SCIT.ATR.PI.2002.MK

Annual Technical Report 2002 on Patent Information Activities submitted by The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (SCIT/ATR/PI/2002/MK)

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

By joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the signing of the Agreement of stabilization and association with the European Union, a need was imposed for harmonization of the Macedonian legal system with the Treaty for trade aspects of the intellectual property rights (TRIPs) of the World Trade Organization and the Directives of the European Union.
The need of a new law imposed also from the many years of practice of the law, when certain lacks showed in the field of implementation of the protection, and especially as a lack of security measures.
The proposal for adopting a Law of industrial property was submitted for recension to the World Intellectual Property Organization and to the German office for patents and trademarks. The remarks and suggestions obtained by the experts, delivered to the Office, were taken into consideration during the final compilation of the content of the Law.
Then, the proposer submitted the Proposal for adopting the law for a review to: the Ministry of law, The Secretariat of legislature, the Ministry of finance, the Ministry of agriculture, forestry and water supply management and to the Ministry of culture.
In the preparation of the content of the Law a technical assistance of the German Association for technical assistance – GTZ was used.
On 15 April 2002, the Legislative-legal commission of the Assembly of Republic of Macedonia contemplated the Proposal for bringing into force a law for industrial property with a draft and put it into legislative procedure before the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia.
The new Law for industrial property was adopted at the Session of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia, held on June 20, 2002, and was published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia no. 47/2002.
Strasbourg Agreement for international classification of patents from March 24, 1971, amended on November 2, 1979, was signed in 2002 (Official Gazette of R.M. no. 13/2002 from February 18, 2002), and will come into force on May 30, 2003.
Budapest Agreement for international recognition of deposition of microorganisms for the needs of patent protection from April 28, 1997, amended on September 26, 1980, came into force on August 30, 2002 (Official Gazette of R.M. no. 13/2002 from February 18, 2002).

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

The industrial Property Protection Office of The Republic of Macedonia issues the official gazette, “Glasnik”. The Gazette is issued four times a year, every three months. This official gazette contains publishing of recognized patents their abstracts and drawings if any. From the beginning of the year 2000, the Office has started publishing the designations for the extension of the European patents seeking protection for Republic of Macedonia in accordance with the Agreement on co-operation in the field of patents with the European Patent Office. The publishing was done in accordance with the WIPO standard 9 concerning the bibliographic data. Moreover there is information regarding other activities of The Office, in the country and abroad. There are very often commentaries of actual activities in protection of the industrial property rights. The Office issues an Annual Report of its activities for the previous year. In this Report, there is basic statistic data for patent applications and patents.

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

All patent documentation is classified according to the sixth edition of the IPC classification. Concerning other matters of indexing of technical information, there are no activities of The Office in the field.

IV. Search file establishment and upkeep

The patent documentation is of paper kind and is based in the Office library. The documentation is updated continuously.

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

- In-house systems:
At the moment there is no in-house system covering the patent domain, but in co-operation with the EPO, the Soprano software is planned to be implemented by the end of 2003 and first half of 2004.
However, the WIPO and EPO CD-ROM publications are widely used on dedicated workstations or servers with multiple access.
- External databases:
Esp@cenet
-Administrative management systems:
- Electronic register of published industrial designs
- Hardware:
- 100 Mbit/per seat switched Ethernet network
- Xylan switches (48 ports)
- Motorola vanguard router
- 26 Celeron 430 MHz (or higher), 128 MB RAM, 4,3 (or higher) GB HDD PCs and 17” monitors
- 1 application server with dual PII 400 MHz, 320 MB RAM, and 9GB SCSCI HDD
- Pairgain modem 64 Kbit-2Mbit
-Windows NT 4 as a platform deployed on more than 80% of the computers and there are also 6 Win 2000 Professional systems
-Windows 95/98 where hardware requirements for Windows NT are not met
-Windows NT server

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)

The library is in The Office and contains patent literature, various kind of non-patent literature, and Official Gazettes. Information can be obtained by contacting the Office. Also information can be provided by coming to the library using the search station or by visiting the Web-site http://www.ippo.gov.mk.

VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of patent documentation and information

The Office's databases are provided by mutual exchange of patent documentation with other Offices. There are CD-ROM collections from: European Patent Applications, PCT international Application (WORLD), JOPAL, ACCESS, LEGAL and the Bulletin all from the ESPACE production, and than Patent Abstracts Of Japan (PAJ CD-ROM), USAPAT, Collection of Republic of Moldova, PRECES, HUNPATÉKA and Slovenian Patent Documents on CD ROM. The Office receives the said patent documentation, continuously.
The official gazette “Glasnik” issued by The Office as well as The Annual Report are delivered to the following countries: YU, HR, SI, BG, CZ, PL, SE, TR, AT, AL, BY, BE, KR, FR, HU, CH, UA, ER, GB, US, JP, PT, KP, RU, SK, ES, MD and FI. The Office receives gazettes and annual reports from the following countries: AT, BG, ER, BY, MD, PL, HU, UA, FI, CZ, RU, SK, JP, YU, HR and SI. These documents are in paper form, mostly.

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

On March 5 and 6, the visit of the Bulgarian Patent Office was realized in Sofia, during which experiences were exchanged between the two Offices regarding the Common - Software and automation matters were discussed.
Starting at the beginning of this year, under the Agreement between the Embassy of France, on behalf of the French government and the Agency for civil servants, on behalf of the Macedonian government, the implementation of the Program: High administrative training started, with an objective of upgrading the Macedonian civil servants in direction of improved efficiency of the Macedonian public administration. A representative from the Patent Department attended the training. The Institute for sociological and political–legal research from Macedonian side and the National school for administration (EHA) from French side prepared the pedagogical part of the project. The donation of the French government of 1.5 million Euro, for the period 2002 – 2004 year, is aimed at training 105 civil servants, in three generations of 35.
From June 4 to 21, a representative from the Office took part at the international seminar for intellectual property, organised by the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva, and the second part in the Israeli Office in Jerusalem. A WIPO Academy course was held before the seminar, organized under the system of distance learning, DL-101. After successfully completing the course, candidates were selected for further practical training in different offices.
The celebration of the International day of Intellectual Property, 26 April, was held in Skopje’s hotel “Aleksandar Palace”. The event was attended by the minister of culture Ms. Ganka Samoilovska Cvetanova, the minister of economy Mr. Besnik Fetai, the director of the Industrial Property Protection Bureau Mr. Ramadan Ahmedi, Mr. Samir Latif, senior legal adviser of the ABA-CEELI, who addressed the gathering, as well as the representatives of the Government of the Republic of Macedonia, representatives for the intellectual property, guests inventors etc. This event gives an opportunity for broader affirmation of the benefits provided by the system of intellectual property. This will contribute to greater respect of the values of human creativity and his genius.
From November 12 to 17, 2002, Brussels hosted the 51 international exhibition of inventions, researches and new technologies, “Brussels Eureka”, organized by the Chamber of Inventors of Belgium. Inventors from 25 countries from all over the world presented their inventions. Traditionally, on this exhibition inventors from the Republic of Macedonia presented their inventions. The appearance of the Macedonian inventors was organized by the Industrial Property Protection Office and the Association of Inventors and Authors of Technical Promotions. Five inventions were presented by the Republic of Macedonia on this exhibition.
Receiving the grades by the national and the international jury, the inventors from the Republic of Macedonia have won the following medals and special recognitions:
1. The invention “System for stretching cloth”, by the inventor Goran Todoroski, has won a gold medal with recognition, as well as two special awards: the award of the Prime Minister of the Government of the Region of Brussels, Fransoa – Xavier D’Dona and the Grand prix of the Association of Inventors of the Republic of Romania.
2. The invention “Compasses with a telescopic leg”, by the inventor Kolja Asenov, has won a gold medal with recognition, as well as special award from the Bulgarian – American Trade and Industrial Chamber from Sofia.
3. The invention “Working circuit of drum-like motion apparatus on still waters” by the inventor Ljubomir Josifovski has won a golden medal.
4. The invention “Lever with grids” by the inventor Stefan Nastevski has won a gold medal, and
5. The invention “Thermally regulated orangery” by the inventor Josif Jordanovski has won a gold medal.
On this exhibition the Macedonian delegation has given two photo monographs for the following inventions and inventors:
- To Association Securi-Vie for the invention “Securi Stop” from the Republic of France;
- To inventors Budeanu Ioan, Eftinoiu Marin and Eftinoiu Ecaterina for the invention “Ecological composite material for brake pads” from the Republic of Romania.
The manifestation “Patent of the year” is being held since the foundation of the Industrial Property Protection Office in 1993. Traditionally, on November 5, 2002, for the ninth time in the Club of Lawmakers, the director of the Office, Mr. Ramadan Ahmedi, has conferred the prestigious award “Patent of the year”.
This time, the award went to Goran Todoroski, for his invention “System for stretching cloth“. We found this invention being especially interesting from several aspects. Namely, this is very attractive and already commercialized invention. The fact itself that this invention is already applied, speaks enough of its attractiveness. In this moment the invention is being used for the city billboards, but it can also be used in the cinemas, for the montage of the canvas, for stretching the tarpaulins of the trucks and other vehicles. This invention represents a simple solution of the problem emerging when the cloth is being stretched, avoiding its pleating and material damage, i.e. protected from outside and atmospheric influences.
This year, the Office has granted four testimonials for successful inventions. The testimonials were awarded to the following inventors:
1. Josif Jordanovski for the invention “Thermally regulated orangery”
2. Kolja Asenov for the invention “Compasses with a telescopic leg“
3. Ljubomir Josifovski for the invention “Working circuit of drum-like motion apparatus on still waters”
4. Nasteski Stefan for the invention “Lever with grids”

22nd International exhibition of inventions, technical promotions, new products and youth creativity “MAKINOVA 2002” was held from October 22 to 27, 2002.
The manifestation is being organized and realized by the Association of inventors and authors of the technical promotions in Macedonia (SPATUM) and was technically supported by the IPPO.
Apart from the innovators from Macedonia, the manifestation was enriched with the presence of many innovators and organizations from abroad.
During “MAKINOVA 2002” the international seminar on the topic: “Business activities of the intellectual property” on October 23 and 24, 2002, was organized by: SPATUM, Industrial Property Protection Office and American Legal Association – Legal Initiative of Central and Eastern Europe (ABA CEELI);
The Project “Promotion of the intellectual property rights” has started with its realization on April 26, 2001, and the Industrial Property Protection Bureau has taken an active part in it and was a bearer of all the activities, together with the American Legal Association – Legal Initiative of Central and Eastern Europe (ABA-CEELI). The Project in its Phase II continues to work within the frameworks of the sub-commission for subjects of the economy and the sub-commission for judges and prosecutors. The work consisted of two components, educational and informational. Two new target groups were set up, consisting of different categories of consumers of intellectual property rights.
The Office took part as the bearer of the Project and in the period from April to December 2002, it organized and participated with its lecturers on 9 out of 11 realized workshops and 2 international seminars.

IX. Other relevant matters

Nothing new to report.