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In 2002, codification was aimed, first of all, at tasks concerning Hungary’s accession to the European Patent Convention and at the implementation of legislation in the field of patent law.
Amendment to Law No. XXXIII of 1995 on the Protection of Inventions by Patents (Patent Law) was intended to attain the following objectives:
- creation of interface rules relating to European patent applications and European patents necessary for the integration into the system of the European Patent Convention;
- raising to statutory level and modernization of similar interface rules relating to the Patent Cooperation Treaty;
- accomplishment of amendments necessary for creating conformity with Community law, inter alia and most importantly, alignment with the EC directive on the legal protection of biotechnological inventions necessitated modifications;
- re-regulation of the protection of plant varieties, bringing the Patent Law into line with the 1991 Act of the UPOV Convention and, where necessary, with the Community system of plant variety rights;
- assurance of harmony with our new international obligations (e.g. connected with Hungary’ membership in NATO) affecting patent law.
The Parliament adopted the amendment on October 24, 2002. Law No. XXXIX of 2002 amending Law No. XXXIII of 1995 on the Protection of Inventions by Patents entered into force on January 1, 2003.
As a condition of the entry into force of the new Law, the Hungarian Patent Office (HPO) provided for the deposit of Hungary’s instrument of accession with the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany on the basis of Parliament decision (No. 54/2002 (IX. 13.) OGY) on the accession to the European Patent Convention (which took place on October 28, 2002) and of that with the Secretary-General of UPOV on the basis of Parliament decision (No. 56/2002 (IX. 13.) OGY) on the accession to the 1991 Act of the UPOV Convention (which took place on December 1, 2002). By virtue of the deposits, accession to both Conventions entered into force on January 1, 2003, in compliance with the relevant statutory rules.
By virtue of the authorization under the Law amending the Patent Law, Decree No. 20/2002 (XII. 12.) IM on the Detailed Formalities of Patent Applications, of Documents Filed in relation to European Patent Applications, European Patents and International Patent Applications and for Applications for Plant Variety Protection was prepared.
It was also by virtue of the authorization under that Law that Government Decree No. 270/2002 (XII. 20.) Korm. on the Detailed Rules of the Organization and Activity of the Body of Experts on Industrial Property was born. In compliance with that Decree, the Body shall have been renewed by the end of March 2003.
In order to meet Hungary’s obligations deriving from accession to the European Patent Convention and from other international treaties, certain international conventions were promulgated by law and some regulations of lower level relating to other international treaties were promulgated by decrees. These were:
- Law No. L of 2002 on the Promulgation of the Munich Convention on the Grant of European Patents (European Patent Convention) of 5 October 1973;
- Law No. LI of 2002 on the Promulgation of the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants as revised on March 19, 1991;
- Decree No. 34/2002 (XII. 25.) IM on the Promulgation of the Regulations Under the Patent Cooperation Treaty;
- Decree No. 22/2002 (XII. 13.) IM on the Promulgation of the Implementing Regulations to the Convention on the Grant of European Patents of 5 October 1973;
- Decree No. 21/2002 (XII. 13.) IM on the Promulgation of the Regulations Under the Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure;
- Decree No. 45/2002 (XII. 28.) GKM on the Promulgation of the Rules relating to Fees of the Convention on the Grant of European Patents of 5 October 1973.
The Decrees entered into force on January 1, 2003.
An important step was the creation of Decree No. 42/2002 (XII. 38.) GKM on the Fees for Administrative Services in Industrial Property Procedures before the HPO. The modification provides for the fees for new procedures starting from January 1, 2003 on the basis of the amendment to the Patent Law (thus for example fees relating to European patent applications and European patents, and fees relating to plant varieties). The level of fees of old procedures were increased by an average of 9.8%. An important change is that in the case of annual fees the four-year periods of payment were replaced by two-year periods.
The Ministry of Economy and Transport prepared a draft decree on the support of obtaining and maintaining industrial property protection from special funds allocated for the patenting of Hungarian inventions abroad.
As part of the performance of legal harmonization tasks required by Hungary’s accession to the European Union, a proposal on the amendment to Law No. XXXII of 1995 on Patent Attorneys was prepared.
Due to a decrease in the number of trademark applications and the gradually increasing number of international patent applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and entered the national phase, the number of national patent applications (5,906) is almost equal to that of trademark applications (5,944). These two titles of protection continue to stand out from the other industrial property categories and make up together more than 93% of national applications. At the same time, only 2 applications were received in 2002 for the protection of geographical indications.
Within the framework of international cooperation, the number of applications designating Hungary rises from year to year. This increase is due to the continuous growth in the number of patent applications filed under the PCT and designating also our country. The number of (industrial) design applications filed under the Hague Agreement and designating Hungary and that of trademark applications filed under the Madrid Agreement and designating Hungary are similar to the relevant application numbers in 2001.
A) PATENTS
Foreign applicants showed a continued keen interest in the Hungarian market. The applications were filed first of all under the PCT, Hungary was designated in almost 90,000 such applications.
4,579 requests were received relating to the entry into the national phase of international applications, which represents an increase of about 17% over the figure in 2001.
The number of foreign applications filed in the national way continued to decrease similarly to the previous years. The reason for this is not a declining interest in Hungary, but the general, worldwide tendency that applicants, in accordance with their economic interests, wish to obtain protection in several countries by filing a single application, therefore they file their applications first of all within the framework of the PCT.
The increase in the number of domestic applications came to a halt, the decline on 2001 was almost 10%. Fewer applications were received both from individual applicants and from enterprises, which indicates that it is necessary to enhance the awareness of the industrial property system in order to provide the tools which may serve technology policy and competitiveness in innovation.
Table 1.: Breakdown of national patent applications by origin (1998–2002)
Table 2.: Breakdown of patent applications by origin (1998–2002)
Patent examination work in the so-called BEST system (“search+examination”) continued. The 4594 searches performed by patent examiners exceeded by about 16% the performance in 2001. The total number of searches (4,927) was nearly 4% up on the previous year.
In compliance with the provisions of the law in force, the patent examiners arranged for the publication of 3,732 patent applications. On the basis of earlier technical preparations, in 2002 altogether 5,277 patent applications were published in the Gazette of Patent and Trademarks.
As a consequence of the ever-increasing number of patent applications outlined above and with the examining capacity remaining unchanged, the number of pending applications also rises continuously, although 2002 was the first year in which the energy invested in the training of new officials recruited in the previous years recovered.
Table 3.: Granted patents (1998–2002)
Granted patents represented about 36% of the total number of completed applications. This was a 2% fall from the previous year, but in absolute terms the number of granted patents increased. More and more patent applications filed under Law No. XXXIII of 1995 are completed, where the previous role of rejections is taken over by lapse.
Considering the “balance of work”, the number of completed applications was 4,360 compared to the 5,906 applications filed in 2002.
Table 4.: Granted patents break down by technical fields
It deserves special attention that the number of Hungarian inventors and enterprises filing patent applications with the Hungarian Patent Office as a receiving Office within the PCT system increased to an unprecedented extent, by about 25%. In the year under review, 178 international patent applications were filed, compared to the 153 in 2001. To judge this growth rightly, it must be mentioned that as a result of Hungary’ s accession to the European Patent Convention on January 1, 2003, the costs for Hungarian individual applicants shall rise because of the loss of the 75% allowance enjoyed until then. This may also have encouraged Hungarian inventors to file their international patent applications still in 2002. The conscious industrial property activity of Hungarian inventors may also be attributed, among others, to the fact that the HPO informed its clients in due time of the expected modifications of the European Patent Conventions and of its Implementing Regulations.
B) UTILITY MODELS
In 2002, 351 utility model granting procedures started, which means a 10% increase from the previous year and represents at the same time the second highest figure in the past 5 years. Ninety-five percent of the applications were received from domestic applicants, foreigners chose this title of protection only in 22 cases. In the year under review, 375 applications were completed, of which 237 ended with grant, 9 with rejection and 129 with withdrawal.
Table 5.: Breakdown of utility model applications by origin (1998–2002)
Table 6.: Figures of utility model procedures (1998–2002)
II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, distribution and use of primary and secondary sources of patent information
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The fundamental principle of the HPO concerning its public appearance is the effective, open and transparent informative behavior. In the interest of the uniform enforcement of this principle, the President of the HPO published an instruction. Thus, clear directions help the officials of the HPO give responsible information to the press by assessing their own competence correctly and keeping in mind the interests of both the office and the clients.
Regular relations are maintained with the representatives of the media, mutually informing each other of the possibilities of cooperation. Working relations were established with the persons responsible for communication in partner institutions cooperating in certain events. These institutions are, in particular: Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Ministry of Economy and Transport, R+D Deputy State Secretariat of the Ministry of Education, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungarian Innovation Association, Office of the Prime Minister and Federation of Technical and Scientific Societies.
During the year under review, the HPO organized several events for the press (press breakfasts, background conversations, press conferences) or took part in the organization of such events (e.g. seminar of scientific journalists). About 25 press releases were issued, either in connection with intellectual property events, or with the national and international activities of the HPO and changes in legislation.
In 2002, in the Hungarian media more than 500 articles, pieces of news, radio or TV programs dealt with inventions, inventors, and various aspects of industrial property and copyright. In addition to these, about 300 articles were published in connection with the HPO and its activity. Officials of the HPO appeared on electronic media about 30 times, apart from the regular appearance in the following programs: “Heureka!” of the Duna Television, “Delta” of the Hungarian Television and “Gordius” of the Petőfi Radio.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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