Annual Technical Report 2013 on Trademark Information Activities submitted by Republic of Korea (CWS/ATR/TM/2013/KR)
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I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN TRADEMARK INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
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Implementation of the 3rd Generation KIPOnet (KIPOnet III)
KIPOnet III aims to cope with the international environmental changes in the IP area and increase business efficiency and applicants’ convenience based on state-of-the art IT technologies. The previous system, therefore, needs to be redesigned in order to overcome its complexity and scalability through modularization by function and business process based on cloud-computing technologies. The detailed schedule for implementing KIPOnet III is as follows:
- 2010: system analysis and design
- 2011: development of 11 sub-systems including examination system, transfer to standardized DB and construction of cloud-computing infrastructure
- 2012-2013: system development and optimization to 1) stabilize and apply e-government standards to IT systems, including the trial system and 2) enhance public services by enhancing the public authentication system
New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies and plans mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks
2nd phase development project of the KIPOnet III (April 2012 – May 2013)
This project aims to cope with the international environmental changes in the IP area, to increase applicants’ convenience, and to reengineer the system architecture. Detailed tasks are 1) to develop examination systems for Madrid protocol, and 2) to develop systems for trial businesses, and 3) to improve cloud-computing environments.
Main areas of trademark information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year
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- Annual report:
http://www.kipo.go.kr/kpo/user.tdf?a=user.english.html.HtmlApp&c=60111&catmenu=ek07_01_01
- Statistics information:
http://www.kipo.go.kr/kpo/user.tdf?a=user.english.html.HtmlApp&c=97000&catmenu=ek07_03_01
II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO TRADEMARK INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
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To integrate scattered counseling resources and promptly provide technical advice, the Customer Service Center was established in March 2002. Its main services are on the following issues:
- Procedural and technical advice on (electronic) filing, examination, grant, trial, search and use of trademark information, as well as on international trademark applications
- Informing the progress after consultation with additional guidance
- Use of the Expert System (e-filing support system) and remote consultation
- Consultation through mobile web/app or Twitter
- Angel Call service, informing applicants in advance that their applications would be closed along with suggesting reasonable solutions
e-Filing Portal (http://www.patent.go.kr)
At this web page, applicants can file their applications online and pay relevant fees via Internet banking. They can also request and receive a variety of certificates via the Internet and check the progress of their request, as well as be informed of the administrative progress of their applications via e-mail and/or SMS. This is also linked to the WEB-PASS, which is a web-based, e-filing system used for receiving intermediate documents and grant/trial-related documents, as well as all types of IPR applications.
Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
Approximately 94.2 percent of the total trademark applications (i.e., 139,073 applications) filed to KIPO in 2013 have made available in electronic form from being filed by applicants via electronic media such as disc, CD, USB, or online via the e-filing portal mentioned above. The rest of such applications which were filed in paper are also digitalized in electronic format, along with all the other application-related documents including amendments and intermediate documents. This digitalization process employs multi-OCR, dual key input, automatic verification and color scanning. In 2013, 8569 trademark applications and 158,525 letter marks were digitalized.
Matters concerning classifying
(i) Classification and reclassification activities; classification systems used, e.g., International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (Nice Classification), International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks (Vienna Classification), other classification
(ii) Use of electronic classification systems and pre-defined terms of the classification applied
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In the cases of three-dimensional, motion, hologram or color marks, applicants are required to attach drawings or pictures (of Resolution 300-400dpi, in JPEG) along with the explanatory notes when filing an application for such mark applications. Sample video in motion or hologram marks should be made in a widely-used format such as WAV, MP3 and MPEG, with a maximum size of 10Mbytes. Audio files attached to sound mark applications (with a maximum 3Mbytes size in MP3, WAV, WMA, etc.) can be played by the PDF gazette viewer.
III. SOURCES OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE
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Korea Industrial Property Rights Information Service (KIPRIS)
Korean domestic trademark information has been made available free-of-charge on the KIPRIS website (http://www.kipris.or.kr) since January 2001. The service covers up-to-date information on the administrative progress of trademark applications, bibliographic data and TIFF images dating back to 1950, as well as full text gazettes in XML/PDF back to 1998. It also provides foreign trademark data from AU, CA, JP and US. Registered members are allowed to download and print documents of interest. The KIPRISMobile service, which was put into full operation in 2009, is an authentication-free web service for trademark searches via mobile devices. In terms of its functions, the KIPRIS service offers a Korean to English (and vice versa) translation service, sorting function on search results and popular search queries. In 2013, the following functions were added to KIPRIS in order to improve the service quality:
- Searches and retrieval of three-dimensional, color, motion and hologram marks
- Searches by applicants’ addresses
- Improvement of image errors occurred in the process of being converted
Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)
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There are a total of 3853 software applications to support KIPO’s business procedures such as search, examination, registration, and trial in 161 types of the four groups, as below:
- System software: 11 types (i.e., DBMS, web server, middleware)
- Package software: 37 types (including PMS, BPM, electronic approval system, Call Center, DW, messenger, career development management system, Homepage portal, DQM)
- Security software: 43 types (firewall, invasion detection or protection, DRM, integrated certificates, DB security, personal information protection tool, etc.)
- Management software: 15 types (back-up tool, performance management tool, batch scheduler, etc.)
- Others: 55 types (search engine, drawing viewer, OCR, PDF converter)
Maintenance for system software mentioned above is conducted by a separate governmentally-integrated center, while the other software is managed by KIPO headquarters.
For databases, performance tests and recovery practice tests are regularly conducted with support from Oracle. In addition, introduction and upgrades of system software such as DBMS, web servers and middleware help the KIPOnet system’s performance and functionality to be continuously improved. In order to protect personal information and prevent unpublished information, state-of-the-art security patches are applied to such software.
Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office
- Server: 54 UNIX Enterprise servers, 110 NT servers, and 40 Linux servers
- Storage equipment: 29 Storage(1714 terabytes), 19 SANs
- Peripherals: 7 backup devices, 2 jukeboxes
In 2013, the following activities were conducted for the sake of stabilization and improvement of hardware performance:
- Eight times of configuration check for cluster-paired servers for e-filing, homepage, IPR administration, and search systems, etc.
- Firmware upgrading for 13 devices
- Shift of search index and thumbnail image data to memory disk
- Replacement of 5 memory servers for IPR administration
- Version upgrade of event-monitoring tool (i.e., OVO)
- 3rd DNS configuration to support internet services
Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
The internal database is built based applications and has been continuously updated and refined for search purposes. It can be identified with bibliographic data (1950-, Text), sample images from applications (1950-, JPEG), dossier of rejected applications (1989-1998, TIFF), dossier of registered marks (1974-1999, JPEG/TIFF) and registry (1952-1991, JPEG/TIFF).
Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file
File building and updating
To be incorporated into the search database, trademark data is parsed for the sake of classification and refinement and then uploaded after error verification. As part of an effort to keep or improve the quality of such data, data architecture and data value are prioritized.
Data architecture administers naming rules for logic and physical names, data type and length so that they can prevent confusion of terminology usage and improve data reusability and system efficiency. From the perspective of data value, business rules are continuously created and along with the regular measurements of data value. Finally, data with errors which occur in the process of administrative or business procedures are corrected after consultation with the departments involved.
Foreign data included in the search system
Documents from other offices included in the search file are the same with the referral information mentioned in the section, “Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external documentation and databases” above.
V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION
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IP Digital Library
The IP Digital Library archives trademark documents from seven countries and one international organization, which are published on CD-ROM or DVD-ROM. The library also possesses 10,126 volumes of trademark-related journals, magazines and books that were either donated or purchased. The general public is allowed to access to this collection for search and copy services.
Publications related to different business procedures and trademark information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.
- Business procedures (e.g., filing, publication, examination, registration, appeal, etc.): http://www.kipo.go.kr/kpo/user.tdf?a=user.english.html.HtmlApp&c=93000&catmenu=ek0401_01
- Searches for trademarks: http://www.kipris.or.kr
- Legal system on trademark: http://www.kipo.go.kr/kpo/user.tdf?a=user.english.html.HtmlApp&c=60201&catmenu=ek07_02_01
VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION
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KIPO has provided its official gazettes for trademarks to 19 offices including AT, CA, DE and FR, on DVD-ROM and to EPO, JPO, INPIT and SIPO via FTP.
In addition, KIPO has been provided with trademark data from JP, KG, RU, TW, and VN on CD-ROM and from AU, OHIM and US via FTP.
Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to trademark information
Concerning classification for goods and services, KIPO has participated in international activities as below:
- ID List project: It has been led by the USPTO and aims to establish and exchange goods and services names commonly recognizable among the TM5 offices (i.e., JPO, KIPO, OHIM, SAIC and USPTO). KIPO joined this project in 2012.
- TMclass project: It aims to integrate and share goods databases of participating offices and has been led by OHIM. KIPO’s database of goods names was incorporated into TMclass in May 2013 and Korean language service has been made available since then.
- MGS (Madrid Goods & Services Manager) project: It aims to approve WIPO-acknowledged names of goods, amounting to 10,000, and provide related translations among participating offices. For a limited number of those goods names, Korean searches and translations will be made available beginning in June 2014.
- Exchange of translations and similar code mapping tables for goods names between JPO and KIPO: The JPO and KIPO have completed the mutual exchange of such information according to the Nice Classification (Oct. 2014 version).
- Exchange of ID List translations and similar codes between JPO and KIPO: The two offices completed the 2nd mutual exchange of translations of ID List names (cumulatively amounting to 4,000) and mapping tables of similar codes.
KIPO’s participation in international activities concerning trademark information is as follows:
- TMview: It aims to integrate and share participating offices’ trademark databases, led by OHIM. KIPO’s trademark data was incorporated into TMview in March 2014 and Korean language service has been made available since then.
- Exchange of lists of geographical indications between JPO and KIPO: Both offices exchanged related information. (As of the end of 2013, the number of data items JPO provided to KIPO is 551 and the number of data items KIPO provided to JPO is 346.)
VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS