Annual Technical Report 2002 on Trademark Information Activities submitted by Republic of Moldova (SCIT/ATR/TM/2002/MD)
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I. Evolution of registration activities
In the year 2002, the total number of applications for the registration of trademarks filed was 4050, of which 1673 were filed under the national procedure and 2377 under the Madrid Agreement concerning the International Registration of Marks and Protocol to the said Agreement (international procedure).
As compared with 2001, the year 2002 is characterized by an essential increase in the number of applications filed by national applicants and a decrease of those filed under the international procedure. Thus, the number of applications filed under the national procedure increased to 515 (44.5%) and the number of international applications decreased to 451 (16%). Consequently, the total number of applications filed increased by 64 (1.6%).
The difference between the number of applications filed under the national and international procedures decreased: in 2001, the number of international applications filed was 2.4 times more than the national ones, then in 2002, this ratio fell to 1.4.
In 2002, the number of applications filed by the national applicants increased to 603 (76.5%) as compared with 2001, and the total number of applications filed by foreign applicants decreased to 539 (16.9%), as to the national procedure, this decrease is of 88 applications (24%). As a result, the number of applications filed by the national applicants is 5 times bigger than the number of applications filed by foreign applicants under the national procedure; in 2001, this ratio was two.
The most requested class under the national procedure is 33, it can be found in 60% of the applications filed. Then, at a close distance, follow the classes 35>32>30>05>39>29>… .
As for the international applications, the picture is very different; the class 33 is situated only on the 24th place of the top preferences, the leader being the class 05, followed by the classes 09 > 42 > 03 > 35 > 16 > 38 > … .
In 2002, 37 countries filed trademarks applications under the national procedure. The number of trademark applications filed by the national applicants constituted 82% of the total number of applications filed. The most active applicants were from USA (6%), GB (2%), JP, DE, SG, UA (with 1%).
Under the international procedure, there were filed applications from 34 countries, the most active being from DE > CH > IT > FR > BX > HU > GB > RU>…
From the international applications filed in 2002, 89% designated MD while filing the application (ENN) and 11%- through territorial extension (EXT).
750 trademark certificates have been issued in 2002, this number is 35 (4.4%) smaller than in 2001, 56% of these certificates were issued to national owners and 44% - to foreign owners, thus the ratio was inversed as to the year 2001. Foreign owners who qualitatively stand out are from USA, GB, MU, NL, among others.
In 2002, 307 trademarks were renewed, that is with 39 (11%) less than in 2001, including 20 national trademarks and 287 international trademarks, respectively with 9 (31%) and 30 (9.5%) less than in 2001.
II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, and distribution of secondary sources of trademark information, i.e., trademark gazettes
The main types of announcements of the Office in the field of trademark information are:
The Official Bulletin of Industrial Property Protection (BOPI);
The Trademark Register;
The Appellations of Origin Register.
National Register of Applications for the Registration of Trademarks
National Register of Applications for the Registration of Appellations of Origin
BOPI, including Sections IV and V with information on trademarks and appellations of origin, from January 2000 onwards, is available online via our AGEPI web site at www.agepi.md in portable document format (PDF).
Section IV of BOPI contains :
- Examined applications for trademark registration;
- List of registered trademarks;
- List of renewed trademarks.
Section V contains:
- Examined applications for appellations of origin of goods;
- List of registered appellations of origin.
Section VII contains various types of notices referring to all amendments that have been made to the legal status of the protected industrial property objects (List of amendments, List of assignment agreements, Errata, etc), the half-yearly subject indexes of registered trademarks.
In the year under review, 54 book titles and periodicals have been published with the AGEPI.
The AGEPI maintains a complete history of its national trademark files in paper form.
III. Matters concerning classifying, reclassifying and indexing of trademark information
Classification and reclassification activities; Classification systems used, e.g., International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (Nice Classification), International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks (Vienna Classification), other classification (please indicate whether goods and services for the registration of marks and whether the figurative elements of marks are classified by your Office and, if so, which classification(s) is (are) used)
During 2002 the AGEPI applied:
•International Classification of Goods and Services (Nice Classification), the eighth edition; (as from 01.01.2002)
•International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks (Vienna Classification), fourth edition;
•three - digit INID codes in accordance with the WIPO Standard ST.60.
Use of electronic classification systems to check the classification symbols furnished by an applicant and which are contained in the lists of goods and/or services
To check the conformity of goods and services to the Nice Classification and of the figurative elements to the Vienna Classification, the AGEPI uses the electronic classification system on the CD ROMARIN.
Obligation for applicants to use pre-defined terms of the classification applied
It is not obligatory for applicants to use pre-defined terms of the classification applied.
Bibliographic data and processing for search purposes
Bibliographic data and processing for search purposes: Data included in the WIPO Standard ST.60.
IV. Trademark manual search file establishment and upkeep
The examiner’s search files are the following:
• card - file of word trademarks grouped in alphabetic order;
• card - file of combined trademarks grouped by categories of the Nice Classification;
• card - file of combined trademarks grouped in alphabetic order of the words;
• card - file of figurative marks grouped by categories of the Vienna Classification;
• card - file of appellations of origin grouped in numerical order;.
• paper-case with the list of signs protected under Article 6 ter of the Paris Convention not included in the “Article 6 ter CD”;
• list of geographical indications which are protected under a bilateral or regional agreement in respect of the protection of geographical indications;
• list of International Nonproprietary Names (INN) for pharmaceutical substances issued by the World Health Organization;
• list of names of plant varieties registered in the Republic of Moldova.
At the disposal of examiners, there are three foreign databases on CD-ROM (Romarin, USAMark, and Community Trade Mark Bulletin), Trademark Gazettes of different countries and via the Internet the Madrid Express Database – data collection hosted by WIPO. From October 10, 2002, the AGEPI has at its disposal the CD-ROM with INN from OMS, which is used for search purposes. Examiners also use different browsers for searching the Internet and in dictionaries, atlases and electronic encyclopedias.
Moreover, the manual paper search files consist of encyclopedias, dictionaries, special books, periodicals, and a number of other lists and sources.
Both the examiner' search files and documentation at the library are updated on a regular basis.
V. Activities in the field of computerized trademark search systems
The administration Program of Data Base „National Trademarks” is still in the elaboration, testing and code & data checking processes.
The programs for procedural fees evidence and for fees statistics were elaborated and put into operation.
The technical base of the network has been consolidated due to the change of two servers and additional installation of three others. The administration system of the Active Directory domain based on Windows 2000 Server was elaborated and implemented.
To ensure the stable functioning of the Internet-server, the Linux RedHat 8.0 server with the e-mail antivirus protection was installed. Several work stations were modernized, thus offering from a technical point of view, sufficient possibilities of homogenizing the working environment, the operation and application soft used within the Agency, namely the installation of the Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional and the MS Office 2000 Professional.
All examiners have access to the Internet at their desks.
Equipment used:
- Dual processor Servers: 1 - HP NetServer LC - I I; 1 - HP NetServer E60; 2 – HP Kayak XU800
- One processor Servers : 5 - HP Kayak XU800
- Dual Processor workstation Compaq AP500 with Xerox DocuImage 6205 for scanning documentations and images
- Data storage solutions - Promise UltraTrak SX8000 about 1000 Gb in RAID
- Backup System - HP StorageWorks Ultrium 460 tape drive
- More than 130 PCs based on various Intel and AMD processor systems (Intel Pentium I,II,III; AMD Athlon, Duron )
- 5 scanners
- 5 network printers (Xerox, HP )
- Ethernet 100Mb UTP network set on star topology with the central scalable mount rack with 5 HP and CNet switches
- Dedicated line for Internet connection 96 kbps
- 2 servers based on Linux operating system for Internet gateway, mail and web servers.
- Workstations operating systems : Windows 95/98, Windows 2000, Windows XP
- Software specific of the CD-ROM collections namely Mimosa , Diapat, etc
VI. Administration of trademark services available to the public (relating to facilities, e.g., for lodging applications, registering trademarks, assisting clients with search procedures, obtaining official publications and registry extracts)
The AGEPI library, as an AGEPI division, functions simultaneously as an in-house and public library, open to a wide range of users of the Republic of Moldova.
Librarians and information specialists are available in the library to assist the public in all aspects of their work with catalogues, CD-ROMs, books, etc. The AGEPI library is available to the public 6 days a week (except Sunday) from 9-00 to 16-00.
The full AGEPI Collection available to the interested public is shown in the attached Table II.
With the view of promoting the collection, 81 actions have been organized during the year, including book and document exhibitions: “New acquisitions”, “Industrial Property Protection in the Republic of Moldova”, “AGEPI Publications” etc. Information about the new acquisitions in the library collection is systematically offered on the AGEPI web site. The information provided on the AGEPI web site – www.agepi.md – covers all general topics concerning trademarks (national and international legislation, preparation of application, office procedures, forms etc.).
During the year 2002, the AGEPI has rendered to the economic agents of the republic 734 consultations in the field of obtaining titles of protection of industrial property objects, organized 200 visits to the enterprises; it rendered a double volume of information/retrieval services in the IPP field as compared with the previous year.
The Library also provides, by payment, such services as copying the documents from CD-ROM/DVD-ROM on paper (in 2002 – 2235 pages) or on CD / DVD-ROM (in 2002 – 861 documents), copying the documents form the Library paper Collection; selling the AGEPI editions.
The main features regarding the library-information services rendered in 2002 are the following: readers- 512; visits – 5986; borrowed documents – 56174, including: books – 8019, periodicals – 20955, patents -6041, CD-ROM – 13528, BOPI – 7631.
TableII - The attached file provides the list of the AGEPI Library Collection on CD/DVD-ROM
VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of trademark documentation and information
In the year 2002, the process for completion and development of the literature and document collection in the industrial property protection field continued on the basis of a bilateral exchange with 44 foreign patent and trademark offices. The acquisition of literature in the field via libraries, publications and book exhibitions, by subscription to periodical publications from the country and from abroad also continued on the basis of periodicals published by the AGEPI - in total over 80 sources.
The Official Bulletin (BOPI) was received in 2002 by bilateral exchange from 31 countries in paper form and from 6 countries on CD-ROM (in total 528 Official Bulletins); 1228 CD-ROMs have been acquired in 2002 by bilateral exchange from 16 countries, as well as, 873 books and 2772 periodicals.
The Agency has furnished to 26 Industrial Property Offices and other related international institutions 26 CD-ROMs (AGEPI Annual Report 2002, Legislation in the field), 684 BOPI, 24 periodicals (“Intellectus”).
VIII. Matters concerning education and training including technical assistance to developing countries
During the year 2002, the AGEPI organized 18 national and 2 international seminars on industrial property protection matters, where the experts of Trademarks and Industrial Design Direction have been involved.
Concomitantly, the AGEPI staff delivered specialized courses for judges of different courts, for councilors in industrial property and managers of economic units of the republic, the experts of Trademarks and Industrial Design Direction being responsible of conducting the trademarks and related subjects.
At the same time, special courses, thematic seminars, upgrading probations were organized for the AGEPI employees in order to improve their professional skills and extend the knowledge spectrum.
In 2002, the AGEPI staff, including the specialists of the Trademarks and Industrial Design Direction, have participated in 47 international events such as trainings, meetings, seminars, symposia, works, consultations, etc., in the field.
In particular, it is worth to mention the Conference for Young Professionals on Industrial Property Issues that was held in Kyrgyzstan, the seminar “Protection of Trademarks in Romania, Theoretical and Practical Aspects”, organized by the State Office for Inventions and Trademarks of Romania (OSIM), the WIPO Regional Consultation on Electronic Commerce and Intellectual Property, organized by the WIPO in cooperation with the National Centre of Intellectual Property (NCIP) in the Republic of Belarus. The experts of the Direction also participated in 13 national exhibitions.
IX. Other relevant matters
On April 5, 2002, the examination of the appellations of origin according to the Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their international Registration was finalized. 759 appellations of origin were granted protection and 6 appellations of origin were provisionally rejected. The list of appellations of origin that obtained protection was published in BOPI.