Page History

Annual Technical Report 2003 on Patent Information Activities submitted by Poland (SCIT/ATR/PI/2003/PL)

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. Evolution of patent activities

...

In 2003, the Polish Patent Office (PPO) received:
• 3.064 patent applications under the national procedure, among which domestic applications constituted the number of 2.268, and foreign applications- 796.
• 79.239 designations of Poland in international patent applications in other countries under the PCT (i.e. 13% more than in 2002). 3.145 such applications entered the examination phase at the PPO. 3.809 grant decisions (in 2002- 3659) were taken, among which 2.200 being positive ones (in 2002- 2.108). The number of valid patents on December 31, 2003 was 12.451.

• 759 utility model applications under the national procedure i.e. 16% less than in 2002. 27 foreign utility model applications.
1.856 decisions were taken; 1.457 of them were the decisions to grant protection rights.

• No integrated circuit topography application was filed. One application was granted the right of registration.

• 2 geographical indication applications. The PPO issued 5 (out of 6) positive decisions on registration.

II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, distribution and use of primary and secondary sources of patent information

...

1. In 2003 the following publications were issued:

a) periodicals:
• “Biuletyn Urzędu Patentowego” ( “Patent Office’s Bulletin”)- 26 numbers, i.e. 14.260 copies
• “Wiadomości Urzędu Patentowego” (Announcements of the PPO) – 12 numbers, i.e. 6.730 copies
• “Dziennik Urzędowy UP RP” (The PPO Official Journal)- 2 numbers, i.e. 165 copies
• “Wykaz patentów na wynalazki, udzielonych przez UP RP w 2002 roku” (Index of patents granted in the Polish Patent Office in 2002”) – 2 volumes, i.e. 150 copies
• Wykaz wzorów użytkowych, na które Urząd Patentowy RP udzielił prawa ochronnego w 2002 roku” (“ Index of utility models which were granted protection In the PPO in 2002) – 1 volume, i.e. 70 copies


b) non periodical, single brochure publications:
• Polish patent specifications (full text) – 1862 titles, i.e. 73.100 copies
• “Annual Report of the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland, 2002” – 650 copies
• 98 additional print copies of selected publications on request


2. In 2003 the following services were performed and supplied to users:

a) 290.098 pages of free copies of Polish and foreign patent documentation for the Office’s examiners and 189.400 pages copied upon individual users’ requests

b) 1.945 titles of Polish patent specifications were transported onto microfiches, including 1.372 on silver microfiches (for storage). 9.883 titles on diazo copies for the purposes of international exchange.

Mass storage media used (paper, microforms, optical storage, etc.)

...

1. The increase of patent documentation was as follows:

a) foreign patent specifications:
• 93.100 titles on paper
• 1.717.900 optical discs CD-ROM and DVD containing patent specifications and utility model descriptions from 20 countries.

b) Polish patent specifications:

• 1.800 titles (7.600 copies) on paper
• 1.700 titles (1.300copies) on microfiches


2. At the end of December 2003 the total number of patent documentation in the search files constituted:

• 18.479 discs holding 27.259.300 patent documents
• 13.723.600 titles of documents on paper
• 160.000 titles on micro-carriers

Storage, including mass storage media

In 2003 the PPO continued collecting, storing and preparing patent and technical literature purchased, subscribed or exchanged:

• 158 books introduced to the local library and book database- ZBILNI
• 4.900 booklets of patent, technical and legal literature on paper, 216 CD-ROMs containing the equivalents of foreign patent bulletins and other periodicals
• 619 discs of bibliographic data and trademark database.

V. Activities in the field of computerized and other mechanized search systems

...

working on-line and based on the BAZPAT database for the needs of application filings and granting procedures:
• the system of patent and utility model applications
• the system of patent searching
• the system of utility model searching
• fees control system

External databases

• Modernization of the Office’s Internet home page (administration of services for outside users of the Office’s information sources)
• Databases on subjects of industrial property filed and under protection in Poland
• In co-operation with the EPO – providing information stored in the esp@cenet database via the Polish interface.

Administrative management systems (e.g., register, legal status, statistics, administrative support, etc.)

functioning within support systems (including administrative service), operating off-line:
• law information system
• patent attorneys information system
• finance-accounting system
• system supporting the access to the databases on CD-ROMs containing the files of full text specifications, bibliographic data and abstracts of patent specifications in the Office’s Library

Equipment used (hardware, including the types of terminal and network used, and software), carriers used

1 In-house computer network (LAN) based on the Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet solutions. Alcatel and 3com active tools


1.2 Hardware installed in 2003:

Replacement of 115 old workstations, including:
• 15 computers with the following configurations- PIV 3,05 GHz, 120 GB HDD, 1024 Mb RAM, screen CRT 21’
• 35 computers with the following Celeron parameters- 2,4 GHz, 80 GB HDD, 512 Mb RAM, screen LCD 17’
• 65 computers with the following Celeron parameters – 1,7 GHz, 80 GB HDD, 128 Mb RAM, screen LCD 15’


1.3 New servers were bought and the existing ones were modernized

1.4 Implementation of:
• Active Directory domain on the Windows 2003 Server
• New e-mail system of the PPO, based on the MS Exchange 2003 Server
• Database based on MS SQL server
• Tivolli system of central data backup


1.5 The following programs were installed:
Operating systems:
• Windows 2003 Server
• Windows 2000 Server
• Windows NT 4 Server
• IBM AIX v 4.3

Database servers:
• IBM DB2 and Content Manager
• MS SQL 2000
• Oracle 9i
• MySQL v 4.0.15

Basic functions of the servers:
• E-mail and group work servers working on MS Exchange 2003
• Domain controller on Windows 2003 with DHCP, DNS
• Routing and firewall on MS ISA Server and CISCO PIX
• web page on the Microsoft Content Management Server
• Tivoli Storage Manager system of data backup 5.2
• Sophos Antyvirus with E-mail scanner
• Application for databases searching- MIMOSA V4.2, Patent WebAccess, PatentWS, IRIS

1.6 The working applications were supported on the basis of the following tools:
• REVELATION- administration of external patent and utility model databases
• DB2 and JAVA- managing trademark and industrial design database
• Pearl, PHP, C#. NET – creating of inter- and intra- websites
• IBM CONTENT MANAGER- managing the application documents of trademarks and industrial designs
• SQL SERVER and C#- managing the external database
• ULTRANET and IRIS- supporting the net access to optical discs
• Adobe and Corel software – publishing issues

VI. Administration of the industrial property office library and services available to the public (relating to facilities, e.g., for lodging applications, for assisting clients on searching procedures, for obtaining official publications and registry extracts)

...

Within the co-operation with the patent information centers in Poland, the Office continued supplying them with foreign patent documentation and literature. In 2003 the Office sent:

• 1.773 discs with full text databases on CD-ROMs
• 454 copies of patent bulletins
• 191 discs with patent literature
• 2.859 copies of Polish utility models and ornamental designs
• 1.328 copies of the “Bulletin of the Patent Office”
• 690 copies of the “Announcements of the Patent Office”
• 89 copies of the “Official Journal”

Information services available to the public (including computerized services and search files contained in libraries remote from your Office and patent information posted by your Office on the World Wide Web)

Within the services rendered for the users the following were made accessible:
• 7.400 files with foreign patent documentation and 16.600 copies of single Polish and foreign patent specifications, 600 volumes of books and 900 booklets and periodicals. Free access to Polish and world patent documentation, indexes of trademarks being applied for and registered, indexes of applications for ornamental designs.
• 28.504 retrievals on the bibliographic databases on CD-ROMs for 5.724 users
• retrievals of 72.721 KB of information from the ARSPATENT database for 1.437 users

VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of patent documentation and information

...

1. In 2003 exchange of signal and source information with foreign patent offices was continued. We sent to libraries abroad:

• To 39 countries, 430 copies of “WUP””- Announcements of the Patent Office
• To 17 countries, 425 copies of “BUP” –Patent Office’s Bulletin
• To 22 countries, 44 copies of “Index of patents granted in 2002”
• To 19 countries, 19 copies of “Index of utility models granted in 2002”
• To 9 countries, 16.841 copies of Polish patent specifications (full texts)
• To 7 countries, 10.427 microfiches of Polish patent specifications (full texts)


2. We continued co-operation with the EPO and patent offices in producing the optical discs CD-ROM PRECES with patent documentation of these countries and of Poland, preparing and transmitting data in an electronic form.

Medium used for exchange of priority documents

...

Education and training with respect to patent information covered, among the others, the following items:

• Members of the PPO’s staff participated in conferences, meetings and training courses organized in other countries by the international organization such as EPO (32 people). The courses focused on various issues such as: search and examination in various fields of technology, the European patent system, trademarks, industrial designs etc.

• 472 of the Office’s staff members participated in training courses organized throughout the country. The courses focused on various issues such as civil service, introduction to legislation and administration systems, the European Union etc.

• 7 lectures on the industrial property issues led by the Office’s staff.

• The PPO co-organized an annual seminar for patent attorneys from universities and academies which was devoted to the changes to be experienced after Poland’s joining the European Patent Convention.

Promotional activities (seminars, exhibitions, visits, advertising, etc.)

Forms of promotion of patent information by the PPO:

• Interviews were given to 36 journalists: some of them were broadcasted on TV and radio. There were 122 publications in the press or in the electronic media.
• The organization of Patent Office’s stand on the Fairs on Innovation in Economy and Science “INTRAG 2003” in Katowice during which a series of seminars for patent attorneys was organized.
• With the co-operation with the EPO the organization of the stand at the International Poznan Fairs “Science for Industry”
• Promotional and informational stand at the Gdansk Fairs “Innovation 2003”, presentation of issues related to industrial property protection and patent information during the parallel seminar.
• A stand and one week informational services during the X Stock of inventions in Museum of Technology in Warsaw
• Organization of conferences targeted to patent attorneys and staff of industrial sector –VIII Poland-wide Scientific Conference on “patent Information for Science and Industry”
• International conference to celebrate the 85th anniversary of industrial property protection in Poland, publication of books commemorating the event: Calenadar2004, “Commemoration Book”, a guide for SMEs- “Industrial property in business activity”, “Dictionary of industrial and intellectual property terms”, comics-forms on copyright, protection of inventions and trademarks
• Working out projects of placards for fairs and exhibitions
• Working out information materials for 260 students visiting the PPO.

IX. Other relevant matters

...