Annual Technical Report 2008 on Patent Information Activities submitted by Uzbekistan (SCIT/ATR/PI/2008/UZ)

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

Changes experienced in terms of application filings and grants with respect to the previous year

The Law of Republic Uzbekistan « On modification and additions in the Law of Republic Uzbekistan On the inventions, useful models and industrial samples »№ ZRU-164 dated July 30, 2008 has come into force on July 31, 2008. The given law covers the positions providing system of postponed examination application for granting patent for the invention, reinstatement of patent effect for objects of industrial property and reduction terms of granting patents from three months till 10 days. In connection with acceptance of the given law the work has fulfilled on modification and additions in the normative documents of obligatory character regulating actions of applicants on drawing up and filing applications and experts works. "Rules of compilation, filing and consideration of the application for grant the patent of the Republic of Uzbekistan for industrial design" and "Rules of compilation, filing and consideration of the application for grant the patent of the Republic of Uzbekistan for invention" are prepared and registered with established order.

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

Inventions

448 applications for granting of patents for inventions have filed in SPO in 2008. 262 applications were filed by national applicants, that makes 58, 5 % from the total number of filed application. 186 (41, 5 %) application have filed by foreign applicants, that makes 88, 7 % filed applications on the international procedure (РСТ). The greatest quantity of applications for inventions from national applicants has been filed on section A «Satisfaction of vital needs of the person» of the International Patent Classification (IPC), from foreign applicants - on section C «Chemistry, metallurgy» of IPC. Total number of registered invention makes 288, from its 39, 6 % falls on national applicants and 60, 4 % falls on foreign applicants.

Utility models

The quantity of the applications on utility model has increased in 2008. Quantity makes 108, 9% in comparison with 2007 year, in all 135 applications were submitted. The greatest number of applications is submitted on section A (Satisfaction of vital needs of the person) - 37 applications, section D (Textiles and a paper) - 31 applications, the share of the submitted applications according to sections makes 50, 4 %. In report year the total of the registered useful models has grown in one and a half time in comparison with the last year and has made 105 useful models from which 95, 2 % are registered by national applicants, the others 4, 8 % - foreign applicants.

The total of the registered utility models in 2007 has made 70, that exceeds twice the indication of 2006.

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

The address of the web-page of statistical data on inventions and utility models is available: http://www.patent.uz/statistics.htm. Access on the given page is carried out through the main page web-site SPO from section « About office » go to Statistics.

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

Publishing, printing, copying (main types of publications of the Office in the field of patent information, etc.)

In 2008 official publications of the office are included the following editions:
• Official bulletin «Rasmiy Ahborotnoma» - 12 issues (on CD-ROM);
• Descriptions of inventions to patents - 302 descriptions (on a paper);
• Descriptions of utility models to patents - 90 descriptions (on a paper);
• Collection of annual indexes to the official bulletin «Rasmiy Ahborotnoma» for 2008 (sections of indexes under inventions and utility models) on the electronic carrier.
Data on the registered inventions and utility models are published in sections "Inventions" and «Utility models» of the official bulletin «Rasmiy Ahborotnoma» which is issued from 2004 on CD-ROM. Data on inventions includes bibliographic data and formula, on utility models - bibliographic data and abstract; all data are translated in Russian and Uzbek languages. In reporting year about 280 inventions and 104 utility models are published in bulletins.


SPO participates also in issuing of CISPATENT - joint regional patent-information product on CD-ROM disks, being the collection of official publications of patent offices of the states-participants CIS and Eurasian Patent Office (EAPO). In 2008 it is prepared 11 issues with the information on patents of the Republic of Uzbekistan on inventions and utility models, including 340 abstracts in three languages (English, Russian, and Uzbek) and to its full descriptions of inventions and utility models in Russian, the processed document files send to FIPS of the Rospatent.

Main types of announcements of the Office in the field of patent information

The most important announcements, concerning patent-information activity of the office are published in section "Communiques" of the bulletin «Rasmiy Ahborotnoma» and on the website of the office (www.patent.uz).

Mass storage media used (paper, microforms, optical storage, etc.)

SPO has a full collection of patent documents of Uzbekistan (originals) on a paper. Furthermore all patent documents are stored in bibliographic databases and in electronic storehouses.

Word processing and office automation

During processing applications all the documents, concerning industrial designs, are scanned and kept as facsimile form in format TIFF. Gathering of the official bulletin chapters on industrial designs is carried out in the automatically on a workplace of the employee of the office of publication division. By specialized inquiry bibliographic data from a database (SUBD MS SQL Server 2000) are selected and sorted. The subsequent operations (page makeup, replication) are made by means of programs Word and Adobe Acrobat.
Descriptions and the list of essential attributes are recognized by system OCR and kept in format MS-Word. Images of industrial designs are entered in format JPG, by means of program Adobe PhotoShop.

URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide access to online publication of patent documents and gazettes, and to other primary and secondary sources of patent information, including patent publication servers and download of bulk patent data

Address of the web-page on which the official bulletin is available: http://www.patent.uz/bul.htm. Access on the given page is carried out through the main page web-site SPO from section « Electronic publication ».

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

Abstracting, reviewing, translating

Published patent documents on inventions and utility models join abstracts in Russian and Uzbek languages; abstracts are published in the official bulletin on utility models also in two languages.

Classification1, preclassification2 (if applicable), and reclassification3 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)

Applications for inventions and utility models are classified according to the International Patent Classification of corresponding edition, since January 1, 2006 8-th edition of IPC - a base level is used.

Coordinate indexing (domestic deep indexing systems, keyword indexing)

Coordinate indexing of national patent documents is not carried out.

Hybrid system indexing

The hybrid system of indexation of national patent documents is not carried out.

Bibliographic data and full-text processing

Bibliographic data are kept in the form of dynamic ХМL-documents in internal database which are supported and updated during a life of the application by all departments involved in process. Changes in base will be authorized. Interfaces of access to base are constructed on the basis of Intranet-technologies. Search on contents of text files of documents is essentially possible, but now is inaccessible.

IV. Search file establishment and upkeep

File building

The search file on a paper and optical disks is formed on the basis of collection of the State Fund of the Patent Documentation which structure includes current and retrospective files of the national patent documentation, the foreign patent documentation entering into the list of the countries - PCT minimum. Besides there is patent associated literature including the scientific, technical literature in the form of books and periodicals, reference books.

The Fund of national patent documents on a paper is presented: descriptions of inventions to patent both preliminary patents and descriptions of utility models to certificates and patents (from 1993) systematized on classification indexes of IPC and on numbers of protection documents. Bibliographic databases and electronic file (text) storehouses for internal use are conducted.
The collection of patent documents on CD/DVD-ROM is systematized by the countries and years.

Updating

Search files on a paper and a part on CD/DVD-ROM are updated monthly, some CD/DVD-ROM are updated annually.
Bibliographic data and files of documents in electronic storehouse can replenish and-or be corrected in process of the reference.

Storage, including mass storage media

Conditions of storage of fund depend mostly on kinds of data carriers: patent documents on a paper are stored in folders on metal racks, on CD-ROM and DVD-ROM in stores in wall cases.
Bases of bibliographic, office work data and file storehouse are stored on specialized file-servers (the magnetic disks organized in the form of a RAID-file) on which with a view of preservation of data reserve copying on an additional server is carried out.

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

In 2008 the State Fund of the Patent Documentation has replenished with patent-information publications of 27 countries of the world, WIPO, EPO and EAPO. In reporting year among new receipts of the patent documentation on CD-ROM disks began to receive official the patent bulletins from China and France.

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

In-house systems (online/offline)

Implementation of internal portal of the SPO is stopped which realizes functions of the patent -information search system, the regulated statistics and office-work SATOZ («Through automated technology of processing of applications»), because of the revealed lacks during operation.

External databases

Access of examiners of the office to patent and not patent databases in on-line mode is provided. Databases of the European Patent Office, Rospatent, USA, and WIPO concern to popular patent databases most widely used by examiners on the Internet. Among databases containing not patent literature, being an easy approach, the greatest quantity of references was to the following: Science Direct, Scirus, PubMed, Google, Rambler, Yahoo, and Yandex.

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

The full-function system of administration is in SATOZ, providing authorization, access to the information, safety, and management of the rights of users, groups and options of system.

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

The equipment: Server group, network infrastructure (cable communications, routers), workstations (from P-II, up to P-IV), periphery (printers, scanners, photocopy).
Operational system: Windows Server 2003 Mode (servers SQL Server 2000/2003, Excange 2003, ISA, IIS, server of reserve copying/restoration of the information), Vista and Windows 2000/XP (workstations).
The applied software: SATOZ/Landocs, external site www.patent.uz, internal site (PIPS), System of testing of knowledge.
Applied systems: "Norm" program system, “1C Account” account system, Promt 10 machine translation system, Lingvo 10 system of dictionaries, ORT-system Fine Reader, Photoshop CS2, office system MS Office (professional), Adobe Reader 7.0.

VI. Administration of the industrial property office library, and information products 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)

Planning, administration, automation, security, buildings

The State Fund of the Patent Documentation (SFPD) is structural division of SPO and practically unique full collection of the patent documentation in territory of Uzbekistan. On the basis of SFPD patent-information service both examination stuff of SPO, and the broad audience of the public are carried out, i.e. functions of public library are carried out.
The total area of fund, including office accommodations, reading rooms and storehouses of patent and other information, makes 671, 14 sq. m.

Collecting, acquisitions, preparation

Collection of SFPD is presented by the domestic and foreign patent documentation, official and abstract editions of patent offices, patent-legal, patent associated literature, normative-methodical and reference books, periodicals. The volume of fund on the end of 2008 made more than 67,9 million copies of patent documents on various kinds of carriers.
The basic sources of acquisition of fund are: official publications of SPO; the patent documentation received on the basis of international exchange which is carried out on the basis of two-way deals and agreements with patent offices of 28 countries and four international organizations; subscription to periodic and specialized editions and purchase of the special literature through news agencies-subscription. All received documentation is registered, classified and grouped for the purposes of storage.
About 1, 8 million copies of patent documents on optical disks have received in 2008. Receipts on a paper, except for periodicals, normative-methodical literature and patent bulletins of some countries at the same time have practically stopped. The collection of fund on СD-ROM and DVD-ROM makes more than 16, 2 thousand disks containing full descriptions of inventions to applications, patents, utility models, official and abstract editions of patent offices.

Collection management, preservation

The collection of fund is placed on geographical-systematic-numerical principle. Conditions of storage of collection are defined by kinds of data carriers: patent documents on a paper are stored in folders on metal racks, on microfilms - in boxes in metal cupboard, and on CD/DVD-ROM disks - in stores in wall cupboard.

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

In 2008 SFPD cooperated on an interlibrary exchange with National library named after A. Navoiy, Main library of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan, State Scientific Medical Library; it has been e given out on an interlibrary exchange more than 448 documents, books and brochures.

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)

SFPD carries out library-information and reference-bibliographic service of experts of various areas of science, manufacture, business. Granting of patent documents is carried out directly in reading rooms of fund, including electronic fund, and also under the interlibrary subscription. Visiting SFPD and library-bibliographic service of all categories of users is carried out free of charge.
The quantity of visiting SFPD has made more than 4,6 thousand in 2008; it has been given out more than 1,5 million patent documents, from which above 1,4 million on CD/DVD - ROM disks. It is rendered nearby 1, 1 thousand consultations on various questions. It is executed over 4, 6 thousand copies of descriptions of inventions.
With the purpose of expansion of patent-information service SFPD carries out a lot of services under orders of the consumers including automated patent search on CD/DVD - ROM, and also patent search with use of the removed databases. Besides render services on a traditional mode - thematic a selection, selective distribution of the patent information by inquiries, copying, selection and delivery of documents by inquiries of readers, classification on IPC, NCI, to consultation of users. 120 orders for patent-information services have been executed in 2008.

URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide information on business procedures such as: filing, publication, examination and grant procedures related to patents; opposition and appeal procedures related to patents; etc.

The address of web-page on which the information on filing and consideration of applications for inventions is available: http://www.patent.uz/izobretenia .htm

The address of web-page on which the information on filing and consideration of applications for utility models is available: http://www.patent.uz/polezmodel.htm. Access on the given page is carried out through the main page web-site SPO from section « IP objects » go to Inventions, utility models.

The address of web-page on which the information on the order of granting of patents is available: http://www.patent.uz/vedomakts.htm. Access on the given page is carried out through the main page web-site SPO from section « Legislation » go to Office acts.
The address of web-page on which the information on official publications of SPO is available: http://www.patent.uz/pravsovet.htm. Access on the given page is carried out through the main page web-site SPO from section « Adjudication validity ».

The address of web-page on which the information on appeal procedure is available: http://www.patent.uz/pravsovet.htm

URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide a description of information products and services offered by the Office (e.g., patent search service(s) and patent databases), as well as information on how to access and utilize them

The address of the web-page which includes information on products and services offered by office in on-line is available: http://www.patent.uz/vremenie/htm . Access on the given page is carried out through the main page web-site SPO from section « Patent fee and tariffs » go to Tariffs for SPO services.
The address of the web-page which includes the form of application for carrying out of the patent-information services which are carried out by the office in on-line is available:http://www.patent.uz/uslugs.htm. Access on the given page is carried out through the main page web-site SPO from section « Patent fee and tariffs » go to Tariffs for SPO services.

VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of patent documentation and information

International or regional cooperation in the exchange of machine-readable information, e.g., bibliographic data, abstract and/or full text information

SFPD carries out the international exchange of the patent documentation with patent offices of 27 countries, also international organizations WIPO, EPO and regional organization EAPO.

Medium used for exchange of priority documents

The process of exchanging patent documentation in various carriers is continues in 2008 and SPO has received official bulletins on a paper from 12 countries, on optical disks - from nine countries, WIPO and EAPO. Patent documents on СD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks have been received from 19 countries, WIPO, EPO and EAPO. Official bulletin of SPO «Rasmiy Ahborotnoma» with data on the registered inventions and utility models on СD-ROM disks was sent to patent offices of 27 countries, EPO, WIPO and EAPO

Medium allowed for filing applications

In 2008 works on submission applications on machine-readable carriers (as the third copy) are continued. 120 applications on the electronic carrier are submitted. Conditions of granting of materials of applications in an electronic form on machine-readable carriers are defined by the requirements approved by order of SPO.

VIII. Other relevant matters concerning education and training in, and promotion of, the use of patent information, including technical assistance to developing countries (please indicate URLs of web pages of the Office’s website wherever appropriate)

Training courses for national and foreign participants, use of audiovisual means

Experts of the office gave the lectures on intellectual property objects in Higher Educational Institutions; About 500 listeners have participated in lecture and practical work in 2008.

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

Activity of SPO in the field of intellectual property objects is the part of office organizing seminars, in particular the regional seminars « Legal Protection of IP Objects and its role in development region's economy» were organized in 2008 in the following cities of Uzbekistan: Urgench, Termez, Karshi, Samarkand, Bukhara, Navoiy, Namangan, Andijan, Fergana, Nukus, Gulistan, Jizak. Representatives of the small and medium-sized enterprises, the research organizations, universities are participants of seminars. The total of participants of seminars has made from above 900 persons.

The SPO announced competition on the best course paper and research works in the field of the intellectual property for students of High Education Institution. The master of the State Juridical University became a winner of competition and the master was awarded by the diploma and the monetary premium.
SPO together with the State Popular Scientific and Documentary Films Studio of Republic Uzbekistan made a film «Creative youth of Uzbekistan and intellectual property ». Film covers the base concepts, devoted intellectual property (the copyright, a patent right) and participation of youth in creation of the advanced economy.
SPO has published three numbers the specialized magazine «Management of Intellectual Property».
SPO has continued the work on providing assistance in creation of conditions for development of scientific and technical creativity among youth. SPO together with the Republican Center of Technical Creativity of Pupils organized the republican competition of scientific and technical creativity for school pupils.
In 2008 employees of SPO participated as judges in various competitions for the studying youth.
Materials concerning SPO activity on various issues of legal protection of intellectual property have regularly published in mass media. Employees of SPO participated in shows of TV channels "Uzbekistan", «Tashkent», «Youth».
Specialists of SPO prepared number information materials for publication in magazine «Management of intellectual property».
Representatives of SPO active participated in the various activities, organized by public organizations.

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 patents

The address of web-page on which the information under the legislation on inventions and utility models is available: http://www.patent.uz/zakons.htm.Access on the given page is carried out through the main page web-site SPO from section « Legislation » go to Office acts.

contain the Annual Report of the Office

Addresses of web-pages on which Annual Reports of SPO is available. http://www.patent.uz/bul.htm. Access on the given page is carried out through the main page web-site SPO from section « Electronic publication

X. Other relevant matters


1.Classification is allotting one or more classification symbols (e.g., IPC symbols) to a patent application, either before or during search and examination, which symbols are then published with the patent application.

2.Preclassification is allotting an initial broad classification symbol (e.g., IPC class or subclass, or administrative unit) to a patent application, using human or automated means for internal administrative purposes (e.g., routing an application to the appropriate examiner).  Usually preclassification is applied by the administration of an office.

3.Reclassification is the reconsideration and usually the replacement of one or more previously allotted classification symbols to a patent document, following a revision and the entry into force of a new version of the Classification system (e.g., the IPC).  The new symbols are available on patent databases.