Annual Technical Report 2011 on Industrial Design Information Activities submitted by Estonia (CWS/ATR/ID/2011/EE)
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 expression "industrial designs" covers industrial designs and models. Offices which issue design patents should report their design patent information activities in this series of Annual Technical Reports.
I. Evolution of registration activities
Changes experienced in terms of application filings and grants (registrations) with respect to the previous year
In Estonia the protection of industrial designs can be applied for on the grounds of the Industrial Designs Protection Act that entered into force on 11 January 1998. From 1 May 2004 legal acts of the European Community concerning industrial designs, including the Council Regulation 6/2002/EC of 12 December 2001 on legal protection of the Community Designs, are also valid in Estonia. Pursuant to this all industrial designs disclosed to public in the territory of the European Union automatically have a 3-year protection against copying, as well as other existing possibilities for registration.
On 1 April 2004 The Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs entered into force. To protect an industrial design via the Hague system an application in English or French should be filed with the International Bureau of WIPO in Geneva, designating the countries where protection is wanted. On 18 April 2008 an amendment entered into force, according to which it is also possible to file international applications via the Estonian Patent Office.
In Estonia industrial designs are registered by formal registration system. The Estonian Patent Office does not examine the industrial design as to its novelty, individual character, industrial applicability or the right of a person to file the application. The rights of the owner of the registered industrial design may be contested in court.
On 4 December 2008 the Estonian Patent Office started electronic receival of applications for registration of industrial designs via a portal of electronic filing of applications for legal protection of industrial property. The industrial design registration application can be sent on-line to the Patent Office only after it has been digitally signed by the applicant or a patent attorney. The Patent Office accepts other documents related to the application electronically, but they have to be digitally signed also. Upon request the Patent Office issues a notification of the acceptance of the industrial design application. The notification can be saved or printed. In 2011 33% of the applicants used the possibilities of electronic filing.
In 2011 the Patent Office received 52 industrial design registration applications (including 51 applications from Estonian applicants), which is 22 less than in 2010. 17 international industrial design registrations were filed under the Hague Agreement (21 in 2010).
Although the number of applications decreased in 2011, there is still interest in the protection of industrial designs. 34 people were given altogether 17 hours of consultations in the Patent Office (33 people in 2010). In addition many more received advice by phone or e-mail. Besides that, lectures on industrial designs continued at the training for small-sized entrepreneurs in the Patent Office and at the seminar arranged in the framework of celebrating Intellectual Property Day. Presentations on industrial designs were made at the entrepreneurship days in the counties and at the seminars for small-sized entrepreneurs. In the second half of the year brochures and folders with info on legal protection of industrial designs for designers and small-sized entrepreneurs were published.
At the end of 2011 there were 22 national and 9 international applications pending. The average processing time of an industrial design is 1-2 months.
On 31 December 2011 there were 769 industrial designs in the Estonian register of industrial designs. 732 international registrations of industrial designs had been granted legal protection in Estonia. In addition there were 487,667 industrial designs registered and disclosed to public by the European Community, including 271 from Estonia, and unregistered Community industrial designs.
Trends or areas experiencing rapid changes with respect to the previous year
In 2011 the most popular designed products at registration of industrial designs were clothing and haberdashery (24.6%), furniture (17.39%), lightning apparatus (13%), packages and containers for the transport or handling of goods (10%) and means of transport or hoisting (8%).
By country the majority of applications and international registrations were filed from Estonia (75.3%) and Germany (6.3%), followed by France, Switzerland and Croatia (2.8%).
TOP 5 Registered industrial designs in 2011
Estonia 52
Finland 1
Latvia 1
TOP 5
International registrations of industrial designs entered into force in Estonia in 2011
Germany 6
France 3
Luxembourg 2
Belgium 1
Egypt 1
TOP 5
Registrations of industrial designs valid in Estonia on 31December 2011
Estonia 405
Finland 238
Sweden 17
Germany 13
Denmark 13
TOP 5
International registrations of industrial designs valid in Estonia on 31 December 2011
Switzerland 625
Germany 31
France 15
Spain 8
Hungary 8
The majority of registration applications were filed from Estonia (75,3%), followed by the European Union (18,8%) and Switzerland (2,8%).
URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide statistics related to industrial designs
http://www.epa.ee/client/default.asp?wa_id=565&wa_object_id=1&wa_id_key=
II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, and distribution of industrial design documents and of secondary sources of industrial design information, i.e., official gazettes
Publishing, including printing, copying techniques and electronic printing
The official publication of the Estonian Patent Office is the Estonian Industrial Design Gazette.
The Estonian Industrial Design Gazette is published 4 times a year.
Since 1 January 2003 The Estonian Industrial Design Gazette of the Estonian Patent Office are available also electronically (in pdf-format, http://www.epa.ee/default.asp?id=515 )
Main types of announcements of the Office in the field of industrial design information
The Estonian Patent Office homepage at www.epa.ee was currently updated. The homepage enables access industrial design registration information both in Estonian and English. It also contains all legal acts, regulations and international agreements by the Government of the Republic and Minister of Economic Affairs, and other legislation as well as material on legal protection of industrial designs, relevant links, current news and the public databases.
Databases and office automation
Database of Industrial Designs at http://www2.epa.ee/Patent/design.nsf/SearchEngl?OpenForm contains data on registered industrial designs and industrial design registration applications filed in the Republic of Estonia and international registrations of industrial designs filed for registration according to the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs since 11 January 1998 to the extent specified in the Industrial Design Protection Act.
The data on industrial design registration applications filed in the Republic of Estonia for registration according to the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs is available in the database as on the date the International Bureau sent the copy of the publication of the international registration to the Estonian Patent Office. The database does not include changes made later in the international registration. Information on the international registrations of industrial designs is available in a bulletin accessible at the web page of WIPO.
Information on industrial design registration applications is presented as filed by the applicants.
The numbers of applications contain 10 digits (e.g. D200300045) and the numbers of registrations contain 5 digits (e.g. 00581).
Search in the database is free. The user needs a browser supporting JavaScript (Netscape 4.08, Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or more recent versions).
The database is informative and does not have legal effect. Search results do not ensure the protectability of industrial designs and are not binding on the Estonian Patent Office in processing the industrial designs. For specifying the data and for the release of information or the issue of official extracts from the files of registration applications and of their processing or from the Register of Industrial Designs, please contact the Receiving Department of the Estonian Patent Office.
URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide access to online industrial design gazettes and to other sources of industrial design information, including download of bulk industrial design data
http://www.epa.ee/default.asp?wa_id=651
III. Matters concerning classifying, reclassifying and indexing of industrial design information according to the classification systems applied
Classification and reclassification activities; Classification system used, e.g., International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification), other classification (please indicate whether industrial designs are classified by your Office and, if so, which classification is used)
The Estonian Patent Office uses the International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Agreement). The Republic of Estonia became party to the said Agreement on Oct. 31, 1996.
WIPO Standard St. 80 is used for bibliographic data coding.
Bibliographic data and processing
WIPO Standard St. 60 is used for bibliographic data coding.
IV. Search file establishment and upkeep
The Estonian Patent Office does not use the manual search files.
V. Activities in the field of computerized search systems for industrial designs
In-house systems (online/offline)
The databases of the office are the core subject of the information system. These databases are administered by the Common Software (CS). CS is a system with client server architecture, based on the database software Informix and operation system UNIX. Automated data entry software SPIRIT-MECA is also integrated to CS. To facilitate trademark examination procedure the software ACSEPTO of figurative and verbal searches is in use. The search base is quite large containing data of trademarks valid in Estonia and Community trademarks, also data of the emblems, official control and warranty signs and names of international intergovernmental organizations under protection in compliance with Article 6ter of Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.
Several e-services are available at our homepage. The portal of electronic filing of trademarks has been accessible since April 2007, in 2008 software for the electronic filing of patent, utility model and industrial design applications was added, as well as software for filing the Estonian-language patent specifications of the European patents validated in Estonia. So digitally signed applications can be filed without coming to the Office. The portal is available at the address online.epa.ee. In addition, the services of the databases of electronic searches have been available on the web page of the Estonian Patent Office (www.epa.ee) for a long time.
External databases
WIPO Gold, RCD-Online
Equipment used (hardware, including the types of terminal and network used, and software), data carriers used
In the beginning of 2011the Department of Information Technology of the Patent Office was liquidated in the framework of the consolidation project of the services supported by the state and all information technological activities not directly related with the processing of the applications for legal protection of industrial property were transferred to the Information Systems Department of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications. Therefore the Patent Office does not deal with the development and improvement of client oriented information technological services (incl. public databases, portal of electronic filing of applications etc.).
VI. Administration of industrial design information products and services available to the public (relating to facilities, e.g., for lodging applications, registering designs, assisting clients with search procedures, obtaining official publications and registry extracts)
Estonian Patent Information Centre is an independent centre financed from the state budget. The Estonian Information Centre provides services to the general public. As the centre works in close cooperation with the Estonian Patent Office its main task is to serve the examining and professional staff of the Estonian Patent Office. The Information Centre acquires, processes and maintains patent documents, patent gazettes and other patent and non-patent literature. The older part of the collections is on paper, microfilm or microfiche. Now the majority of patent documents are on CD/DVD-ROMs. The library collections are acquired by purchases (the financial resources for it are allocated from the state budget) and by exchange of publications with other industrial property offices under international agreements.
The Estonian Patent Information Centre is the only library that collects and processes patent literature in Estonia. Information Centre participates in the interlibrary lending at the national or the international level. Lending requests are satisfied by e-mail, ordinary mail or by fax.
The patent and trademark gazettes as well as reference literature are kept in the public reading rooms; other materials, i.e. patent documents, are stored in the stock-rooms and are lend at the request of the users. The library also stores the collection of the official gazettes and specifications of the Estonian Patent Office.
The users can carry out searches using CD/DVD-ROMs at 9 workstations.
The following CD/DVD-ROM collections are available:
ESPACE ACCESS A and B
ESPACE-ACCESS-EPC
ESPACE FIRST
ESPACE BULLETIN
ESPACE LEGAL
ESPACE EP
ESPACE WORLD
ESPACE AT
ESPACE CH
ESPACE DK (1990-1998)
ESPACE FI
ESPACE FR A
ESPACE UK
German databases:
DEPAROM KOMPAKT
DEPAROM ACT
DEPAROM U
US databases:
US Patents BIB
US Patents Class
US Patents Assist
US Patents & TM Assign
USA App
USA Pat
Other countries:
PAJ Patent Abstracts of Japan
PAJ/INDEX
Patents of Russia (Full specifications)
ESPACE-ACCESS-RFD
Utility models of Russia (1994-2004, first pages)
The inventions protected in the Republic of Moldova (1993-2007)
CNPATE-ACCESS
China Patent Applications
The Information Centre has the direct Internet access to the INPADOC databases through Open Patent Services interface. In-house online access is established to the commercial databases Derwent Innovations Index and Questel-Orbit via the Internet connection. These databases are charged on the bases of annual fees, Questel-Orbit is also charged on the bases of usage.
The Information Centre offers copying services from paper or microforms . The users can order printouts of the documents on CD/DVD-ROMs. These services are offered for a moderate price. Information Centre also offers more advanced services – patent information researches. User can claim for an advanced research in his favourite technical field, results will be printed and analysed and added to research report dossier.
Other services are free of charge: in the reading rooms the readers can use reference materials, monographs, other books and periodicals and carry out searches in patent documents on paper.
Collection management, preservation
The computerised Estonian industrial designs database can be exploited at the reading room of the Estonian Patent Library. The searches are carried out at the request of the users and the customers pay a moderate price for the computerised services.
URLs of web pages of the Office's website for electronic filing of industrial design applications
https://online.epa.ee/
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 industrial designs; opposition and appeal procedures related to industrial designs; etc.
http://www.epa.ee/client/default.asp?wa_id=395&wa_object_id=1&wa_id_key=
(only in Estonian)
URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide a description of information products and services offered by the Office (e.g., industrial design search service(s) and industrial design databases), as well as information on how to access and utilize them
http://www.epa.ee/client/default.asp?wa_id=917&wa_object_id=1&wa_id_key=
VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of industrial design documentation and information
The Estonian Patent Information Centre has agreements with 19 patent offices and 1 organization on exchange of patent gazettes and with 20 patent offices and 1 organization on exchange of utility model gazettes, (aasta lõpus) with 11 patent offices and 1 organization on exchange of patent gazettes and with 11 patent offices and 1 organization on exchange of utility model gazettes.
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)
2011 was the sixth year of operation for the Small-sized Enterprise Support Division. The main goal of the Division is to arrange events for entrepreneurs and the public in order to rise the awareness about the legal protection of intellectual property as well as to ensure that the Estonian Patent Office attends events (lectures, presentations etc.) introducing intellectual property arranged by other institutions.
The year brought along several changes. There was much work as well as success. Many activities undertaken in the previous years continued.
In 2011 the seminars held in the classroom of the Patent Office played an essential role. Namely the Division arranged 7 seminars in the classroom (2 seminars on the legal protection of inventions, 2 on registration of trademarks, 1 on protection of industrial designs and 2 on protection of both the trademarks and industrial designs). Demand for such seminars is very high.
In 2011 the Small-sized Enterprise Support Division of the Patent Office did cooperation with the development centres of the counties. This cooperation is of important to support the regional development of Estonia and the main aim is to raise the awareness about industrial property in the whole republic. This year the Division arranged an info day on intellectual property in Põlva. Besides the lecturers of the Patent Office also a patent attorney gave a presentation on the services provided by the patent agencies and Põlvamaa Development Centre shared its experience in registration of a trademark.
In addition, cooperation with other institutions is still important for the Small-sized Enterprise Support Division. So the examiners of the Patent Office gave presentations on inventions and trademarks for the second year student of economy at Pärnu College. The total number of students, who attended the lectures, was 73.
From 3-9 October 2011 an Entrepreneurship Week took place all over Estonia. Its aim was to raise the awareness of the society on entrepreneurship and to increase the knowledge of the entrepreneurs. In the framework of the Entrepreneurship Week a seminar “Which Benefits Does the Legal Protection of Intellectual Property Provide?“ was arranged by the Patent Office in cooperation with the Entrepreneurship Department of Tartu City Government in Tartu on 5 October. Besides the presentations made by lecturers from the Patent Office experience on protection of inventions was shared by a local entrepreneur from Leidi Consult Ltd.. By the was the Patent Office was invited to the seminar at Võrumaa Entrepreneurship Week on 5 October, where our examiners disseminated their knowledge on protection of inventions and registration of trademarks. Cooperation with Tallinn City Enterprise continued successfully as well. On 5-6 October there was a subsequent Tallinn Entrepreneurship Day, where the Patent Office participated. On both days the Patent Office was there with an info desk providing consultations, information and publications on intellectual property. The Patent Office arranged also a seminar ”Industrial Property and Entrepreneurship Culture” in the framework of Tallinn Entrepreneurship Day.
Traditionally the Small-sized Enterprise Support Division arranged two big seminars for SME-s in Tallinn: in April a seminar "Intellectual Property in SME-s“ celebrating the World Intellectual Property Day and in October a seminar "Possibilities of Legal Protection of Industrial Property in the European Union".
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 industrial designs
http://www.epa.ee/client/default.asp?wa_id=456&wa_object_id=1&wa_id_key= (mainly in Estonian)
contain the Annual Report of the Office
http://www.epa.ee/client/default.asp?wa_id=922&wa_object_id=1&wa_id_key=
contain industrial design-related news regarding the Office
http://www.epa.ee/rss.asp?wa_site_id=2
X. Other relevant matters