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PREPARATION OF LEGISLATION
The HPO performed its functions and responsibilities concerning the preparation of intellectual property-related legislation and analysis of legal practice with initiative and in a comprehensive and efficient manner. The majority of the tasks concerning the preparation of legislation focussed on codification and supplementary duties related to Hungary’s membership of the European Union, the European Patent Organisation and the World Intellectual Property Organization as well as on the preparation of amendments to legislation affecting the HPO and connected with the restructuring of governmental organisations. Also an important objective was to streamline and refine procedural rules, based on legal practice, in order to satisfy the needs of clients more efficiently.
The HPO prepared the bill on the amendment of certain industrial property laws, which resulted in the adoption of Act XXIV of 2007 amending certain acts on industrial property. The amendment entered into force on 1 May 2007. It re-regulated the legal status of the HPO and laid down rules necessary for the implementation of certain European Community regulations.
A Government decree was adopted containing rules on the electronic filing of patent, utility model and design applications and requests for the renewal of trademarks: Government decree 147/2007. (VI. 26.) Korm. on the detailed rules of the electronic filing of certain industrial property applications entered into force on 1 July 2007.
The HPO contributed to the preparation of Government decree 124/2007. (V. 31.) Korm. on the detailed rules concerning the protection of geographical indications of agricultural products and foodstuffs and the inspection of products.
Hungarian Council for the Protection of Intellectual Property
For the September meeting of the Council, a discussion paper was prepared on the current intellectual property-related issues of the publishing and selling of books. In this context, the HPO and the Council drew up a joint questionnaire entitled “Questionnaire on the status of book publishing and selling in the light of current issues of copyright and intellectual property protection”. This serves as a basis for a survey aiming at the intellectual property aspects of the book industry and covers the most important publishers and sellers. The purpose of the survey is to give an overview of the relations between copyright and other titles of intellectual property protection and publishing and selling of books, to draw up a status report and to initiate the necessary measures.
Preparations were completed for the publication of the third volume of the “White Paper on the Protection of Intellectual Property”, a series launched in 2005 by the HPO and the Council. The volume devoted to the timely issues of intellectual property protection contains the HPO’s medium-term strategy on institution strengthening, publishes a selection of international strategies, deals with the establishment of the National Board Against Counterfeiting and addresses issues of collective rights management.
The quarterly “Newsletter on intellectual property protection”, a joint publication of the HPO and the Council, entered its fourth volume. It sums up news and current information affecting the fields of industrial property and copyright. The aim of the publication is to acquaint in a concise form responsible political and professional decision-makers and players of the economy and culture with current national and international issues of intellectual property protection.
OFFICIAL EXAMINATION AND PROCEDURES IN INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY MATTERS
OFFICIAL ACTIVITY
The amount of Community trademarks and designs with effect extending to Hungary is continuously growing. The number of Community trademark applications was above 88 000 and the amount of registered Community trademarks exceeded 426 000. At the same time, as a consequence of the draining effect of the Community protection system, the number of foreign trademark applications received under the Madrid Agreement decreased by 10%.
The number of national route trademark applications was up by 9 compared with the previous year.
At the same time it is promising that the number of trademark applications of domestic applicants rose by 3.6%.
The number of Community trademark applications filed by Hungarian applicants further increased by about 27%, while that of international trademark applications filed by domestic applicants under the Madrid Agreement was up by 74%, mainly as a result of the activity of one large enterprise.
Although as a result of Hungary’s accession to the European and Community protection systems, a decreasing tendency could be noticed in the number of foreign applications filed directly with the Hungarian Patent Office, the amount of protection obtained by foreign applicants and extending to the territory of Hungary increased in total. Hungarian enterprises producing for the domestic market have to respect Community and European protection effective in Hungary as well. Accession to Community and European protection systems has generated new official tasks. The HPO carried out national trademark searches for the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) and sent the search reports with respect to more than 85 000 Community trademark applications.
The HPO has performed the tasks of a receiving office deriving from the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), from the accession to the European Patent Convention on 1 January 2003 and from the accession to the European Union on 1 May 2004. Hungarian applicants file their foreign applications increasingly with the HPO as a receiving office: domestic applicants filed 130 PCT applications, 7 European patent applications, 438 international (Madrid) trademark applications, 33 Community trademark applications, 8 design applications and 2 applications for Community plant variety rights.
TRADEMARKS
In 2007, 4568 international trademark applications were received under the Madrid Agreement. As a consequence of the draining effect of the Community trademark system, the number of international applications was down by 11%, or 555 applications, compared with the previous year. At the same time the number of Community trademark applications covering Hungary increased by 10 000 compared with the previous year, thus exceeding 88 000.
Last year Hungarian applicants were more active in filing trademark applications abroad. International (Madrid) applications were filed in 438 cases and the number of Community trademark filings amounted to 261. The growth in the number of international (Madrid) applications of Hungarian origin by almost three-quarters of the previous year’s figure was due to the activity of a large Hungarian pharmaceutical company.
The number of trademark applications filed following the national route was 4246, practically remaining at the previous year’s level. 85% of applications filed following the national route came from domestic applicants, and only 631 foreign applications were filed directly with the HPO. The activity of Hungarian applicants was promising: the number of domestic applications was up by 125, or 3.6%.
Applications received from enterprises were preponderant in the case of both domestic and foreign applicants: 80% of domestic applications and 97% of foreign applications were of such origin.
Although the US joined the Madrid system, US applicants continue to rank first among foreign applicants filing applications directly with the HPO: 26% of direct foreign filings came from US applicants, they were followed by German, Swiss and British ones.
In national granting procedures 5509 national trademark cases were completed, the number of registrations was 4011, 333 applications were rejected, 137 withdrawn and 1026 considered withdrawn. 4555 trademark applications were published. 61 cases were recommenced on the basis of requests for review. The number of pending cases decreased by 20%, from 5161 to 3959. To the general satisfaction of applicants, the full processing time of registration procedures was reduced from 14.3 months to 11 months, while the time until the publications of trademark applications decreased on average from 11.9 months to 6 months.
With respect to national trademark procedures, the number of oppositions increased: 243 were filed. The number of completed cases in which opposition was involved also grew: the procedure was successfully completed in 202 cases, compared with the 38 cases in the previous year.
Accelerated procedure was requested in 396 cases, which is more than double the figure of the previous year. The increasing popularity of this institution indicates the demand of customers for a quick closing of procedures.
The HPO proceeded in 67 cases covering national trademarks to be settled by a board. 61 requests related to cancellation and 16 to revocation. The settlement of requests for cancellation in accelerated procedure was asked for in 2 cases.
With respect to international trademark applications, notice of opposition was filed in 78 cases. The number of cases completed that concerned opposition amounted to 47, of which 39 trademark applications were rejected, 3 were granted protection, in 5 cases the notice of opposition was withdrawn.
The HPO continued to draw up national search reports for OHIM: in 2007, such search reports were prepared and forwarded to OHIM with respect to 85 166 Community trademark applications, which represented an increase of 20% compared with the previous year.
The number of national trademarks valid in Hungary amounted to 52 093, which was up by 1577 on the previous year. Hungarians owned 54% of valid national trademarks. The ratio of US proprietors was 21%. The US was followed by the United Kingdom (5%) and Germany (3%). Among the proprietors having the highest number of valid national trademarks, Hungarian and foreign pharmaceutical companies ranked first, such as Richter Gedeon, Chinoin and Glaxo Group.
The classes most frequently indicated in the case of valid national trademarks were: 1) pharmaceutical, sanitary preparations; 2) advertising, commercial services; 3) education, training, sporting; 4) instruments for scientific purposes; 5) paper, packaging materials.
During 2007, 1869 valid trademarks were renewed. 66% of valid trademarks are 10-year-old or younger. 92% of the trademarks are not older than 20 years. 59 valid trademarks are older than a hundred years. Right-holders possessing such “old” trademarks are, among others, DaimlerChrysler AG with the signs “Mercedes” and “Daimler”; Unilever N.V. with the signs “Vasenol”, “Izal” and “Lux”; Kodak GmbH with the sign “Kodak”; Gilette Company with its figurative trademark; Richter Gedeon with the signs “Tomogen” and “Hydropyrin” and OSRAM GmbH with the sign “Osram”.
At the end of 2007, international (Madrid) trademarks valid in Hungary totalled 147 538, representing a decrease of 2% compared with the previous year. 33% of them were owned by German, 16% by French and 11% by Swiss proprietors. 70% of international trademarks valid in Hungary were younger than 20 years and 37% were younger than 10 years.
One new application was filed for the registration of geographical indications. Under the Lisbon Agreement, 16 new applications were received. The increase was mainly due to appellations of origin relating to Georgian wines.
COURT REVIEW OF THE DECISIONS OF THE HUNGARIAN PATENT OFFICE
The number of requests for review, in the case of trademarks, the year witnessed a further decline compared with the record in 2003; the number of cases settled within the HPO’s own competence remained at the previous year’s level.
2007 saw a considerable decrease in the number of cases returned by the courts with a final decision. This may be due to the fact that the Court of Appeal of Budapest, after having been set up on 1 July 2003, eliminated the backlog in 2004 and 2005, mainly as far as trademarks are concerned; on the other hand less requests for review were filed. Concerning trademarks the number of orders was reduced by about 40%. As regards trademark matters, the proportion of orders rejecting the request for review increased.
Table_2007_Tm.doc - MS Word97 314 kB
II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, and distribution of secondary sources of trademark information, i.e., trademark gazettes
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