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Annual Technical Report 2021 on Patent Information Activities submitted by EAPO

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

Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of patent information activities and expected time frames for their realization

The following three main areas are covered by the Eurasian Patent Office (EAPO) policies of advancing the office’s automated information systems:

  • enhancement of paperless workflow and publication of Eurasian applications and patents;
  • development of Eurasian patent information space;
  • automation and information support for the EAPO internal workflow.

The main priorities of 2021 for the EAPO with regard to automation and informatization were:

- improving the timeliness of the patent procedure and publication of Eurasian patents;

- expanding features and increasing volumes of electronic interaction with the users of the Eurasian patent system, Eurasian patent attorneys and national IP offices;

- development of means for conducting patent search and quality control thereof as preparation to the operation as International Searching Authority (ISA) and International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA) under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

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

Exploring the possibility of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and technologies

In 2021, the Eurasian Patent Office introduced automatic classification tools for Eurasian applications received without assigned International Patent Classification (IPC) classes. These include tools for the building of datasets for training an artificial intelligence system, performing the training of the system, as well as the selection of classification symbols. Based on the results of a comparison of the classification symbols selected by the automatic classification system and those assigned by patent examiners, the automatic classification system demonstrated an 80 per cent degree of coincidence of results at the level of the main IPC groups. The automatic classification system was integrated into the tool kit for preparing a search array for unpublished Eurasian applications as part of EAPATIS.

 Pharmaceutical Register of the Eurasian Patent Office

A significant result achieved in 2021 was the introduction of a new information product on the EAPO web portal – the Pharmaceutical Register of the Eurasian Patent Office (EAPO Pharmaceutical Register). The register contains information about granted Eurasian patents related to active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) with assigned international nonproprietary names (INN). The EAPO Pharmaceutical Register was opened for free use by third parties on March 1, 2021 and at the end of the reporting year contained information on 290 Eurasian patents relating to 196 INN and their combinations. To implement the project, an analysis of previously granted Eurasian patents for inventions was carried out, and the structure and technology for maintaining the database of the EAPO Pharmaceutical Register, search services and display of results, as well as means of integrating the EAPO Pharmaceutical Register with open Eurasian Patent Office web resources were developed. The information in the EAPO Pharmaceutical Register is provided in Russian and English and includes the titles of inventions, information about patent owners, license agreements and the validity of Eurasian patents on the territory of the EAPO member states, as well as information about registered medicines related to substances protected by Eurasian patents included in the EAPO Pharmaceutical Register.

 Supporting searches of nucleotide sequences by EAPO examiners

In order to ensure that Eurasian Patent Office examiners conduct searches for sequences of nucleotides and amino acids contained in Eurasian applications for inventions, in 2021, the office introduced a search system on the basis of the FASTA software package (open source software of the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI)). For this, means were developed for the building of datasets for uploading to the database of this system, together with means for displaying search results.

 Main areas of patent information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year

In 2021 the following main areas of patent information activities were in the focus of attention in the EAPO:

- implementation of paperless technologies in the patent procedure;

- development of online publication of official patent information including full specifications and legal status data;

- electronic exchange of patent documentation, announcements and legal status information between examination and publication divisions of the EAPO;

- development of online filing tools functionality and tools for the electronic filing of Eurasian applications via patent attorney firms;

- technical cooperation with national IP offices of the EAPC Contracting States;

- development of the Eurasian Patent Information System EAPATIS;

- development of a new cross-platform EAPO mobile application;

- launch of the Pharmaceutical Register of the Eurasian Patent Office;

- selection of IPC classes based on AI.

 Electronic filing

Integrated with the other automated information systems of the Eurasian Patent Office, EAPO-ONLINE is an automated system for electronic filing and electronic exchange which carries out two-way communication of electronic data with applicants, patent owners and their representatives.

The Eurasian Patent Office has recorded an ever-growing inflow of electronic documents. In terms of numbers, 2021 saw 3,348 applications filed electronically with the office, or more than 92 per cent of total filings.

The number of EAPO-ONLINE users who have completely switched to electronic interaction with the Eurasian Patent Office has continued to grow. In total, at the end of 2021, there were 59 agreements for the receipt of correspondence from the Eurasian Patent Office in electronic form. All of the leading firms of Eurasian patent attorneys work with the office on the basis of such agreements.

During the reporting year, the share of documents received through the EAPO-ONLINE system also increased. In total, 164,496 documents were received in electronic form through the EAPO-ONLINE system in 2021, or 80% of the total.

Automation of patent procedure

 The EAPO maintains record keeping on Eurasian applications and patents using administrative and informational accounting tools for operations on Eurasian applications and patents, which include the SOPRANO administrative information system (supplemented by a number of additional modules) and a set of statistics implemented on the basis of SAP BusinessObjects.

Direct work with documents in electronic form in the EAPO is carried out using the electronic dossiers system on ePHOENIX (EDS ePHOENIX).

AIS SOPRANO and EDS ePHOENIX are integrated with EAPO-ONLINE for electronic filing and electronic exchange.

In 2021, technology was introduced for the approval of the decisions of examiner panels in electronic form using electronic digital signatures. The interface of the SOPRANO AIS has been improved, and functionalities have been developed for configuring correspondence, automatically saving electronic forms of documents in the repository, electronic signing, stamping visual confirmation of electronic signatures, previewing and uploading sent correspondence to ePHOENIX, as well as promptly informing panel members of the need to coordinate correspondence.

Electronic collection of Eurasian patent files:

In 2021, the electronic collection was replenished with current publications. All electronic folders for Eurasian patents uploaded to ePHOENIX are available along with other documents, including Eurasian applications. In total, as of 31/12/2021, the electronic collection contained materials from 64,168 Eurasian applications and patents.

HIVE publication processing system

The maintenance and development of HIVE system and its functional modules for processing of patent information at the stage of the preparation of EAPO official publications have proceeded. In total, 6,187 descriptions for Eurasian applications and patents were prepared for publication in the HIVE system.

EAPATIS

EAPATIS was developed as one of the core tools for Eurasian Patent Office examiners and users from EAPC Contracting States to access the global collection of patent documents. The audience also includes national IP offices examiners, users from leading universities, libraries, centers of science and technology who benefit from free access to EAPATIS as part of the Eurasian Patent Office initiative since 2011 to promote innovation in the EAPC Contracting States.

86 million documents have been uploaded to the system as of 31/12/2021, more than 180 organizations are given access to the system.

Considerable attention is paid at the Eurasian Patent Office to providing access to up-to-date external expert-level databases, as well as to the information systems of leading commercial providers. In 2021, Eurasian Patent Office examiners used the EPOQUE Net (European Patent Office) and PatSearch (Rospatent) systems, as well as a number of Elsevier products — Reaxys, Reaxys Medical Chemistry and Embase.

Eurasian Publication Server

Eurasian publication server provides access to primary publications (including full descriptions of inventions to Eurasian applications and patents), and to information published in the notifications related to applications and patents in the EAPO Gazette, as well as to information on legal status of patents. Access to the server is provided for general public on the EAPO web portal. Since its commissioning on 01.01.2014, the appearance of the information about Eurasian patent documents in this information system shall be considered as their official publication. To replenish and update the information system with data an IT was developed for publication of materials of Eurasian applications and patents from HIVE system on the Eurasian Publication Server.

The development of the tools and technologies introduced in 2019 for the instant publication of information on Eurasian patents granted, full descriptions of them, and notices of changes in the legal status of Eurasian applications and patents for inventions has continued. The work performed resulted in a reduction in the average time for preparing descriptions for publication to 47 days. The publication of Eurasian industrial design applications and patents was also carried out using the technology of instant publication.

RAW DATA

The Eurasian Patent Office provides official publications as Raw data allowing the stakeholders to download complete descriptions of Eurasian applications and patents in XML, TIFF and PDF formats for subsequent loading into to their own information systems.

Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and grants with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes

Compared with the previous year, in 2021 the number of filed applications decreased by 7.9% (3643 applications), the number of granted Eurasian patents decreased by 11.7% (2416 patents).

In 2021, the distribution of Eurasian applications by technical field has not changed significantly in comparison with the previous year. The largest number of filed Eurasian applications related to organic chemistry, drugs and medicines.

Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.

Annual Report 2021 (English): https://www.eapo.org/ru/publications/reports/report2021/index_en.html

Annual Report 2021 (Russian): https://www.eapo.org/ru/publications/reports/report2021/index_ru.html

Annual reports for some recent years (English): https://www.eapo.org/en/?publs=reports

Annual reports for some recent years (Russian): https://www.eapo.org/ru/?publs=reports

News and press releases:

in Russian: https://www.eapo.org/ru/index.php?newspress=arhiv

in English:  https://www.eapo.org/en/index.php?newspress=arhiv

Social networks:

Twitter (Russian): https://twitter.com/EAPO_official

Facebook (Russian): https://www.facebook.com/eapo.official

Facebook (English): https://www.facebook.com/eapo.official.en

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

In Russian

https://www.eapo.org/ru/getpatent2022/  "How to Get a Eurasian Patent"

https://www.eapo.org/ru/getpatentpct/  "Obtaining a Eurasian Patent under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) Procedure"

https://www.eapo.org/ru/application2019/  “How to File a Eurasian Application”

https://www.eapo.org/ru/inventors02.html  Five Steps to Eurasian Patent

https://www.eapo.org/ru/feature.html  Main features of the Eurasian patent procedure

https://www.eapo.org/ru/?documents=eapo  General questions of the functioning of the Eurasian Patent Organization

https://www.eapo.org/ru/?documents=inventions  Legal protection of inventions

https://www.eapo.org/ru/?documents=designs  - Legal protection of industrial designs

https://www.eapo.org/ru/attorneys.php - Database of Eurasian patent attorneys

https://www.eapo.org/ru/?documents=blanks  - Application forms

In English

https://www.eapo.org/en/attorneys.php - Database of Eurasian patent attorneys

https://www.eapo.org/en/feature.html  - Main features of the Eurasian patent procedure

https://www.eapo.org/en/?documents=eapo  - Basic normative legal acts

https://www.eapo.org/en/?documents=inventions  - Legal protection of inventions

https://www.eapo.org/en/?documents=designs  - Legal protection of industrial designs

All registered users of EAPO-ONLINE e-filing system have access to a detailed user manual.

The EAPO also provides a hotline for applicants via telephone and e-mail to handle questions on filing and the subsequent examination procedures.

Availability of the application dossier in electronic form

The application dossier is available in electronic form in the EAPO, but it can be accessed only by the authorized staff of the Office.

Classification1, preclassification2 (if applicable), reclassification3 activities; classification systems used (e.g., International Patent Classification (IPC)); matters concerning indexing of patent information

EAPO patent documentation is included into PCT Minimum Documentation and patent documents are classified and reclassified in the International Patent Classification (IPC) on the publication stage. Since 2019 Eurasian patent documents are additionally classified in accordance with the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC).

Information about published Eurasian patent documents including classification data is sent to the EPO for public access.

The EAPO does not reclassify the back file of published Eurasian patent documents; reclassification is going to be launched since 2022.

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

Eurasian patent applications are filed with the EAPO in Russian only. When patent application is filed, an applicant or a representative provides abstract in required format in accordance with filing procedure. This abstract is published with bibliographic data of the application in the EAPO Gazette and on the Eurasian publication server, on first pages of application and corresponding patent. Translation of bibliographic data and abstracts of Eurasian patents into English is carried out by the EAPO; translations to published patents are available for information purposes in EAPATIS.

III. SOURCES OF PATENT INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE

Main types of publications of the Office (patent applications, full text, first pages, abstracts, bibliographic data, granted patents, etc.), medium (on paper, on CDs, online – URLs)

In 2021, the EAPO issued the following publications and provided the following on-line publication services in the field of patent information:

- EAPO Gazette (bibliographic data, abstract or claims, announcements); web portal:

https://www.eapo.org/ru/?publs=bulletin  

- Eurasian Publication Server (full descriptions of published applications and granted patents, first pages, bibliographic data, abstract or claims, announcements); web portal:

https://www.eapo.org/ru/publications/publicat/publicat.php

- Descriptions of inventions in Eurasian patent documents (full descriptions of published applications and granted patents including first pages, in PDF format, bibliographic data, abstract or claims, full texts of patents, translations of bibliographic data and abstracts into English for patents in XML format); ftp server of the EAPO

- Legislative, normative-methodical and reference documentation of the EAPO: 

  • General questions of the functioning of the EAPO

            https://www.eapo.org/ru/?documents=eapo

  • Legal protection of inventions

https://www.eapo.org/ru/?documents=inventions

  • Legal protection of industrial designs

https://www.eapo.org/ru/?documents=designs

 Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online – URL), etc.

In 2021, the EAPO published in its official Gazette the following procedural announcements in the field of patent information:

 Applications:

BZ2A  Eurasian patent application published with a search report (A1 publication)

BZ1A  Eurasian pаtent application published without a search report (A2 publication)

EZ2A  Separate publication of a search report (A3 publication)

HZ9A Reprint of the description of invention in a Eurasian patent application (title page only, list of corrections applied, A8 publication)

HH9A Reprint of the description of invention in a Eurasian patent application (list of corrections applied, A9 publication)

FA9A  Withdrawal of a Eurasian application

NF9A  Restoration of lapsed right to a Eurasian patent application

PD1A  Registration of transfer of right to a Eurasian application by succession in title

PC1A  Registration of transfer of right to a Eurasian application by assignment

HC1A Change in name of an applicant in a Eurasian application

HM1A Change in composition of inventors in Eurasian patent application

PZ1A  Registration of pledge of right to a Eurasian application

HK9A Corrections to EAPO Gazette related to published Eurasian patent application

Patents:

FG4A  Eurasian patent for invention (B1 publication)

FC9A  Refusal to grant Eurasian patent

LC4A  Eurasian patent for invention for which administrative decision of partial revocation was made (+ B2 publication)

LD4A Eurasian patent for invention for which a decision of limitation was made on the basis of proprietor’s request filed with EAPO (+B3 publication)

MA4A Revocation of a Eurasian patent at the proprirtor’s request filed with EAPO

MC4A Revocation of a Eurasian patent in full under administrative opposition procedure

MD4A Opposition filed against grant of a Eurasian patent

MF4A Designated state decision on revocation of a Eurasian patent in full

MH4A Designated state decision on revocation of a Eurasian patent in part

MK4A Eurasian patent expired after termination of the term of validity

MM4A Lapse of a Eurasian patent in contracting state due to non-payment within the time limit of renewal fees

ND4A Extension of term of validity of a Eurasian patent

NF4A  Restoration of lapsed right to Eurasian patent

NG4A Rejection of opposition against grant of a Eurasian patent

NZ4A Termination of opposition procedure

PC4A  Registration of transfer of right to Eurasian patent by assignment

PD4A  Registration of transfer of right to Eurasian patent by succession in title

PZ4A  Registration of pledge of right to a Eurasian patent

QB4A Registration of a license/sublicense/franchise agreement in a contracting state

QC4A Termination of a license/sublicense/franchise agreement in a contracting state

QM4A Decision on invalidation of a license/sublicense/franchise agreement

QZ4A Registered amendments and supplements in a license/sublicense/franchise agreement

RH4A Grant of a duplicate of a protection certificate

RL4A  Decisions of a court or other competent authority in respect of Eurasian patent

RQ4A Decisions of competent authorities related to the use of Eurasian patent

TB4A  Change in the composition of inventors in a published Eurasian patent

TC4A  Change in name of a patent proprietor in a Eurasian patent

TH4A  Reprint of the description of invention in a Eurasian patent (list of corrections applied, B9 publication)

TK4A  Corrections to EAPO Gazette related to published Eurasian patents

TZ4A  Reprint of the description of invention in a Eurasian patent (title page only, list of corrections applied, B8 publication)

In 2021, following the implementation of instant publication technology, daily updates to the official EAPO Gazette are published on the EAPO web portal at https://www.eapo.org/ru/?publs=bulletin (HTML and PDF versions available).

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

The provision of EAPO examiners with reference patent and non-patent documentation indicated in the international search report for Eurasian applications was carried out using the automated search report processing (SRP) system. In the reporting year, the selection of reference documents was carried out for 2,330 Eurasian applications. Of the 11,630 reference documents contained in the applications, 11,235 electronic documents were provided to examiners, including 8,724 patents and applications and 2,511 non-patent documents. The level of provision of experts with reference documents was 96.6%.

When conducting patent searches, examiners used EAPATIS, EPOQUE (EPO), Reaxys (ELSEVIER) information retrieval systems, as well as freely accessible ones (Espacenet, USPTO database, PATENTSCOPE, etc.). In 2021 an Agreement was signed with ELSEVIER for access to Reaxys Medical Chemistry database and Embase.

The EAPO uses an independently developed virtual patent-information depository comprising of local and external databases of patent documentation and non-patent literature integrated with each other. Access to databases and search therein is realized on the basis of a "one stop shop” policy via EAPATIS. Currently EAPATIS contains over 27 constantly updating databases. Since 2003 the access to the system via the Internet is granted for the EAPO Member States. In 2004-2005 access was provided also to patent offices of Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Georgia. Local databases are formed by extracting information from optical discs received by the EAPO as well as by downloading data from the respective Internet resources of international organizations and national patent offices with subsequent data conversion and arranging it in a unified format, indexing and loading into the database.

The EAPO continued its work on development and creation of a single Eurasian patent information space expanding and updating of the EAPO storage with patent documents belonging to the PCT Minimum Documentation, as well as documents issued by the EAPO and national patent offices of EAPС Contracting States. Expansion of the databases was implemented through processing of information from the CISPATENT discs, and databases of national patent offices under the exchange program.

During the reporting period EAPATIS processed approximately 724,7 thousand search queries, including more than 124,3 thousand queries from examiners of the national patent offices and more than 117,3 thousand queries from the EAPO examiners.

Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to external users, conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)

In 2021 the following patent information products and collections maintained by the EAPO were available to external users:

- EAPATIS (www.eapatis.com)

Guest use (open for general public):

Detailed searches in guest mode were only possible in arrays of the Eurasian (searches in English and Russian) and CISPATENT (searches in English) patent documents. Patent documents of other countries and international organizations could only be searched by their publication number.

Full use:

All EAPATIS databases are available for search and retrieval in full mode. Full use is subscription-based for external users. Free access is provided to national IP offices of EAPC Contracting States and to a number of public libraries, higher educational institutions, academies of sciences and scientific/technical centers in the EAPC Contracting States.

- Collection of Eurasian Patent Documentation on Espacenet and PATENTSCOPE – online, free of charge;

- Eurasian Publication Server  https://www.eapo.org/ru/publications/publicat/publicat.php) – online, free of charge;

- EAPO Gazette (https://www.eapo.org/ru/?publs=bulletin) - online, free of charge.

 Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)

Legal status information is stored and processed in the administrative system of the EAPO. This detailed legal and procedural status information is available for the authorized staff of the EAPO. External users may access the following legal status information sources:

- Eurasian Patent Register (https://www.eapo.org/ru/?patents=reestr)

The Register contains information about all published legal status events related to Eurasian patents, as well as the patent validity table by each EAPC Contracting state.

- Eurasian Publication Server (https://www.eapo.org/ru/publications/publicat/publicat.php)

The Server contains information about all published announcements related to Eurasian applications and patents with corresponding codes in accordance with WIPO standard ST.17.

- INPADOC database (EPO)

The EAPO delivers to the EPO on regular basis the information about published announcements related to Eurasian applications and patents with corresponding codes in accordance with WIPO standard ST.17.

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

Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements

№        Software

1          Linux Suse
2          Novell eDirectory
3          Double-Take
4          Citrix VDI in a box
5          Crystal Reports
6          IBM DB2
7          IBM Http server
8          JIRA
9          Lotus Notes
10        Microsoft Exchange Server
11        Microsoft SQL Server
12        Windows Servers
13        Linux Server

Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office

Servers similar to HP, Dell, SUN, Cisco, Lenovo from 50 to 100 pcs.

Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources

The patent information depository of EAPATIS contains information from international and regional organizations (WIPO, EPO, EAPO), from countries of the PCT Minimum Documentation (USA, Japan, Germany, UK, etc.) of different back file coverage, from national patent offices of the CIS countries, including EAPC Contracting States. Link to the coverage page of EAPATIS databases: http://www.eapatis.com/help/ru/db_eapatis.php

EAPATIS is capable of conducting searches additionally in Espacenet, PATENTSCOPE, and USPTO databases. It is also able to redirect the user to view information about the found documents directly on the websites of national patent offices or international organizations - EP Register, RU Register, PATENTSCOPE and other registers and databases accessible via the Internet. The J-PlatPat automatic translation system of the Japanese Patent Office can be used to translate documents in Japanese.

More information about EAPATIS is available under the point “Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external collections and databases” of this report.

Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file

EAPO continued to update search DBs of patent information included in the PCT Minimum Documentation, as well as patent information of the EAPO and the national IP offices.

The replenishment of the CIS database was based on the processing of CISPATENT data, and the database of the world patent documentation fund was updated based on information received by the EAPO within the framework of exchange programs. In 2021, the database was replenished with more than 2 million patent documents, including information on over 50 thousand national patent documents in the region. The total number of documents in the database exceeded 86 million. The database was accessed using the EAPATIS system.

In 2021, information from 808 sources was loaded into the electronic data storage system, work was carried out to optimize its storage.

Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)

The EAPO currently uses AIS SOPRANO as an administrative management tool. The system comprises examiner’s workplace, patent register update functions and legal events processing functions. The database of AIS SOPRANO also serves as a data source for various administrative statistics generated and visualized by SAP BusinessObjects and Crystal Reports.

The database of the Eurasian Patent Register is formed with data extracted from SOPRANO. Access to the database is provided to internal and external users. Legal status data on patents is contained within the Register.

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

Patent library: equipment, collection management, network of patent libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign patent libraries

The internal EAPO web site accumulates in-house legal, regulatory, organizational documents, instructions, reference materials, and minutes of meetings. The internal library of periodicals, received in electronic format from the publishers, subscriptions and publications of EAPO personnel are also posted on the web site. Users may conduct searches over publications by author's name, titles, and key words. The internal EAPO web site was further improved and maintained in 2021. All office employees are able to access this site from their workstations.

In 2021, the EAPO received specialized magazines, books, brochures covering various aspects of patent activity. To provide examiners with reference materials the EAPO cooperates with BEN (Library of Natural Sciences), VINITI (Library of the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information), VPTB (All-Russian Patent and Technical Library) and others.

All collections of patent documents are stored electronically and available in EAPATIS.

 Publications related to different business procedures and patent information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.

The EAPO web portal provides access to a number of documents, publications and guides intended for applicants and patent information users, e.g.:

- General information about Eurasian patent procedures

- Brochure "How to File a Eurasian Application"

- Brochure "How to Get a Eurasian Patent"

- Brochure "Obtaining a Eurasian patent under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) procedure"

- Up-to-date collection of legal texts

- Comment of Eurasian Patent Legislation

- Explanatory statements of the EAPO on certain procedural aspects

- Guidance materials

- User manuals, help files for patent information systems (EAPATIS, Espacenet, EAPO-ONLINE, etc.)

 Office’s initiatives on providing foreign patent information in the local language(s) (e.g., machine translation tools, translation of abstracts)

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

The EAPO makes its feasible contribution to the innovative development of its Member States by means of providing a free access to EAPATIS to national IP offices, public libraries, higher educational institutions, academies of sciences and scientific/technical centers of those countries. Totally, more than 181 organizations had access to EAPATIS as at the end of the year under review.

 Education and training: training courses, e-learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.

The Eurasian Patent Office organizes annual training for the experts in specialized educational institutions. This training is funded by the EAPO.

In 2021, due to the difficult epidemiological situation, training took place using distance learning. During the reporting period, 34 representatives of the national IP offices of all EAPC Contracting States underwent various forms of training.

In 2021, 7 specialists from the national IP offices of the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, and the Republic of Tajikistan improved their qualifications in information technology at the Moscow SoftLine Education training center in two specialized courses: “Fundamentals of Information Security” and “Attack Detection”. These courses are intended for employees of departments responsible for ensuring the security of computer networks.

In 2021, 7 Eurasian Patent Office representatives improved their professional qualifications at the ARGUS Center for Additional Professional Education and Consulting Services.

VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF PATENT INFORMATION

International exchange and sharing of patent information in machine-readable form, e.g., priority documents, bibliographic data, abstracts, search reports, full text information

In 2021, exchange of patent documentation was carried out with the three international organizations and 52 national patent offices by sharing disc images and information as Raw data via FTP.

The following data deliveries, based on the cooperation agreements, were carried out by the EAPO in 2021:

- PATENTSCOPE (WIPO) – bibliographic data and full descriptions of Eurasian applications and patents, regional phase entry information for PCT applications;

- Espacenet/DOCDB/BNS (EPO) - bibliographic data and full descriptions of Eurasian applications and patents;

- Inpadoc (EPO) – legal status information;

- CISPATENT (FIPS) - bibliographic data and full descriptions of Eurasian patents.

Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to patent information

In the framework of implementation of the Agreements on granting of access to EAPATIS to scientific organizations, public libraries and higher educational institutions, they have received access to EAPATIS for free in 2019. In the past year more than 181 organizations have already been connected to EAPATIS under this project.

The EAPO participates in the CISPATENT regional project. CISPATENT is a joint patent information product containing information on inventions of the CIS countries and Eurasian patents.

The EAPO finances the participation of the EAPC Contracting States in the project.

The annual set contains information on patent documents of Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Russia, and of Eurasian Patent Office, including:

  • bibliographic data and abstracts in Russian and English;
  • patent specifications in the original language of publication.

Periodicity of publications - 12 issues per year.

As a participant of international patent documentation exchange, the EAPO provides complete descriptions of Eurasian applications and patents, and makes its Gazette available to 52 countries and international organizations.

VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS

No.



1.Classification is allotting one or more classification symbols (e.g., IPC symbols) to a patent application, either before or during search and examination, which symbols are then published with the patent application.

2. Preclassification is allotting an initial broad classification symbol (e.g., IPC class or subclass, or administrative unit) to a patent application, using human or automated means for internal administrative purposes (e.g., routing an application to the appropriate examiner).  Usually preclassification is applied by the administration of an office.

3. Reclassification is the reconsideration and usually the replacement of one or more previously allotted classification symbols to a patent document, following a revision and the entry into force of a new version of the Classification system (e.g., the IPC).  The new symbols are available on patent databases.

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