication of Eurasian applications and patents.

In 2023 the following main areas of patent information activities were in the focus of attention in the EAPO:

  • enhancement of paperless technologies in the patent procedure;
  • development of online filing tools functionality and tools for the electronic filing of Eurasian applications via patent attorney firms;
  • development of online publication of official patent information including full specifications and legal status data;
  • technical cooperation with national IP offices of the EAPC Contracting States in the framework of common regional expert and information space;
  • development of the Eurasian Patent Information System EAPATIS;
  • adaptation of AI tools for use in classification and patent search.

Profound update of all of the organization’s key information systems is one of the most important strategic objectives for the digitalization of the EAPO. This activity is covered by the IIS project.

The first stage of the project was completed in the reporting year. It included the creation of the new official EAPO website, the upgrading of the Automated General Workflow Management System, and the development of a detailed plan for the second stage of activities. All of these project objectives were successfully completed.

The new official EAPO website was launched in September 2023. The new site has a modern design and is based on a contemporary content management system which allows the posting of information with minimal labor input and offers user-friendly site navigation features.

Since August 1, 2023, the Eurasian Patent Office has been distributing the expanded version of the Authority File on its website. It is generated in accordance with the 2021 revision of WIPO standard ST.37, “Recommendation for an Authority File of Published Patent Documents”. The information of the Authority File is updated on a daily basis, taking into account the technology implemented for the "instant" publication of Eurasian patent documents.

To improve examiners’ efficiency in the patent search stage, a new Examiner Workplace service was implemented in the EAPO in the reporting year. The service allows examiners to generate patent search reports automatically using information from the Eurasian Patent Information System (EAPATIS), international search reports, and information on searches carried out using artificial intelligence tools. The service also offers opportunities for the preparation and coordination of search strategies and search reports for quality control purposes. The tool will allow for publication of search reports in a structured form (XML) by the IIS.

The Eurasian Patent Office has joined WIPO CASE in 2016; however, it has not yet sent its own documents for publication on the portal. The purpose of the activities completed in 2023 was to begin sending the results of Eurasian Patent Office search and examination to WIPO in automatic mode for posting on this resource. The scope of these activities included the selection of the necessary type of documents from the dossier of Eurasian applications, the formation of data batches in accordance with the IB requirements, and data transfer to the IB for automatic upload to the WIPO CASE database.

Useful links (URLs): 

Annual Report 2023 (English): https://www.eapo.org/wp-content/themes/eapv-theme/reports/report2023/index_en.php

Annual Report 2023 (Russian): https://www.eapo.org/wp-content/themes/eapv-theme/reports/report2023/

Collection of EAPO Annual Reports (English): https://www.eapo.org/en/?publs=reports

Collection of EAPO Annual Reports (Russian): https://www.eapo.org/ru/?publs=reports

News and press releases:

in Russian: https://www.eapo.org/news/

in English:  https://www.eapo.org/en/en-news/

Telegram channel (Russian): https://t.me/eapveapo

II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE 

Statistics

The Eurasian Patent Office received 3,689 Eurasian applications for inventions, 3,787 Eurasian patents for inventions were granted in 2023.

In 2023, the number of Eurasian applications for inventions received remained at the level of 2022. The number of Eurasian patent applications received by the Eurasian Patent Office decreased by about 1 per cent compared to the number of Eurasian applications received in 2022.

In 2023, the distribution of Eurasian applications by technical field has not changed significantly in comparison with the previous year. More than 50% of filed Eurasian applications related to organic chemistry, pharmaceuticals, and medicine.

Information and support provided to applicants regarding filing of applications, URLs

In Russian:

https://www.eapo.org/ru/getpatentpct/  "Obtaining a Eurasian Patent under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) Procedure"

https://www.eapo.org/ru/application2019/  “How to File a Eurasian Application”

https://www.eapo.org/ru/inventors02.html  Eight Steps to Eurasian Patent

https://www.eapo.org/ru/?documents=eapo  Documents related to general matters of the functioning of the Eurasian Patent Organization

https://www.eapo.org/ru/?documents=inventions  Documents related to legal protection of inventions

https://www.eapo.org/ru/attorneys.php - Database of Eurasian patent attorneys

https://www.eapo.org/ru/?documents=blanks  - Forms

In English:

https://www.eapo.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/get_eapatent_inv.pdf - "How to Get a Eurasian Patent"

https://www.eapo.org/en/attorneys.php - Database of Eurasian patent attorneys

https://www.eapo.org/en/documents-2/eurasian-patent-procedures/procedures/  - Main features of the Eurasian patent procedure

https://www.eapo.org/en/?documents=eapo  - Basic normative legal acts

https://www.eapo.org/en/?documents=inventions  - Normative documents related to legal protection of inventions

The EAPO also provides a hotline for applicants via telephone and e-mail to handle questions on filing and the subsequent examination procedures.

All registered users of EAPO-ONLINE e-filing and document exchange system have access to a detailed user manual.

Availability of the application dossier in electronic form

All documents related to each particular patent application are available to EAPO examiners in ePHOENIX electronic dossier system. Applicants have access to the same set of documents related to their applications in the relevant personal accounts of EAPO-ONLINE.

Classification and reclassification activities

EAPO patent documentation is included into PCT Minimum Documentation and patent documents are classified and reclassified in the International Patent Classification (IPC) on the publication stage. Since 2019 Eurasian patent documents are additionally classified in accordance with the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC).

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

Eurasian patent applications are filed with the EAPO in Russian only. When patent application is filed, an applicant or a representative provides abstract in required format in accordance with filing procedure. This abstract is published with bibliographic data of the application in the EAPO Gazette and on the Eurasian publication server, on title pages of application and corresponding patent. Professional (human) translation of bibliographic data and abstracts of Eurasian patents into English is carried out by the EAPO; translations to published patents are available for information purposes in EAPATIS.

EAPO also employs WIPO Translate tool for machine translation of patent information for search and examination purposes.

III. SOURCES OF PATENT INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE

Main types of publications

In 2023, the EAPO issued the following publications and provided the following on-line publication services in the field of patent information:

- EAPO Gazette (bibliographic data, abstract or claims, announcements); web site:

https://www.eapo.org/ru/?publs=bulletin  

- Eurasian Publication Server (full descriptions of published applications and granted patents, title pages, bibliographic data, abstract or claims, announcements); web site:

https://www.eapo.org/ru/publications/publicat/publicat.php

- Descriptions of inventions in Eurasian patent documents (full descriptions of published applications and granted patents including title pages, in PDF format, bibliographic data, abstract or claims, full texts of patents, translations of bibliographic data and abstracts into English for patents in XML format); ftp server of the EAPO

- Legislative, normative-methodical and reference documentation of the EAPO: 

Official Gazette

In 2023, the EAPO published in its official Gazette the following procedural announcements in the field of patent information:

 Applications:

BZ2A  Eurasian patent application published with a search report (A1 publication)

BZ1A  Eurasian patent application published without a search report (A2 publication)

EZ2A  Separate publication of a search report (A3 publication)

HZ9A Reprint of the description of invention in a Eurasian patent application (title page only, list of corrections applied, A8 publication)

HH9A Reprint of the description of invention in a Eurasian patent application (list of corrections applied, A9 publication)

FA9A  Withdrawal of a Eurasian application

NF9A  Restoration of lapsed right to a Eurasian patent application

PD1A  Registration of transfer of right to a Eurasian application by succession in title

PC1A  Registration of transfer of right to a Eurasian application by assignment

HC1A Change in name of an applicant in a Eurasian application

HM1A Change in composition of inventors in Eurasian patent application

PZ1A  Registration of pledge of right to a Eurasian application

HK9A Corrections to EAPO Gazette related to published Eurasian patent application

Patents:

FG4A  Eurasian patent for invention (B1 publication)

FC9A  Refusal to grant Eurasian patent

LC4A  Eurasian patent for invention for which administrative decision of partial revocation was made (+ B2 publication)

LD4A Eurasian patent for invention for which a decision of limitation was made on the basis of proprietor’s request filed with EAPO (+B3 publication)

MA4A Revocation of a Eurasian patent at the proprietor’s request filed with EAPO

MC4A Revocation of a Eurasian patent in full under administrative opposition procedure

MD4A Opposition filed against grant of a Eurasian patent

MF4A Designated state decision on revocation of a Eurasian patent in full

MH4A Designated state decision on revocation of a Eurasian patent in part

MK4A Eurasian patent expired after termination of the term of validity

MM4A Lapse of a Eurasian patent in contracting state due to non-payment within the time limit of renewal fees

ND4A Extension of term of validity of a Eurasian patent

NF4A  Restoration of lapsed right to Eurasian patent

NG4A Rejection of opposition against grant of a Eurasian patent

NZ4A Termination of opposition procedure

PC4A  Registration of transfer of right to Eurasian patent by assignment

PD4A  Registration of transfer of right to Eurasian patent by succession in title

PZ4A  Registration of pledge of right to a Eurasian patent

QB4A Registration of a license/sublicense/franchise agreement in a contracting state

QC4A Termination of a license/sublicense/franchise agreement in a contracting state

QM4A Decision on invalidation of a license/sublicense/franchise agreement

QZ4A Registered amendments and supplements in a license/sublicense/franchise agreement

RH4A Grant of a duplicate of a protection certificate

RL4A  Decisions of a court or other competent authority in respect of Eurasian patent

RQ4A Decisions of competent authorities related to the use of Eurasian patent

TB4A  Change in the composition of inventors in a published Eurasian patent

TC4A  Change in name of a patent proprietor in a Eurasian patent

TH4A  Reprint of the description of invention in a Eurasian patent (list of corrections applied, B9 publication)

TK4A  Corrections to EAPO Gazette related to published Eurasian patents

TZ4A  Reprint of the description of invention in a Eurasian patent (title page only, list of corrections applied, B8 publication)

In 2023, in the framework of “instant” publication technology, daily updates to the official EAPO Gazette were published on the EAPO web portal at https://www.eapo.org/ru/?publs=bulletin.

Eurasian Publication Server

Eurasian publication server provides access to primary publications (including full descriptions of inventions to Eurasian applications and patents), and to information published in the notifications related to applications and patents in the EAPO Gazette, as well as to information on legal status of patents. Access to the server is provided for general public on the EAPO web site. Since its commissioning on 01/01/2014, the appearance of the information about Eurasian patent documents in this information system shall be considered as their official publication. The publication server is deeply integrated with HIVE tool used at EAPO for the preparation of patent documents for publication.

The publication of Eurasian applications and patents was carried out using the technology of instant publication.

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

When conducting patent searches, examiners used the following restricted access and subscription-based tools: EAPATIS, PatSearch, Reaxys, Reaxys Medical Chemistry database, Embase (ELSEVIER), STN databases, Patsearch , as well as freely accessible ones (Espacenet, PATENTSCOPE, etc.).

The EAPO uses an independently developed virtual patent-information depository comprising of local and external databases of patent documentation and non-patent literature integrated with each other. Access to databases and search therein is realized on the basis of a "one stop shop” policy via EAPATIS. Currently EAPATIS contains over 30 constantly updating databases. Since 2003 the access to the system via the Internet is granted for the EAPO Member States. In 2004-2005 access was provided also to several IP offices of non-member states from the Eurasian region. Local databases are formed by extracting information from optical disc images received by the EAPO as well as by downloading data from the respective Internet resources of international organizations and national patent offices with subsequent data conversion and arranging it in a unified format, indexing and loading into the database.

The EAPO continued its work on development and creation of a single Eurasian patent information space expanding and updating of the EAPO storage with patent documents belonging to the PCT Minimum Documentation, as well as documents issued by the EAPO and national patent offices of EAPС Contracting States. Expansion of the databases was implemented through processing of information from the CISPATENT collections, and databases of national patent offices under the exchange program.

During the reporting period EAPATIS processed approximately 940 thousand search queries, including more than 130 thousand queries from examiners of the national patent offices and more than 114 thousand queries from the EAPO examiners.

The provision of EAPO examiners with reference patent and non-patent documentation mentioned in the international search report for Eurasian applications was carried out using the automated search report processing (SRP) system. 

Information products and patent document collections available to external users

In 2023 the following patent information products and collections maintained by the EAPO were available to external users:

- EAPATIS (www.eapatis.com)

Guest use (open for general public):

Detailed searches in guest mode were only possible in arrays of the Eurasian (searches in English and Russian) and CISPATENT (searches in English) patent documents. Patent documents of other countries and international organizations could only be searched by their publication number.

Full use:

All EAPATIS databases are available for search and retrieval in full mode. Full use is subscription-based for external users. Free access is provided to national IP offices of EAPC Contracting States and to a number of public libraries, higher educational institutions, academies of sciences and scientific/technical centers in the EAPC Contracting States.

- Collection of Eurasian Patent Documentation on Espacenet and PATENTSCOPE – online, free of charge;

- Eurasian Publication Server  https://www.eapo.org/ru/publications/publicat/publicat.php) – online, free of charge;

- EAPO Gazette (https://www.eapo.org/ru/?publs=bulletin) - online, free of charge;

- RAW data product. The Eurasian Patent Office provides official publications as raw data allowing the stakeholders to download complete descriptions of Eurasian applications and patents in XML, TIFF and PDF formats for subsequent loading into to their own information systems.

Legal status information 

Legal status information is stored and processed in the administrative system of the EAPO. This detailed legal and procedural status information is available for the authorized staff of the EAPO. External users may access the following legal status information sources:

- EAPO Gazette (Inventions): https://www.eapo.org/ru/?publs=bulletin

The list of respective announcements is given in the section "Official Gazette" of this report.

- Eurasian Patent Register: https://www.eapo.org/ru/?patents=reestr

The Register contains information about all published legal status events related to Eurasian patents, as well as the patent validity table by each EAPC Contracting state.

- Eurasian Publication Server: https://www.eapo.org/ru/publications/publicat/publicat.php

The server contains information about all published announcements related to Eurasian applications and patents with corresponding codes in accordance with WIPO standard ST.17. The server provides users with extensive search capabilities, including search in announcements.

The EAPO also delivers to the EPO on regular basis the information about published announcements related to Eurasian applications and patents with corresponding codes in accordance with WIPO standard ST.17 for use in INPADOC.

IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Electronic filing

Integrated with the other automated information systems of the Eurasian Patent Office, EAPO-ONLINE is an automated system for electronic filing and electronic exchange which carries out two-way communication of electronic data with applicants, patent owners and their representatives.

The Eurasian Patent Office has recorded an ever-growing inflow of electronic documents. In terms of numbers, 2023 saw 3,609 applications filed electronically with the office, or more than 98 per cent of total filings.

The number of EAPO-ONLINE users who have completely switched to electronic interaction with the Eurasian Patent Office has continued to grow. According to the EAPO strategy of full transition to electronic communication means, all (existing and new) users of EAPO-ONLINE were switched to full electronic interaction from 01/01/2023.

Administrative management electronic system

The EAPO currently uses SOPRANO as an administrative management tool. The system comprises examiner’s workplace, patent register update functions and legal events processing functions. The database of SOPRANO also serves as a data source for various administrative statistics generated and visualized by SAP BusinessObjects and Crystal Reports.

The database of the Eurasian Patent Register is formed with data extracted from SOPRANO. Access to the database is provided to internal and external users. The Register contains legal status data for all Eurasian patents.

Electronic dossier

Direct work with documents in electronic form in the EAPO is carried out using the electronic dossiers system on ePHOENIX (EDS ePHOENIX).

AIS SOPRANO and EDS ePHOENIX are integrated with EAPO-ONLINE for electronic filing and electronic exchange.

HIVE publication processing system

The maintenance and development of HIVE system and its functional modules for processing of patent information at the stage of the preparation of EAPO official publications have proceeded. In total, 7,442 descriptions for Eurasian applications and patents were prepared for publication in the HIVE system in 2023.

EAPATIS

EAPATIS was developed as one of the core tools for Eurasian Patent Office examiners and users from EAPC Contracting States to access the global collection of patent documents. The audience also includes national IP offices examiners, users from leading universities, libraries, centers of science and technology who benefit from free access to EAPATIS as part of the Eurasian Patent Office initiative since 2011 to promote innovation in the EAPC Contracting States.

92 million documents have been uploaded to the system as of 31/12/2023, more than 200 organizations are given free access to the system.

General purpose server software 

No        Software

1          Crystal Reports
2          IBM DB2
3          IBM Http server
4          JIRA
5          1C
6          Microsoft Exchange Server
7          Microsoft SQL Server
8          Windows Server
9          Linux OS

Hardware used to supporting business processes

Servers similar to HP, Dell, ORACLE, Cisco, Lenovo from 100 to 200 pcs.

Internal databases

The patent information depository of EAPATIS contains information from international and regional organizations, collections included in the PCT Minimum Documentation (USA, Japan, Germany, UK, etc.) of different back file coverage, from national patent offices of the CIS countries, including EAPC Contracting States. Link to the coverage page of EAPATIS databases: http://www.eapatis.com/help/ru/db_eapatis.php

EAPATIS is capable of conducting searches additionally in Espacenet, PATENTSCOPE, and USPTO databases. It is also able to redirect the user to view information about the found documents directly on the websites of national patent offices or international organizations - EP Register, RU Register, PATENTSCOPE and other registers and databases accessible via the Internet.

More information about EAPATIS is available under the section III of this report.

EAPO continued to update search DBs of patent information included in the PCT Minimum Documentation, as well as patent information of the EAPO and the national IP offices.

The replenishment of the CIS database was based on the processing of CISPATENT data, and the database of the world patent documentation fund was updated based on information received by the EAPO within the framework of data exchange programs. In 2023, the database was replenished with 4 million patent documents, including information on over 60 thousand national patent documents in the region. The total number of documents in the database exceeded 92 million. The database is accessible using the EAPATIS system.

V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF PATENT INFORMATION

Patent library

The internal EAPO web site accumulates in-house legal, regulatory, organizational documents, instructions, reference materials, and minutes of meetings. The internal library of periodicals, received in electronic format from the publishers, subscriptions and publications of EAPO personnel are also posted on the web site. Users may conduct searches over publications by author's name, titles, and key words. All office employees are able to access this site from their workstations.

In 2023, the EAPO received specialized magazines, books, brochures covering various aspects of patent activity. To provide examiners with reference materials the EAPO cooperates with BEN (Library of Natural Sciences), VINITI (Library of the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information), VPTB (All-Russian Patent and Technical Library) and others.

All collections of patent documents are stored electronically and available in EAPATIS.

Publications related to different business procedures and patent information sources

The EAPO web portal provides access to a number of documents, publications and guides intended for applicants and patent information users, e.g.:

- General information about Eurasian patent procedures

- Brochure "How to File a Eurasian Application"

- Brochure "How to Get a Eurasian Patent"

- Brochure "Obtaining a Eurasian patent under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) procedure"

- Up-to-date collection of legal texts

- Comment of Eurasian Patent Legislation

- Explanatory statements of the EAPO on certain procedural aspects

- Guidance materials

- User manuals, help files for patent information systems (EAPATIS, EAPO-ONLINE, etc.)

Translation of patent information

EAPO uses WIPO Translate tool (machine to machine integration with EAPATIS) for machine translation of foreign patent information.

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

The EAPO makes its feasible contribution to the innovative development of its Member States by means of providing a free access to EAPATIS to national IP offices, public libraries, higher educational institutions, academies of sciences and scientific/technical centers of those countries. Totally, more than 200 organizations of this type had free access to EAPATIS as at the end of the year under review.

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

In 2023, patent documentation was exchanged with partner offices and organizations by sharing Mimosa disk images and raw data via FTP. The following data deliveries, under the framework of international projects, were carried out by the EAPO in 2023:

- PATENTSCOPE (WIPO) – bibliographic data and full descriptions of Eurasian applications and patents, regional phase entry information for PCT applications;

- Espacenet/DOCDВ (EPO) - bibliographic data and full descriptions of Eurasian applications and patents;

- Inpadoc (EPO) – legal status information;

- CISPATENT (FIPS) - bibliographic data and full descriptions of Eurasian patents.

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

In the framework of implementation of the Agreements on granting of access to EAPATIS to scientific organizations, public libraries and higher educational institutions, they were provided with free access to EAPATIS starting from 2019. As of the end of 2023, more than 200 organizations were connected to EAPATIS under this project.

The EAPO participates in the CISPATENT regional project. CISPATENT is a joint patent information product containing information on inventions of the CIS countries and Eurasian patents.

The EAPO finances the participation of the EAPC Contracting States in the CISPATENT project.

The annual set contains information on patent documents of Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and of Eurasian Patent Office, including:

  • bibliographic data and abstracts in Russian and English;
  • patent specifications in the original language of publication.

Periodicity of publications - 12 issues per year.