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Annual Technical Report 2013 on Patent Information Activities submitted by Ukraine (CWS/ATR/PI/2013/UA)

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. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN PATENT INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

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The main documents that determined directions for the development of patent information activities in 2013 are the Concept of the Development of the State System of Intellectual Property Legal Protection for 2009 - 2014, the Program of the Development of the State System of Intellectual Property Legal Protection for 2010 - 2014, the Basic directions of the State Enterprise "Ukrainian industrial property Institute" activities concerning realization of the Concept of the Development of the State System of Intellectual Property Legal Protection for 2009 - 2014, as well as annual plans of activities of the State Intellectual Property Service of Ukraine (hereinafter - the State Service) and the State Enterprise "Ukrainian Industrial Property Institute" (hereinafter – the SE "UIPI"). All these documents contain sections "Patent information support in the sphere of intellectual property and provision of wide public with access to the information related to intellectual property rights acquisition", which, in particular include:
- comprehensive development of the main directions of patent information support in the sphere of intellectual property;
- improvement of information support of the examination of industrial property rights applications in accordance with the worldwide trend of preferable use of information resources in a global Internet network, including access to the commercial databases;
- unification of the patent documentation international exchange procedure which is carried out with the purpose of acquisition of patent collections of the state system of intellectual property legal protection, taking into account the trends of transition of the intellectual property offices in many countries to the submission of patent information on the Internet only;
- implementation of series of actions aimed at ensuring the continued acquisition of patent information resources of Ukraine with the national patent documentation, improvement of this process by means of gradual transition to acquisition by the official publications exclusively on electronic carriers;
- development and realization of series of actions aimed at creating and development of the digital patent library;
- participation in the activities on unification and harmonization of the patent documentation of Ukraine with taking into account the world experience and in accordance with the international standards of the World Intellectual Property Organization and the current legislation of Ukraine;
- implementation of the activities for information safety improvement, including the international standard ISO/IEC 27001:2005 "Information technology – Security techniques – Information security management systems – Requirements" certification of the SE "UIPI".
Besides, the development of patent information activities is stipulated by the Concept of the development of information and technical support of the main activities of the SE "UIPI" for the years 2013 - 2015 and by schedules of the projects on expansion of the Inventions Automated System (INVENTIONS AS).
The trends planned for implementation within the 2013 - 2015 period are the following:
- improvement of the automated system for automation of means for quality control of the applications examination, search reports formation and expansion of the search tool functional possibilities;
- introduction of the automated systems for pending international applications in accordance with the status of ISA/IPEA;
- improvement of the search portal;
- introduction of electronic state registers of the titles of protection for inventions and utility models;
- completion of conversion of applications collection on paper carriers into electronic form;
- introduction of a new version of electronic filing system.

New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies and plans mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks

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Annual Reports, statistical information, the Annual Technical Reports of the Office:
http://sips.gov.ua/ua/plans_reports.html
http://sips.gov.ua/en/plans_reports.html

News of the Office on the issues related to patents:
http://sips.gov.ua
http://sips.gov.ua/en
http://uipv.org
http://uipv.org/en/index.html
Information on patent legislation:
http://sips.gov.ua/ua/normative_acts.html
http://sips.gov.ua/en/normative_acts.html

II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

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The Ukrainian version of the International Patent Classification (IPC-2013.01) was used for classifying patent documents of Ukraine in 2013.
Within the INVENTIONS AS the software system for checking the classification symbols is operative. It includes classification guides and specialized software for checking the allotted classification symbols and reclassifying.
In 2013 the whole collection of applications for inventions and utility models was reclassified according to the current Ukrainian version of the IPC-2013.01.

Abstracting, reviewing, and translation of the information contained in patent documents

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In the section "Notices" of the Official Bulletin "Promyslova Vlasnist" (printed and electronic publications) with the periodicity of its release announcements in respect of registered inventions (utility models) (to the extent provided by the respective applicable Law of Ukraine) are published including information:
- on renewal of patents of Ukraine for inventions, the object of which is drug, means of animals protection, means of plants protection, the use of which requires approval of the competent authority; changes in the information entered into the State register of patents of Ukraine for inventions, information on issue of the patents duplicates, information about correction of obvious errors in specifications to patents of Ukraine for inventions, modifications due to the correction of errors and other information relating to registration of patents of Ukraine for inventions;
- changes in the information entered into the State register of patents of Ukraine for utility models, information on issue of the patents duplicates, information about correction of obvious errors in the specifications to patents of Ukraine for utility models, modifications due to the correction of errors and other information relating to the registration of patents of Ukraine for utility models.
The said information is available at www.sips.gov.ua and www.uipv.org.

Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external collections and databases

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Information concerning legal status of the registered patents of Ukraine for inventions (utility models) to the extent prescribed by the applicable law of Ukraine is published in the Official Bulletin "Promyslova Vlasnit" in section "Notices" both on paper and in electronic form (DVD "Official Bulletin "Promyslova Vlasnit" and DB "Electronic Version of the Cumulative Official Bulletin "Promyslova Vlasnit").
In addition, such information is provided in the IRS "Information on Patents of Ukraine for Inventions (Utility Models) Deemed to be Invalid or Expired" and (as an extra operational component) in the relevant sections of the DB "Electronic Version of the Cumulative Official Bulletin "Promyslova Vlasnit" and specialized DB "Inventions (Utility Models) in Ukraine".

IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

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During 2013, practical implementation of the project "Increasing of the INVENTIONS AS capabilities regarding the SE "UIPI" electronic document flow, enhancement of the capability of preparation and printing system of the output documents" was carried out. During this period the following stages of the project were implemented:
- new software for scanning incoming documents of the applications for inventions and utility models of the Examination Division which provides to detect scanned claims, specifications and abstracts directly with the INVENTIONS AS modules was developed;
- a new system of automated distribution and record of scanning claims, specifications and abstracts was introduced which allowed to exclude manual work, automate the process of distribution and control of scanning of the specified documents and also gave an opportunity to automate the statistical reports generation;
- a new automated system of court cases record keepings which is actually the system of electronic records management and is supplied with all necessary equipment for registration, maintenance, storage of electronic files and formation of the statistical reports was created. Introduction of the Court Cases AS increases the efficiency of the administration and reduces workload of the staff;
- the draft of a new universal electronic document flow automated system was developed and approved.

Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office

The network infrastructure consists of the WatchGuard XTM-520 device which contains the VPN and Firewall modules for connection with the Internet and the internal router (designed on the Unix server) to support the internal network. Having two firewalls enhance overall security.
The Cisco and HP equipment is used as network switches.
The internal network is divided into ten virtual networks (Vlan).
The network uses the following technical means:
- HP (DL380G5, DL380G7, DL380Gen8), Intel (SE7520JR2, SE7501WV2) and Supermicro (6025B-8) servers;
- HP (3Par StoreServ 7200, P2000, MSA2324fc, MSA1000), IBM (ProFibre Storage Array) and Infortrend (EonStor A16F-G2430, EonStor S12F-R1420, EonStor S16F-R1430) information storages;
- equipment for the network (SAN Qlogic SANbox 5600, HP SAN Switch 8/24);
- equipment for the LAN HP (Procurve 2910aI-24G, Procurve 2510-48, Procurve 2530-48).
Operating systems and software:
- on physical servers – operating systems Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Unix;
- virtualized servers on VMware ESXi and Hyper-V (Microsoft);
- DBMS – MS SQL 2008R2, MS SQL 2005.
Domain structure of the Active Directory (AD), which allows central managing of all Enterprise's information resources, including users, computers, files, peripherals, and access to the services, network resources, web-sites, databases etc. was designed.
Multiple domain controllers are used for organization of the domain structure fault tolerance.
The WSUS server provides updating of the servers and client computers operational systems.
The anti-virus server "Kaspersky Anti-virus" provides control of all anti-viruses on the users computers, updating of the anti-virus databases, report generation on updating databases and existing threats.
Magnetic tapes are used for backup data reproduction. The plan of all servers and services upgrading after a failure was adjusted.
In general, the corporate network consists of 650 PCs, 30 servers and other equipment.
Connection to the Internet for search and view of information was implemented for information systems users.
Activities on the development of IT infrastructure, held in 2013, were aimed at designing of the computer network failsafe kernel, increasing its bandwidth, security and manageability, replacement of the obsolete components of hardware infrastructure, consolidation and virtualization of the servers.
A number of measures to ensure compliance of the IT infrastructure to the requirements of the information protection integrated system were implemented. Security property was activated on the ports of switches making it impossible to connect other devices to the corporate network. Changes in the policies of passwords that meet the safety requirements were carried out. Testing and preparation for introduction of the two-factor user authentication system on the base of hardware-software generation device and verification of electronic digital signatures was performed. HTTPS secure Protocol and SSH network application-level Protocol were introduced to control network equipment. The anti-virus protection of users' computers was updated.

Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources

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Functions of the administrative management were implemented in the environment of the INVENTIONS AS by separate software subsystems and software modules.
So, the multi-functional subsystem for maintenance of registries and legal status of titles of protection for inventions and utility models operates in the INVENTIONS AS. Information from this system is channeled to the appropriate database for publications and statistical reports formation.
Statistics subsystem "Indexes" is characterized by the possibility of multiple reports formation with implementation of the indicators calculation tools for objects that have multiple credentials, namely:
- indicators on receipt of applications by "IPC", "applicants";
- indicators on registration of titles of protection by "IPC", "owners";
The possibility to expand the list of indicators was laid down in the subsystem. The function of conducting automated analysis of the calculated data and forecasting was performed in this subsystem. The possibility to enter data on the main economic indicators of the state development and other external factors that directly affect the status of the inventive activity of the applicants was also foreseen.

Other matters

A software product the "Applicant Off-line Module" was developed and put into operation in the reporting period. This software was created to facilitate the work of applicants by automating the process of creating the secondary documents, as well as to improve the quality of document type definitions at the stage of incoming documents and entry of their details into the database of the SE "UIPI".
The software product is equipped with a tool that provides formation of the secondary documents patterns which an applicant submits to the examination body after the filing date of the application. This software also allows an applicant to prepare documents for initial filing of applications for inventions and utility models. It includes procedures and functions that will allow applicants to archive their files with the possibility to search and quick generation of the secondary documents by the selected file.
In order to unify and simplify the documents flow between applicants and examination body the documents classifier used in the Office was integrated into the offline module.
The software is designed on module principle. Any changes to the software can be made and installed on the workstation of an applicant by the update module, which checks the availability of the software updates in a semiautomatic mode.
Applicants can download the applicant off-line module to their own computer from the web-site of the SE "UIPI" for free (http://base.uipv.org/off-line).

V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF PATENT INFORMATION

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In order to satisfy public needs for patent information in Ukraine the Public Patent Documentation Collection (PPDC) functions within the structure of the SE “UIPI” branch "Ukrainian Centre of Innovatics and Patent Information Services" (hereinafter – the Branch). The PPDC is the most comprehensive patent library in Ukraine available to the public (intellectual property office library).
International cooperation with WIPO, the EPO and patent documentation international exchange with foreign patent offices has been the main source of foreign patent documentation over extended periods. Such international cooperation allowed accumulating a considerable amount of current and retrospective foreign patent documentation of 4 international and regional intellectual property organizations and 65 countries, first of all on optical carriers, in the State system of intellectual property rights protection.
During 2013 the PPDC was updated by 48 copies of official bulletins on paper, over 13.4 thousand patent specifications on paper, about 800 optical discs with current patent documentation and over 2.4 thousand optical discs with backdated patent documentation. As of 31.12.2013 the PPDC numbered about 20.6 thousand copies of official bulletins and over 417 thousand copies of patent specifications on paper and the collection of patent documentation on optical discs exceeded 21.4 thousand items.
Proper storage of the PPDC documents meeting specified requirements and guaranteeing their safety was ensured during 2013.
In particular, visual control of unauthorized persons access to the PPDC premises was carried out constantly which made their access to the documents repositories impossible and the documents were provided to the users solely in the reading room. Modern technologies for ensuring protection of library collections from theft and damage (video surveillance) were also used. The fire safety (fire alarm, alert, fire fighting) was assured; checking of the fire and protection alarm, alarm systems in emergency situations is carried out every year; proper ventilation and air conditioning is ensured.
The PPDC is located in the premises of the Branch in the three specially adapted and equipped areas (two depositaries with the total area of 81 sq. m. and a reading room of 40 sq. m.). The PPDC is equipped with 12 up-to-date computers with appropriate licensed software, as well as scanners, printers and xerographic copying machines.
To enable users to make online access to the electronic patent information resources, such as a Digital Patent Library, the Internet access based on Wi-Fi technology was provided in addition to the traditional Internet access for users convenience.
All necessary consultations and services are provided on the basis of the PPDC (intellectual property office library) both on free of charge and paid basis. In general, in 2013 the Branch provided services to nearly 15 thousand users.
Consultations concerning better ways to carry out information search, qualified making retrieval schedule, search on CD-ROMs and in the remote databases of patent documentation via the Internet etc were provided on free of charge basis.
Within the fulfillment of users requests the employees of the Branch provided appropriate services, including carrying out different types of search of patent information and documentation.
In particular, 778 information searches were carried out during the 2013: 165 title searches by all industrial property rights, 4 searches of patent families, 64 information searches regarding inventions and 465 searches regarding utility models to conduct a preliminary evaluation of compliance of the declared object with conditions of legal protection; 58 information searches regarding inventions and utility models patented in Ukraine, 22 thematic searches according to specific areas of production and technologies. Topical collection of patent documentation (the format of the first page) by countries and years, in particular, in the fields of nanotechnologies, ecology, alternative fuels etc. were made based on the results of the mentioned searches. In addition, upon the request of users 16 sets of materials for filing an application for an invention, 43 sets of materials for filing an application for a utility model were composed.
Free access to the PPDC materials for users to work in the reading room was provided. The work of the customers with the collections of patent documentation available in the PPDC on optical carriers in foreign languages was carried out jointly with the consultants of the Branch.
In 2013 the PPDC was attended by nearly 121 users, 5% of which were legal entities and 95% – individuals.
Information concerning the contents of the PPDC and its quarterly updating was published in the "Information resources" section on the web-portal of the State Service (http://www.sips.gov.ua), web-sites of the SE "UIPI" (http://www.uipv.org) and the Branch (http://www.iii.ua).

Cooperation with universities, research centers, technology and innovation support centers, etc.

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One of the key components of promotion of legal culture of the Ukrainians in the sphere of legal protection of creativity results is teaching intellectual property (IP) is to provide the educational course “Intellectual Property” in the higher education institutions. Each year 120 thousand students join the process of gaining knowledge in fundamentals of acquiring, exercising and enforcing IP rights.
The main higher education institution for training, retraining and skills upgrading of IP specialists is the Intellectual Property Institute of the National University "Odessa Law Academy" in Kyiv (the Institute). In 2013, the Institute granted diplomas to 220 persons, including 149, qualified as Specialists and Masters in Specialty "Intellectual Property", and 71 persons qualified as Masters in Specialty "Jurisprudence" (IP legal protection). Among the graduates 16 persons were the staff members of the State Service and SE "UIPI": 14 of them qualified as Masters, and 2 – as Specialists.
In 2013, the Institute admitted 206 persons for study, including 122 persons in Specialty "Intellectual Property", 85 of them – at the public expense, and 84 persons in Specialty "Jurisprudence" (major in IP legal protection), including 37 – at the public expense.
The Institute paid great attention to skills upgrading on IP commercialization. In particular, on March 21, 2013, the Institute hosted a science and practice seminar "Commercialization of Results of Scientific and Technological Activities in the Higher Education Institutions", attended by 37 researches from education and academic institutions. On November 11-13, 2013, the issues of IP were discussed within the V International Research to Practice Conference "Role and Importance of Intellectual Property in the Innovation-Based Development of Economy" that welcomed 71 participants, including representatives of the Russian Federation and Azerbaijan.
In January and June, 2013, under the auspices of the State Service, the Institute hosted advanced courses for educational research specialists in IP. Then, on April 23-24, the XIII All-Ukrainian Scientific and Practical Conference "Challenges in Training Specialists in Intellectual Property, Information and Analytical and Innovative Activities in Ukraine" was held; the participants learned the current situation and prospects of training IP specialists in Ukraine from the point of view of enhancing the standards of higher education relating to training masters and specialists in Specialty "Intellectual Property". This Conference welcomed officials from the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine, teachers and educational research specialists from the higher education institutions, specialists of other agencies and organization involved in IP legal protection and innovative activities.
In October, 2013, the State Service specialists took part in educational advanced courses in the Institute of Advanced Training of the National Academy of Public Administration under the President of Ukraine for the executive staff, public servants and local government officials, as well as for the managers of departments in various ministries, and delivered lecture concerning: "Implementation of the State Policy in the Field of Intellectual Property by the State Intellectual Property Service of Ukraine".
In 2013, specialists of the State Service and the SE "UIPI" took part in 20 scientific and practical conferences, workshops, meetings of the WIPO task forces, working groups of the European Patent Office (EPO), Federal Service for Intellectual Property (Rospatent), and other international intellectual property offices.
To upgrade skills of examiners of SE "UIPI" a number of training workshops and presentations were arranged in 2013.

Other activities

On July 8-19, the ordinary 5th WIPO-Ukraine International Summer School on IP was held in Odessa under the aegis of the National University "Odessa Law Academy". The Summer School increased opportunities for advanced students and young professionals to extend their knowledge in IP, to value IP as an instrument of economic, social, cultural and technological development of society. The Summer School welcomed representatives from Ukraine, France, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and the Russian Federation

In 2013 the Branch ensured the functioning of the Industrial Property Internet Exchange the aim of which is to promote domestic inventions to the market, to encourage the development of inventive and innovative activities, to increase the level of public awareness of the intellectual property importance, to inform the wide range of interested public.
Services provided to the clients of Industrial Property Internet Exchange in the framework of the agreements are:
- compilation, coordination, translation, posting on the web-site and accompaniment the customers information about the IPRs;
- work with individuals that have expressed an interest in the IPRs, represented on the Internet Exchange.
During 2013 about 2.500 advisory services on the functional activity of the Industrial Property Internet Exchange and the Branch were provided, 28 contracts on placing the information about IPRs on the Internet Exchange were concluded and information regarding 142 inventions and utility models was published in the Internet Exchange.
Electronic information catalogues of enterprises and organizations (industrial enterprises of Ukraine, institutes of joint investment of Investment Business Association, investment funds, technological parks of Ukraine and CIS countries, business incubators, venture capital companies, higher educational institutions of Ukraine, embassies of foreign States or their representative offices etc), which include around 13.000 direct contacts for execution of the electronic distribution of commercial offers and information materials were created.

To promote development of the talented and creative youth of Ukraine, the Branch created a useful resource the Factory of Ideas that unites not indifferent to the science of young people seeking to develop the scientific potential of our state, to promote inventive activity and to implement their own ideas and developments in life.
The purpose of its functioning is to identify, support and promote the development of the gifted pupils and students, young scientists, inventors, researchers and innovators.
The users of the resource placed their skills and ideas on the pages of the Factory of Ideas free of charge.
As of 31.12.2013 the resource had about 140 projects.

Detailed information on other activities of the State Service, the SE “UIPI" and the Branch in 2013 is contained in the 2013 Annual Report, section 7.2. Scientific and Practical Conferences and Workshops and section 7.3. Creativity Encouragement (http://sips.gov.ua/i_upload/file/report-2013-en.pdf).

VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF PATENT INFORMATION

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One of the priority objectives of the State Service is to ensure effective functioning of the quality management system of the examination procedure for industrial property rights applications introduced in 2012 (International Certificate № 321012076 of 17.10.2012).
According to the results of the supervisory audit of the quality management system carried out by the Dekra Certification Company in 2013 the examination body confirmed that the implemented quality management system complies with the requirements of the ISO 9001:2008.

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