SCIT.ATR.PI.2003.RO

Annual Technical Report 2003 on Patent Information Activities submitted by Romania (SCIT/ATR/PI/2003/RO)

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

As a result of amending and completing the Patent Law no. 64/1991 privind BI, In the year 2003 the State Office for Inventions and Trademarks (OSIM) initiated the Implementing Regulations of the Patent Law no. 64/1991 – enacted by the Government Decision no. 499/2003;
There was also finalized the National Strategy in the Field of Intellectual Property (2003-2007), approved by the Government Decision no. 1424/2003.
The first step towards Romania’s accession to the European Patent Convention was the signing, in August 1994, of the Patent Cooperation Agreement concluded between the Government of Romania and the European Patent Organization, entered into force on 15 October 1996.
Essentially, this agreement has set up the extension of the European patent effects in Romania.
During the session from December 1997 of the Council of Administration of the European Patent Organization, the representative of the State Office for Inventions and Trademarks submitted the application for Romania’s accession to the European Patent Convention.
During the Session of 29 January 1999 of the Council of Administration of the European Patent Organization Romania was invited to adhere to the European Patent Convention along with the other seven Central-East-European States, starting on 1 July 2002. After the invitation for the accession was launched, the Parliament of Romania voted the Law no. 611 of 13 November 2002 regarding the Romania’s accession to the Convention concerning the grant of the European patents. Consequently, starting on 1 March 2003 Romania became the 27-th Member State of the European Patent Convention.
In 2003 a number of 1046 patent applications were filed under the Patent Law no. 64 of 1991. Of the sum of 1046 filed patent applications, 881 patent applications were filed by Romanian applicants, the difference of 165 patent applications being filed by foreign applicants (36 applications filed by national route and 129 applications filed by PCT route).
In 2003, there were filed 4909 applications for the extension of the European patents (representing an increase by 0,5 % related to 2002).

Patents

II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, distribution and use of primary and secondary sources of patent information

The Official Publications of OSIM:
OFFICIAL INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY BULLETIN (BOPI) – Section “Patents”
It contains: Abstracts of patents applications and granted patents, various information on the changes of the legal status of patents, lists containing the Romanian industrial property attorneys and other useful information.

OFFICIAL INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY BULLETIN (BOPI) - Section “Trademarks”
It contains: All data concerning registered trademarks, various information on the changes of the legal status of trademarks, lists containing the Romanian industrial property attorneys and other useful information
OFFICIAL INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY BULLETIN (BOPI) - Section “Industrial Designs”
It contains: All data on industrial designs applications within OSIM lists containing the issued certificates information on the changes in the legal status, others.
OFFICIAL INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY BULLETIN (BOPI) – Section “New Plant Varieties”. New plant varieties applications, proposed names and accepted names, granted patents for new plant varieties, or granted licences for use of new plant varieties and other specialized information, ex: Law no. 255/1998 regarding the protection of new plant varieties, implementing of the Law, technical norms in the examination of new plant varieties, others.
OFFICIAL INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY BULLETIN (BOPI) - Section “European Patent Applications and Patents with extended effects in Romania, according to Law no. 32/1997”. It contains: Data on the European patent applications with extended effects in Romania, according to the Law no. 32/1997.
ROMANIAN REVUE OF INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY. It contains: Articles in the field of industrial property protection, legal news, others.
CD-ROMs are also edited in Romania as follows:
- RO-BULLETIN is a disk issued quarterly, comprising all BOPI sections. The last
annual disk contains a complete collection of all the official bulletins published by
OSIM during the year; said disk also comprises the Romanian Industrial Property
Review. There are search means for it. The required software and the specific fonts
are delivered together with the disk, free of charge.
- RO-PATENT-IMAGES is the disk which offers you a complete collection, in facsimile, of all the patents published by OSIM in one year. There are adequate search means. The required software is delivered along with the disk, freely.
- RO-INDEX is a disk which allows the identification of the patents published by OSIM starting with 1994, by using the bibliographic data. CD-ROMs made in cooperation with other offices:
- RO - PATENT BULLETIN – monthly publication (PDF format); electronic version of BOPI- Section “Inventions”
- RO - TRADEMARKS BULLETIN – monthly publication (PDF format); electronic version of BOPI - Section “Trademarks”
- RO - DESIGN BULLETIN – monthly publication (PDF format); electronic version of BOPI - Section “Industrial Designs”
- RO - VARIETIES OF PLANTS - BULLETIN – monthly publication (PDF format); electronic version of BOPI - Section “New Plant Varieties”
- CD-ROM ERRATUM – (Yearly) Disk comprising all the errata published by OSIM
- ESPACE-PRECES - a disk which comprises the facsimile copies of the patents published by OSIM and other patent offices: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia. Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia
- ESPACE ACCESS PRECES - disk which comprises all the bibliographic data of the ESPACE-PRECES collections; it is a search mechanism which helps identify the patents in facsimile in the PRECES collection by searching according to various criteria such as the patent number, the international class, the filing date, the date of publication, the key-words in a title or abstract, etc.
- TRACES - a disk which comprises all the data on the registered trademarks of Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia. One can develop complex searches based on various criteria: applicant, designation, class, key word of the classes of products or services, etc.
- CD-ROM RRPI - Electronic version of the Romanian Property Revue

Starting with 1996, the publication, i.e. the whole process of publication, is carried out in-house (for both publication on paper and on CD-ROMs) as well as text setting, editting and desktop publishing, printing and delivery. As all the documents are processed in electronic format exclusively, they can be turned into html and pdf format for publication in the INTRANET and INTERNET.
The data printed in the Official Industrial Property Bulletin (BOPI) are taken from the Common Software database exclusively.
Corel Word Perfect is employed in desktop publishing and Corel Draw in image processing. Several years ago, OSIM started to store the complete patent collection (patents granted in Romania) in electronic format. Staring with 2001, more than 50,000 patents for invention (about 250,000 pages) were scanned and processed; the whole process was finished in 2003.
The modifying documents are also scanned and integrated into the document database. The data in the database are searched during the substantive examination procedure but they are also the primary source employed in manufacturing some CD-ROMs.

Facsimile documents are searched in two ways:
- directly, by using Acrobat Reader (based on the number of the searched patent);
- using the RO Patent Search database developed by OSIM specialists. For a limited number of documents, around 12000, and over a short period of time, namely 1996-2004, one can make use of the full-text search system.

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

Classification and reclassification 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)

The Office classifies all the patent documents exclusively by using the International Patent Classification. OSIM uses the 7th IPC edition currently.
The Office has embarked upon reclassifying the national documents according to the 7 IPC edition.

IV. Search file establishment and upkeep

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

In-house systems (online/offline)

V. 1.1. The management of the patent applications filed with OSIM is based on the
Common Software System. Our system relies on the SGBD-lnformix Online DSA v.7.3 system; the interface is created by means of Hyperscript Tools. Said database is employed in managing the examination process, the publication and the dissemination of information. The information stored in that database enables the upgrading of other databases (see below), making preparations for other CDs such as ESPACE-PRECES and also the international exchange of data, a.s.o.

V. 1.2. RO Patent Search is a database designed for electronic search; it has two
components:
- one comprising the bibliographic data required in the formulation of the search equations;
- the other one comprising the facsimile documents. Said database contains
about 120,000 records; in 2003 it will cover the period 1906-2003, completely. The
database comprising bibliographic data works on an Informix 9.2 platform for Linux.
The facsimile document database comprises about 120,000 documents stored by
scanning (as already described above). The scanning process was finished in 2003. The facsimile document database also comprises the facsimile image of the official bulletins published by OSIM.
In 2001 OSIM also succeeded in putting an end to the first stage of the generation of the database designed for the Legal and Technical Library; said database provides access to the list of books or periodicals extant in the Library of OSIM and also enables the on-line formulation of the requests for books/periodicals even for publications which are not retrievable in the Library. In such cases, the publications are borrowed by the Library on the basis of the inter-library exchange system. Starting from 2001 that database can be accessed in the INTERNET as well.

V.1.3. A part of the RO Patent Search (the one comprising the bibliographic data of the patents starting with no. 105544 to date and the related facsimile documents are available in the INTERNET) and can be accessed at www.osim.ro. The Ro- ESPACEnet is accessible too. At OSIM headquarters we also have patent collections on CD-ROMs.
V. 1.4. The index databases on CD-ROM that can be accessed by internal users in the network are the following ones:
- Access A - IPC Class - Access Europa
- Access B - Bulletin
- Access Preces - Casis - Bib - Global Patent
The full-text databases, stored in juke-boxes can be accessed from local PCs:
-Espace-EPA complete Espace CH 1994- to date
-Preces complete Espace DK 1990- to date
-Espace UK 1974- to date Espace ES 1990- to date
-USAPAT complete Espace EPS complete
-COSMOS 1992- to date
-DEDEPAROM 1993- to date
-World 1991- to date
-Espace AT 1992- to date
-Espace IT 1993-1995
- Espace RU 1996-1997
-Espace SI 1993-1998
- Espace OAPI 1994- to date
- GLOBALPAT
All the collections are available for search by internal users and the public.

External databases

Commercial ones:
-STN
Other databases in the INTERNET:
- Delphion
- ESPACE-NET
- Other databases in the INTERNET, made available by other industrial property
offices.
Starting from 1 March 2003 OSIM’s experts can access EPOQUE, too.

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

The Electronic Information System of OSIM:
HARDWARE
- GS 80 server with 2 RISC tech Central Unit,
- 1GRAM, 500G HDD in RAID
- 2 ALPHA 2100 A monoprocessor servers;
- one hardisk storing unit i.e. Digital Work Storage, having a capacity of more than
100 GB storage space;
- 100 Pentium 100-200 MHz, 40-Pentium II 300 MHz, 80 PCs Pentium III;
- 40 Pentium IV PC
- 18 Xerox 5410, 5420, PH4 SI network printers;
- 6 scanners;
- 75 local DeskJet plus, Dec Writer 110;
- 3 INFOSERVERS 1000 for in-the-network search of CD-ROM index;
- 8 Juke-boxes: one JVC-type and seven NSM, each having a capacity of 600 disks, provided with DVD and CDROM readers, connected with the internal network by 4 servers;
- INTERNET/INTRANET Subsystem. Using 1 Mb/s radio leased line. The INTERNET/INTRANET Subsystem comprises a mail-server, a database server, a fire-wall and FTP service. Network: 100 MB



SOFTWARE
- True 64 DIGITAL Unix operating system for ALPHA servers;
- Linux operating system for the Server of the INTERNET/INTRANET database;
- SGBD Informix Online DSA v. 9.2 for ALPHA Servers;
- Windows 2000 for client PCs;
- Corel Perfect Office for DTP;
- Common Software application by Hyperscript Tools on client PCs;
- Acrobat Exchange for converting patents into PDF format;
- Netscape v.6 and Microsoft Internet Explorer for INTERNET/INTRANET;
-Software specific to the CD-ROM collections namely Mimosa, Data Ware, etc.
Administration of the Patent Collection and of the Services Rendered to the Public (for applications, assistance on search, ways and means of getting the official publications and of gaining access to records/statistics).

VI. Administration of the industrial property office library 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)

Collecting, acquisitions, preparation

OSIM exchanges documents with more than 45 foreign patent offices and international industrial property organizations. As a result of this international exchange OSIM received in 2003:
- All the patent collections in CD-DVD;
-1,300 official journals;
- 80 specialized reviews (paper/CD-ROMs).
The received patent documents (paper) are entered in a key-card in sequential order and then classified according to the International Patent Classification. The patent collection of Romania comprises 173,000 patent applications and 119,000 patents and is arranged both sequentially and according to the IPC classes.

Collection management, preservation

The National Patent Collection comprises more than 20 million documents (on paper) grouped in national collections (countries) ordered by years, according to the IPC or sequentially.
The storage rooms are protected against fire; they are provided with air-conditioners and partially with moving shelves.
In 1998 OSIM set up a document preservation-restoration team and the National Industrial Property Archives Bureau in charge of protecting and exploiting information in the OSIM archives.
The team was trained in document restoration at the National Archives School; its entire activity is under the control of the National Archives.

Interlibrary lending, resource sharing, networks of patent libraries in the country

OSIM exchanges documents with the National Library which has a complete collection of the official bulletins printed by the Office; OSIM also exchanges documents with other national offices, regional organizations and the WIPO Library.
The Office also cooperates with other Romanian libraries and especially with the libraries of other offices aiming at having a regular exchange of information and documents on industrial property.
According to its development programme OSIM set up 14 regional information centres all over the country thereby extending the dissemination of the patent literature information in the territory.

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)

At its reading-room OSIM makes all its documentation available to the public and makes xerox copies of the patent documents, search reports and patent literature surveys, upon request. Upon paid order, the Offices makes searches on infringement risks in the territory of Romania.
The reading-room makes available to the public computer-aided services, providing access to the in-house databases: Access A/B, Espace Bulletin, EP-A full-text, BIB, Patents Assist, ASSIGN, CD-ROM (local search), assistance and use of external databases in the INTERNET.
In its INTERNET page - www.osim.ro the Office allows for the access of the public to a wide range of useful information: BOPI, patents, national legislation, etc.
Some of the documents were already stored in the moving shelves, the full security of those documents being under strict supervision.

VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of patent documentation and information

OSIM exchanges, on bilateral basis, Official Bulletins and patent descriptions (on paper and/or CDROM), as well as the Romanian Revue of Industrial Property with 44 other industrial property offices.

VIII. Other relevant matters concerning education and training in, and promotion of, the use of patent information, including technical assistance to developing countries

In the year 2003, the activity for promoting the industrial property protection continued by the permanent activity for rendering the public aware of the importance of the advantages conffered on the business environment by the Romanian legislation.
In 2003, OSIM had a rich promotional activity all over the national territory: more than 10 seminars on topics specific to the industrial property field, participation in many exhibitions home and abroad, organization of training courses for beginners and advanced learners in the field of industrial property and computer search, etc. OSIM participated in the international fairs organized in Geneva and Bucharest, and in some important national fairs.
At present, the number of the regional centers amounts to 14, working within the Chambers of Commerce (8), Technical Universities (3), Small and Medium size Enterprises (2), and oneas an independent organization. The coordination of the regional centers is ensured by the OSIM.
In the year 2003, OSIM sent patents on paper and the related bibliographic data in electronic format to ARCANUM and EPIDOS, monthly, to have them included in the PRECES CD-ROM.
The Office published the database of patents granted in Romania in the INTERNET, said database starts with the patent no. 105544, which was the first patent granted under the Patent Law (Law no. 64/1991).


[End of document]

IX. Other relevant matters