Annual Technical Report 2003 on Trademark Information Activities submitted by Australia (SCIT/ATR/TM/2003/AU)
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I. Evolution of registration activities
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(Please Note: AU provides for multi-class filings. Figures below are in classes)
Applications:
2002 - 64436
2003 - 73671
14.3% increase
Registrations:
2002 - 51741
2003 - 50015
3.3% decrease
Trends or areas experiencing rapid changes with respect to the previous year
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Applications Filed
Applications Accepted for Registration
Amendments and Changes
Applications Lapsed Withdrawn and Refused
Trade Marks Registered
Assignment, Transmittals and Transfers
Cancellation of Entries in Register
Renewal of Registration of Trade Marks
Opposition Proceedings
Removal for Non-use Proceedings
Notices
Mass storage media and microforms used
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Australia classifies goods and services according to Nice Version 8.
Australia does not use the Vienna Classification scheme to classify the figurative elements of marks. Rather figurative elements are classified (and searched) according to a thesaurus of device terms developed by the Office.
For example, the WIPO device is indexed as follows:
1 ANNULUS 2 CONCENTRIC
3 HAND 4 PEN
5 BOOK,OPEN 6 GRAIN,EAR
7 VIOLIN 8 WHEEL,GEAR
9 MUSICAL-INSTRUMENT 10 CIRCLE+
11 ROUND 12 ROUND+
Each device term may then be used as a search criteria, either singularly or in combination, in order to locate marks with similar device characteristics.
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
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As mentioned previously, the primary business system is the ADABAS Natural mainframe application,TMARK, running on IBM MVS. TMARK interfaces to a number of satellite applications, eg Word for production of reports, XICS for publishing output, a couple of mid-range applications for EDI under the Madrid Protocol, an automated data capture utility (ADC) for capturing data received electronically, and ATMOSS. Document management is handled via TRACS.
All processing relating to the life-cycle of a trade mark (apart from financial processing) is conducted within this environment. The Trade Mark Office, along with the Patent and Design Offices in IP Australia is in the process of transitioning our business applications from the mainframe to our strategic server infrastructure environment. This environment includes Sun Solaris, Oracle RDBMS, J2EE, BEA Weblogic, and Objective EDMS.
Equipment used (hardware, including the types of terminal and network used, and software), carriers used
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People's Republic of China
1. In August 2003, Judge Lu Guoqiang from China visited Australia on a fact-finding mission and held discussions with the Attorney-General's Department and IP Australia on aspects of Australian intellectual property law.
Nepal
2. In August 2003, an Australian team comprising of members from government and private legal practice conducted a review of Nepalese IP legislation, including relevant aspects of the Nepalese enforcement processes. The review sought to identify any inconsistencies between Nepalese laws and the requirements of the TRIPS Agreement and make recommendations as to how the laws and enforcement processes may be amended or improved so as to comply with the TRIPS Agreement.
Singapore
3. On 31 January 2003, an official from IP Australia visited the IP Office of Singapore to discuss current awareness and education programmes and how Singapore and Australia may continue to share experiences in the IP awareness and education field.
Thailand
4. On 21 May 2003, a group of five visitors from the Chulalongkorn University Intellectual Property Institute in Thailand visited IP Australia. Discussions focused on licensing and IP valuation methodologies.
Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Nepal
5. From 22 to 24 October 2003, officials from Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Nepal visited IP Australia to study the strategies and programmes being pursued in Australia to promote the use of IP by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. This study visit was sponsored by WIPO.
II. REGIONAL/MULTILATERAL ACTIVITIES
APEC-IPEG
6. With funding received from APEC under its Trade and Investment Liberalization and Facilitation programme, IP Australia is managing a project to develop a public education and awareness programme for Indonesia, the Philippines and Viet Nam. Under this programme a public education and awareness workshop was delivered from 24 to 25 June 2003 to staff from the Indonesian Directorate General of Intellectual Property Rights. A similar workshop was delivered to the National Office of IP in Viet Nam from 27 to 28 October 2003. Website development and the development of publications, training and strategy development are also part of the deliverables for this project.
The Regionally Focused Action Plan (RFAP) for the Pacific Islands Forum Countries
7. From 2 to 4 September 2003, WIPO, IP Australia and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat organized workshops on Administration of Intellectual Property and Enhancing Public Awareness of Intellectual Property in Port Vila, Vanuatu. The workshops were attended by officials from 12 Pacific Island countries.
IX. Other relevant matters