Annual Technical Report 2007 on Industrial Design Information Activities submitted by Croatia (SCIT/ATR/ID/2007/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 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

Since this is the first ATR-ID report SIPO Croatia presents the breakdown of registration activities for the last 5 years.

-Number of industrial design applications (inc. multiple applications)
-Number of designs contained in industrial design applications
-Industrial designs in force (according to number of industrial design applications)
-Industrial designs in force (according to number of industrial designs contained in industrial design applications)

Changes_experienced_in_terms_of_application_filings_and_grants_registrations_with_respect_to_the_previous_year

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

In the year 2007, the number of industrial designs applications filed by national route with the SIPO increased by 21,6 % compared to the previous year.

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

Monthly official Gazette published on web pages of SIPO Croatia provide statistics:
http://www.dziv.hr/en/webcontent/file_library/inf_sources/glasnik_tablica.htm

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

Since the 2006 Official Gazette of the Office is published monthly on paper and is available in electronic form free of charge on Office's web site (http://www.dziv.hr).
Official Gazette contains the following information on industrial design: Applications Filed, Registration of Industrial design, Amendments and Changes in Industrial Design Register, Expiration of Industrial Designs, Assignment and Transfers of Rights, The Declaration of Invalidity of Industrial Design, The Renewal of Validity of Industrial Design Rights, Published Internationally Registered Industrial Designs with Effect in Republic of Croatia.
We offer a range of search options on our website including Date of Application, Proprietor, Image, Locarno Class.

Main types of announcements of the Office in the field of industrial design information

Office announcements are published in Official Gazette of the Office (paper from and on-line), as well as on the Office’s web site.

Mass storage media and microforms used

The bibliographic data are stored in Ingres 2.6 database and industrial design images are stored in a LINUX network file directory.
The Office maintains a complete history of its industrial design files in paper form and all information for industrial design applied from 2000 up to date in electronic form.

Databases and office automation

All staff in the SIPO uses MS-Word 2000 for word processing that is operating in a Windows XP Professional environment.
Outgoing letters and SIPO’s gazette are fully automated and generated in MS Word.

The bibliographic data are stored in the SIPO’s database via the application “Industrial design's Register” (which is developed in INGRES OpenROAD application development tool). Industrial design images are stored on network discs (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 that are changeable and depend on application/publication number are retrieved from the SIPO’s database via ODBC (Open DataBase Connectivity). An industrial design’s image is imported from the network disc.

All publishing data in SIPO's Gazette are formatted and followed by the INID codes according to the WIPO standard ST.60.

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

Current issue of the Office Gazette (joint Gazette including data on all types of industrial property) is available at:
http://www.dziv.hr/en/webcontent/file_library/inf_sources/glasnik_tablica.htm

Free of charge searchable data base containing published information on designs applied for or registered is available at:
http://www.dziv.hr/DigitalLibrary/default.asp?izb=en

A range of search options is available, including Registration number, Date of Application, Proprietor, Indication of Product and Locarno Class.

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)

8th edition of the Locarno Classification is currently used for the classification of industrial designs. Designs are scanned and Locarno classification allocated.

Bibliographic data and processing

No ex officio search on novelty is carried out.
Free of charge public access to a database containing published information about registered industrial designs is available.
There is a possibility to file search request to the Office based on one (or more) of 4 criteria (name of holder, name of product, Locarno Class and Subclass, appearance of design). Such an information service is payable.

IV. Search file establishment and upkeep

All searches performed by examiners are completed using an automated search system.

File building

Design applications are made in paper forms that are available on our web site page. Cannot be filed electronically for the time being.
Applications are built into paper case files and kept in the office area until the procedure for registration is finished. Afterwards they are stored in the archive area in the same building.

Updating

The search files contain HR domestic designs updated daily, designations to the HR under the Hague system are updated monthly. All searches performed by examiners are completed using an automated search system.

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

No documentation from other offices is maintained or considered part of any search file.

V. Activities in the field of computerized search systems for industrial designs

In-house systems (online/offline)

See under Administrative management

External databases

No external databases are searched.

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

Applications that have been used in SIPO are developed in INGRES OpenROAD. SIPO uses an INGRES database. An application “Industrial design’s Register” is used for filing all bibliographic data concerning the particular industrial design. All industrial design changes (change of ownership, change of name, address, licence, etc.) are recorded and are maintained by Industrial design Register user interface.
Since year 2000 SIPO has developed its own document management system in electronic form that is meeting office needs (all incoming and outgoing documents have been scanned in Adobe Acrobat).
International industrial design data in XML format are monthly loaded from the WIPO’s ftp site. After processing data are available through the application “HAGUE”. Those data are used for examination and publication purposes.
MS Word is used for automatic generation of output documents. MS Excel is used for (automatic) generation of specific reports that are used for annual SIPO’s report, WIPO statistics and for other purposes (improving industrial design processes).
Published industrial design 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), data 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: PC/WIN Server 2003 St. Ed. ; Fujitsu Siemens-Primergy RX 300/ Win SERVER 2003 St. Ed.
- Workstations: PC Pentium IV with WIN XP PROF. or WIN 2000 PROF.
- MS Exchange 2003 Server Enterprise, ISA 2004 (proxy.

- Linux (SUSE Distribution - Enterprise Server 8) - two cluster application: database and file sharing. Two servers nodes (type of cluster is fail over) on Fujitsu Siemens-Primergy RX 600 Servers. The cluster software is FujitsuSiemens Primecluster ver. 4.1 A30 for Linux.
- 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 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)

Planning, administration, automation, security

SIPO Croatia offers free information services on legal matters, registration procedures, status of registered designs (national as well as international). The inquires can be made by phone, at the SIPO premises or by e-mail. Registry extracts are available upon request and payable. Copies of the file contents are available upon written request and payable.

Collection management, preservation

The industrial design search collection is managed in electronic form. Data are refreshed at the end of the month (the publication date). A structured backup regime is in place to ensure preservation of the information.

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

Not applicable, no electronic filing of industrial design applications.

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.dziv.hr/en/default.aspx?pArtID=53&selection=1 (in English)
http://www.dziv.hr/default.aspx?pArtID=146&selection=1 (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., industrial design search service(s) and industrial design databases), as well as information on how to access and utilize them

http://www.dziv.hr/webcontent/file_library/inf_usluge/pdf/Letak_DIZAJN_web.pdf

Navigation:
Homepage: http://www.dziv.hr

Information on Commercial Search Services:
http://www.dziv.hr/en/webcontent/file_library/inf_services/searching_serv_LNK.htm

Searchable free of charge Database:
http://www.dziv.hr/DigitalLibrary/default.asp?izb=en

General information in industrial design and related services:
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/webcontent/file_library/inf_usluge/Incentiv.htm

VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of industrial design documentation and information

International or regional cooperation in the exchange of industrial design information, e.g., in the form of official gazettes

There is no formal exchange of industrial design information.

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)

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

SIPO Croatia participated in specialized fairs organized in Croatia:
49th International crafts fair 2007, Zagreb fair, April
3rd International fair of new technologies and products, Rijeka, April
5th International fair of inventions, new technologies and products, ARCA 2007, Zagreb fair, September
12th International tool and equipment fair, SASO 2007, Split, October
32nd Croatian salon of innovations with international participation, INOVA 2007, Zagreb fair, November

Training courses for national and foreign participants

Study visits for SIPO staff to the European Trademark and Design Offices organized within the EU assistance program:
NPO trade mark & design training period in Hungarian Patent Office, April 2007
Design registration procedure in OHIM, Alicante, Spain, May 2007
Boards of Appeal: Trademarks and industrial designs in OHIM, Alicante, May 2007
Search of design information and documentation Denmark NPTO, June 2007

Seminars organized in SIPO Croatia Zagreb within the EU assistance program:
IPR legislation upgrade in 2007 – seminar held by SIPO Croatia for the general public (Zagreb, November 2007)
Design examination procedure – seminar held by OHIM experts for the SIPO Croatia design examiners (Zagreb, December 2007)

SIPO is currently in the process of establishing its own IP training programs (primarily for national participants)

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.dziv.hr/en/default.aspx?pArtID=58&selection=5

Office’s web-site: http://www.dziv.hr/

contain the Annual Report of the Office

http://www.dziv.hr/webcontent/file_library/izvori_inf/

contain industrial design-related news regarding the Office

News are available at the Office web site on the “news page” http://www.dziv.hr/

X. Other relevant matters