Annual Technical Report 2004 on Industrial Design Information Activities submitted by Czech Republic (SCIT/ATR/ID/2004/CZ)
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The expression "industrial designs" covers industrial designs and models. Offices which issue design patents should report their design patent information activities in this series of Annual Technical Reports.
I. Evolution of registration activities
In 2004, 597 industrial design applications were filed, representing a decrease in comparison with 2003 (683 applications). There were 173 foreign applications in 2004 representing a decrease compared to 2003 (264). The majority of foreign applications were from Germany (41). Most of the applications concerned packages and containers (98), means of transport or hoisting (57), building units (45) and household goods (44).
Legal protection of the design of industrial products through registration in the national register of industrial designs was slightly influenced by a similar legal regulation on the Community level in 2004. This is evidenced by a slight decrease of the number of local applications as compared to the previous year. It can be explained by the transfer of a part of the application potential for the benefit of the industrial system of the Community.
In 2004, 622 new industrial designs were registered, 386 of which belong to domestic holders; the total number of newly registered model variants was 2.329.
By the end of 2004, 4.930 national industrial designs were valid in the territory of the Czech Republic as well as more than 70 thousand industrial designs registered with the European Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market.
The average time taken for industrial design application proceedings became shorter in 2004 - it was 6 to 7 months (8 months in 2003).
II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, and distribution of industrial design documents and of secondary sources of industrial design information, i.e., official gazettes
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The industrial design search file of the IPO CZ comprises the industrial design collection of the Czech Republic and Czechoslovakia and official bulletins of foreign offices containing registered industrial designs.
V. Activities in the field of computerized search systems for industrial designs
The national search industrial design database contains basic bibliographic data including image information is operational. This database is accessible online via the web site of the IPO CZ. It can be used free of charge (http://isdvapl.upv.cz/pls/portal30/vz.vzfrm).
The IPO CZ has completed entering retrospective data in the search database of registered industrial designs, which is now completely accessible in this database. Now the database contains bibliographic as well as pictoral elements of approx. 50 thousand registered industrial designs while the oldest data come from the 1966/67 turn of the year.
In January 2004, the standard operation of the new information system for application proceedings and for keeping registers of subject matters of industrial rights (IS SyPP) was started. The aim of the project was to create a modifiable and extendable information system over one unified database and to replace two originally separated systems with different conceptions, designed separately for patents, utility models and designs and separately for trademarks. The system is equipped with electronic archiving of incoming and outgoing files. The system makes it possible to receive data of European patents, and processes data of proceedings for the database and for publishing in the Office Bulletin.
VI. Administration of industrial design services available to the public (relating to facilities, e.g., for lodging applications, registering designs, assisting clients with search procedures, obtaining official publications and registry extracts)
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IX. Other relevant matters