Annual Technical Report on Industrial Design Information Activities in 2018 submitted by Rospatent

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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 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. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

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

In 2018, developing electronic interaction services, optimizing technological office work processes, and enhancing the transparency of Rospatent and FIPS were the main areas of work.

In 2018, users of the FIPS website made extensive use of the service for submitting industrial design applications electronically.

Implementation of a range of measures aimed at increasing applicants’ interest in the electronic provision of government services enabled the share of electronic applications to increase. In particular, the largest increase in the fourth quarter of 2018- 54.86 per cent- was recorded by electronic filing of industrial design applications, which was 33 per cent higher than in the same period of 2017.

Currently, the Federal Register of State and Municipal Services (Functions) and the Unified Portal of State Services (hereinafter, EPGU) contain up-to-date information on all 26 of Rospatent’s State services. For 25 State services, it is possible to submit a request (applications, etc.) electronically via EPGU for the provision of a State service, including applying for an industrial design.

On the site of Rospatent, the goals, objectives and plans of the Federal Service for Intellectual Property are published in the section "Plans of Rospatent's activities":

http://www.rupto.ru/ru/about/plans.

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

In 2018, the module for accepting applications from external information systems for industrial design applications, designed for integrating information systems with FIPS electronic interaction systems, was commissioned.

In 2018, preparatory work was completed on transferring documents from paper to electronic format for future use in an automated case management system for international registration of industrial designs under the Hague Agreement. 

In 2018, an automated case management system for international registration of industrial designs under the Hague Agreement was developed. The system is planned to be launched in 2019. 

In order to enable electronic record-keeping during the provision of State services, the following work was undertaken at FIPS in 2018:

- Operability and fitness for purpose of FIPS information systems and resources was ensured, including the Electronic State Registers for Industrial Designs.

- Ensured the efficiency of the service of electronic filing applications for industrial designs.

- A system for official Internet publication of information on IP subject matter from the EGR PO of the Russian Federation was installed and trialled.

In 2018, operation continued of the automated system of paperless document flow for reviewing industrial design applications (abbreviated to ‘ASBBD Industrial Design Applications’), as part of which electronic correspondence is provided, as well as signing by electronic signature.

The transition to electronic prosecution has seen a gradual decline in the use of paper-based information, a reduction in the time taken to process documents and search for required information, thereby leading ultimately to increased productivity and better public awareness of patent rights and amendments thereto, as well as the status of patent documents.

In 2018, EGR PO records continued to be completed. As at the end of 2018, it contained 42,732 patents.

Automatic downloading of information from State Registers in open data formats is provided in accordance with the Federal Intellectual Property Service’s disclosure requirements schedule of the most important data sets of social significance for 2017-2018. The information is available in the ‘Public Data’ section of the Rospatent website.

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

In 2018, the number of requests for the provision of government services (hereinafter referred to as ‘requests’) submitted electronically to Rospatent increased compared to 2017. The fastest growth was recorded in the fourth quarter of 2018, at 38 per cent (26.7 per cent in the same quarter of 2017).

This was achieved through the implementation of a series of measures, a list of which is presented below.

The list of measures aimed at increasing applicants’ interest in applying electronically for the provision of government services is as follows:

1. Amendments to regulatory acts.

By decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No.1151 of 23 September 2017, at the suggestion of Rospatent, the discount to the amount of duty for completing legally significant actions in the provision of government services shall be increased to 30 per cent, and such discount shall be extended to all types of actions that were initiated electronically.   

1. Development and implementation of new electronic interaction services.

In 2018, a new version of the AWS (Automated Work Station) Registrar service was commissioned, which provided the option to file applications for invention and utility models electronically.

1. Expanding the functionality of electronic interaction services.

In 2018, automatic processing was introduced of correspondence signed electronically on applications previously filed through the Personal Account, eliminating potential errors and delays in registering documents ‘manually’, and also including applications for inventions and utility models. 

1. Providing the option of submitting applications using the Unified Portal of Government and Municipal Services (Functions) (hereinafter referred to as EPGU).

 In 2018, the option was provided to submit applications to EPGU for 25 Rospatent government services.

During the year under review, a number of meetings were held with the Ministries of Communications and Economic Development to resolve the issues of making provision for the specific features of Rospatent services on EPGU. For 2019, there are plans to enhance the functionality of EPGU and subsequently to update the application forms for Rospatent services on EPGU.

1. Conducting monthly thematic meetings for FIPS specialists with users of electronic filing services for applications for inventions and utility models, applicants and representatives thereof, as well as all those wishing to participate in the process of electronic interaction with Rospatent and FIPS when submitting and reviewing applications.
2. Posting of educational video materials and programs on the FIPS website.

Videos have been posted in the Electronic Interaction with Applicants section. The number of views of the video on preparing an application for an invention totalled 2,444.

1. The FIPS technical support service is conducting a review of requests from users of electronic services.
2. Any interested person may obtain the necessary knowledge and practical experience in preparing documentation electronically for applications for the grant of a patent for an invention or utility model. One-to-one training is conducted in the computer room of the patent library, and is free-of-charge.

In 2018, 2,545 applications for State registration of an industrial design and grant of a patent for an industrial design, as well as duplicates thereof, were filed electronically.

Interaction with the federal executive authorities is provided using the inter-agency electronic interaction system (hereinafter, ‘SMEV’). The SMEV web-service was developed and registered in a production environment in compliance with methodological guidelines for the development of eleсtronic services and use of electronic signature technology in the inter-agency electronic interaction version 3.0 on July 28, 2017.

In 2017, the type of information on registered intellectual property subject matter was developed and registered in the production and test environment of SMEV 3.x Type of information that ensures the transfer of information about the registered objects of intellectual property.

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

Table 1 shows the trends in the filing of applications and grant of patents for industrial designs in 2017 and 2018.

Table 1

The total number of applications filed for industrial designs decreased compared to 2017 by 8.93 per cent, while a more decrease occurred for foreign applicants (by 16.56%), it is also observed for Russian applicants (by 1.38% ).

The number of industrial design patents granted increased by 18.09% as compared to 2017.

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

The following pages of the Office’s website contain:

Legal information- Regulation section:

 http://new.fips.ru/to-applicants/industrial-designs/promyshlennye-obraztsy-normativnye-dokumenty.php;

• Office Annual Report-Rospatent Annual Reports section:

http://www.rupto.ru/about/reports;

• Links section:

 http://www.rupto.ru/ru/sourses/links;

• Guide to the resources of the VPTB Division of FIPS and Internet resources:

http://new.fips.ru/about/vptb-otdelenie-vserossiyskaya-patentno-tekhnicheskaya-biblioteka/putevoditel-po-fondam-otdeleniya-vptb-fips-i-internet-resursam.php;

• Information noticesin the Industrial Designs section:

http://new.fips.ru/to-applicants/industrial-designs/informatsionnye-soobshcheniya.php.

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

Information and support provided by the Office to applicants regarding filing on paper and/or e-filing (instructions, seminars, etc.) - URLs

The following pages of the Office’s website contain:

Legal information- Regulation section:

 http://new.fips.ru/to-applicants/industrial-designs/promyshlennye-obraztsy-normativnye-dokumenty.php;

• Office Annual Report-Rospatent Annual Reports section:

http://www.rupto.ru/about/reports;

• Links section:

 http://www.rupto.ru/ru/sourses/links;

• Guide to the resources of the VPTB Division of FIPS and Internet resources:

http://new.fips.ru/about/vptb-otdelenie-vserossiyskaya-patentno-tekhnicheskaya-biblioteka/putevoditel-po-fondam-otdeleniya-vptb-fips-i-internet-resursam.php;

• Information notices in the Industrial Designs section:

http://new.fips.ru/to-applicants/industrial-designs/informatsionnye-soobshcheniya.php.

Availability of the application dossier in electronic form

In 2018, the FIPS website gave access to:

• The Open Registers information resource, which for the purposes of searching for information on registered results of intellectual activity and means of individualization, other information concerning the status of an issued patent or certificate, or that of an application, provides access to:

- registers of Russian patent documentation for all types of industrial property; 

- registers containing information on paperwork for applications filed between 2007 and 2018, for the grant of patents for inventions, utility models, and industrial designs;

- the register of applications for State registration of disposal of an exclusive right under contract, and applications for State registration of the transfer of a right without an agreement;

• the official Rospatent gazette, Industrial Designs;
• information published daily on current official publications.

Access is provided on the Rospatent and FIPS websites to a database of industrial design applications filed between 2007 and 2018, which contains information on 59,000 applications, and is updated daily.

Classification and reclassification activities; classification system used, e.g., International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification), other classification

At Rospatent, in 2018  the 11th edition of Locarno classification was used  for classification of the current patent documents.

In accordance with the WIPO program for the improvement of the Locarno classification in 2018, Rospatent worked on the preparation of new designation of industrial designs for inclusion in the official Russian edition of the 12th edition of the Locarno classification, and the proposals of foreign patent offices were also commented.

In 2018 Rospatent took part in the work of Committee of Experts of WIPO of the Locarno Classification.

Other activities

III. SOURCES OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE

Main types of publications in the field of industrial design information, outline of the content (industrial design applications, design patents, registrations, etc.) and medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URLs)

Rospatent publications on industrial designs are presented in Table 2.

Тable 2

During 2018, the Industrial Designs Official Gazette has been posted on the website of the Federal State Budgetary Institution, the Federal Institute of Industrial Property (hereinafter, ‘FIPS’), which is subordinate to Rospatent, in the Official Publications section, and is freely available, constituting a functional and comprehensive information source. The ISSN number is 2313-7460.

Gazette documents are in PDF format. 

All Industrial Designs Official Gazette for 2005-2018 available at:

http://www1.fips.ru/wps/portal/ofic_pub_ru/#page=bulletin&type=PO

The web page addresses of the Office’s websites providing information concerning Office publications are as follows:

• Regulations on the Rospatent Official Gazette,Industrial Designs:

http://new.fips.ru/documents/npa-rf/prikazy-rospatenta/polozhenie-ob-ofitsialnom-byulletene-promyshlennye-obraztsy-utverzhdeno-prikazom-rospatenta-ot-31-12.php;

• Official Publications section:

http://www1.fips.ru/wps/portal/ofic_pub_ru/#page=search&type=PO&number=0;

• Catalog of Publications and Databases in the Patent Information Products section:

http://new.fips.ru/vse-uslugi/patentno-informatsionnye-produkty/.

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

The Official Gazette, Industrial Designs, is published once per month.

The forms of notifications on industrial designs published in the Rospatent Official Gazette, Industrial Designs, are presented in Table 3:

Table 3

 The web page addresses of the Office’s websites providing information relating to access to online publications:

Industrial Designs in the Official Publications section

http://www1.fips.ru/wps/portal/ofic_pub_ru/#page=bulletin&type=PO;

International Classification for Industrial Designs

http://www1.fips.ru/wps/portal/ofic_pub_ru/#page=classification&type=PO;

Open Registers of Russian Patent Documents subsection

http://new.fips.ru/registers-web/.

From the above page, a user may refer to the following resources by means of the appropriate link:

Register of Industrial Designs of the Russian Federation;

Register of Applications for the Grant of a Russian Federation Industrial Design Patent.

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

FIPS examiners can access all free available resources in the Internet, containing information about industrial designs.

The minimum scope of the search includes industrial design documentation from Russia, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, the United States, France, Japan and WIPO. Nevertheless the scope of the search may include any generally available documents regardless of the language, age and type.

The list of available databases is located in the internal network and is updated regularly. The list contains information about industrial design resources of countries and organizations included in the minimum scope of the search, as well as additional resources. Additional resources cover industrial designs information of about 30 countries and organizations, including the EUIPO. For each resource there is information about Internet address, retrospective, and a brief description of search and browsing options.

Also publications on industrial designs in paper are available for examiners (23 periodical publications, including 6 foreign publications).

Furthermore, as an additional service, to examine industrial designs based on industrial design images results are prepared of a search for similarity with figurative elements of Russian Federation trademarks in the sub-system of linguistic description and image similarity search, SILOIZ. The search results are provided to examiners of industrial designs in a specialized interface for the preparation of reference materials based on the results of examination of industrial designs. In 2018, 3,246 searches of figurative elements were carried out relating to 1,653 industrial design applications.

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

In 2018, subscribers were provided with the Industrial Designs Official Gazette, based on official Rospatent information, on CD/DVD with search system. They are distributed with a frequency of 12 issues (disks) per year. 

For new subscribers, and also for the purposes of keeping patent collections up to date, series of Industrial Designs Official Gazette published in previous years (2015-2017) were offered on CD/DVD.

In 2018 in addition, users were offered sets of information on industrial designs for 1993 to 2017 on DVD/USB Flash Drive (only 13 disks and 2 USB flash drives), as well as a retrospective set of an array of information on industrial designs for 1993 to 2017 by FTP.

Also periodical publications on industrial designs in hard copy are available for external users (23 periodical publications).

All products on CD/DVD/ USB Flash Drive and by FTP were distributed along with MIMOSA information-search system software, which provides searching of bibliographic data, ICGS indexes, the verbal elements of marks, and also combinations thereof.

The Industrial Designs Official Gazette was published on the FIPS website, and upkeep of the registers of Russian industrial designs with an indication of legal status continued. 

Users are also provided with free access to information on applications for the grant of Russian Federation patents for industrial designs received after January 1, 2005.

On the FIPS website, the official bulletin "Industrial Designs" was published and the registers of Russian industrial designs continued to be maintained, indicating their legal status.

The Internet resources of Rospatent comprise the following databases:

Registers of Russian industrial designs contain the following databases:

- an industrial designs database (includes information on 77,000 patents from 1993 to 2018);

- a database of applications for industrial designs filed between 2007 and 2018 (includes information on the prosecution of 59,000 applications, updated daily).

The FIPS website provides users with access to:

- the information-search system for industrial designs;

- registers of Russian industrial designs;

- registers containing information on prosecution of applications filed between 2007 and 2018, in respect of industrial design patents;

- Rospatent Official Gazette “Industrial Designs".

ISS users are given access to:

- a database of industrial designs containing information on 77,000 patents from 1993 to 2018;

- the LOC database.

Users’ work with the information-search system

Examiners are able to work with all industrial design databases. Access to the industrial design databases is provided to third-party users on a contractual basis.

In 2018, as part of the cooperation agreement between Rospatent and the appropriate organizations, the following had access to:

• full-text industrial design databases:
  - 170 Technology and Innovation Support Centers

 - Two organizations of Rostekhnologiya

• all FIPS databases:

• ­ 105 organizations of the Federal Service of Court Bailiffs
• ­ 238 organizations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
• ­ 98 organizations of the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service
• ­ 16 organizations of the Ministry of Defense
• ­ 96 organizations of the taxation service
• ­ 60 users of the Court for Intellectual Property Rights
• ­ 2 users of the RosOboronPostavka
• ­ 2 organizations of the Federal Customs Service
• 12 users of the Roskhomnadzor.

Third-party users are granted free access to the following industrial design databases:

- A database containing information on RF industrial design patents No.87456, published in issues of the Industrial Designs Gazette.

- LOC database.

In 2018, internal and external users made more than 3,473,000 requests, of which:

• ­ Approximately 120,000 by internal database users;
• ­ more than 3,353,000 by external database users.

Users’ Work with Registers of Russian Patent Documents

Users are provided with free access to all documents contained in the "Open Registries".

In 2018, users made more than 109,808 thousand  page views of "Open Registries", of which:

more than 448,000 - internal users of registries;

more than 109,360,000 - third-party users of registries.

The web page addresses on the Office website which contain information relating to information products and services provided by the Office, are:

• Information on subscribing to patent information products – in the Patent Information Products section: Catalog of Publications and Databases:

http://new.fips.ru/vse-uslugi/patentno-informatsionnye-produkty/;

How to purchase publications and databases subsection:

http://new.fips.ru/vse-uslugi/patentno-informatsionnye-produkty/poryadok-priobreteniya-izdaniy-i-baz-dannykh.php;

• Industrial Designs Official Gazette in the Official Publications section:

http://www1.fips.ru/wps/portal/ofic_pub_ru/#page=bulletin&type=PO;

• Carrying out searches – in the Search System section:

http://new.fips.ru/elektronnye-servisy/informatsionno-poiskovaya-sistema/

Open Registers: http://new.fips.ru/elektronnye-servisy/otkrytye-reestry/;

• Patent databases– Databases subsection of the Search System section:

http://new.fips.ru/elektronnye-servisy/informatsionno-poiskovaya-sistema/promyshlennye-obraztsy-rude.php;;

• Information on accessing and using resources– in the Search System section:

Support, http://new.fips.ru/elektronnye-servisy/informatsionno-poiskovaya-sistema/podderzhka-polzovateley-informatsionno-poiskovoy-sistemy.php.

and instruction on work with Internet resources FIPS

http://new.fips.ru/elektronnye-servisy/informatsionno-poiskovaya-sistema/instr_search_2018.pdf

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

All patent document databases contain information on legal status that is updated monthly.

Automated database subsystems for determining legal status use data from official publications that contain information on newly registered protection titles or amendments. Following publication of each Gazette, data on legal status are posted on the Rospatent website in the Information Resources section. The status of industrial design patents may be “valid”, “may terminate validity”, “validity terminated, but may be restored”, and “validity terminated”.

Information on the legal status of industrial designs is published in the Industrial Designs Official Gazette, posted on the FIPS and Rospatent websites, and also in the Industrial Designs FIPS Gazette on CD/DVD:

- information on the grant of RF patents for industrial designs;

- information on amendments to the entries of the State Register of Russian Federation Industrial Designs (Notifications section of the Gazette).

In the Search section of the Office’s website, information is provided on registrations, with an indication of legal status or stage of prosecution of registered subject matter in the Open Registers: http://new.fips.ru/registers-web/.

Other sources

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

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

In 2018, work continued on developing hardware and software to ensure industry experts and employees of functional departments could work securely in a remote location.

It continues to operate a hardware and software system that allows for remote viewing of claims and objections in the Chamber of Patent Disputes for inhabitants of the regions. Participation in the hearing is provided through a browser, and no additional software installation is required for external participants. Implementation of the system received a favorable response among patent attorneys.

Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office

Equipment used (industrial design search systems):

HP DL380 server – 8 units.

(RAM – 4GB, processors - 2, external memory – 300 GB)

Сервер HP DL580 – 5 units.

(RAM – 16GB, processors - 4, external memory - 900 GB)

HP workstations - 70 units.

 Software:

Windows 7, Windows XP,

Windows 2003 Server, Windows 2008 Server, Windows 2012 Server operating systems.

Carriers used:

LTO-7magnetic tapes

Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources

In 2018, work continued on populating the database of an automated paperless document flow system for examining industrial design applications (Industrial Design Applications), providing examiners with a wide range of features.

Industrial design software continued to be used, providing a review of trademark database search results on the basis of pre-prepared search instructions, in order to prevent unfair competition when using trademarks and industrial designs.

FIPS examiners can access all free available resources in the Internet, containing information about industrial designs. 

The minimum scope of the search includes industrial design documentation from Russia, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, the United States, France, Japan and WIPO.  Nevertheless the scope of the search may include any generally available documents regardless of the language, age and type.

The list of available databases is located in the internal network and is updated regularly. The list contains information about industrial design resources of countries and organizations included in the minimum scope of the search, as well as additional resources.  Additional resources cover industrial designs information of about 30 countries and organizations, including the EUIPO. For each resource there is information about Internet address, retrospective, and a brief description of search and browsing options.

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

Examiners of applications for industrial designs are provided with the results of information searches in the automated system for verbal searches, RF Trademarks, and the system for formalized linguistic descriptions of trademark images, SILOIZ, for similarities between verbal or figurative elements of trademarks and verbal and figurative elements of industrial designs that have been the subject of applications.

Examiners from the industrial designs department analyze and use the results obtained in taking substantive decisions regarding elements similar to the trademarks found.

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

Industrial design applications are registered in the IRWC system (a unified system for registering applications and incoming correspondence), procedures for exporting data to DBA systems and the system of ASBBD "Applications for industrial designs" have been developed and implemented.

Paper documents are transferred into electronic format and uploaded onto the Industrial Design Applications automated paperless prosecution system using Data Center software, and, in particular, primary industrial design application materials and additional documents relating to industrial design applications are transferred and uploaded to electronic applications.

The automated industrial designs database is used to generate various statistical reports.

The Industrial Design Applications automated paperless prosecution system registers incoming mail, prepares outgoing correspondence, and monitors all stages of an application’s life cycle, from filing of the application to the examination decision (grant, refusal, or withdrawal), monitoring deadlines for reviewing correspondence and conducting examinations.

Other matters

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

Office's library (if deals with industrial design information): equipment, collection management, network of libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign libraries

The industrial designs collection is intended both for examiners and other categories of users. Information on industrial designs in the All-Russian Patent Technology Library (VPTB) is provided to all categories of users on a fee-free basis.

The industrial designs collection consists of two arrays of documents:

- national and foreign special and general Gazettes with sections on industrial designs on various carriers, arranged according to Gazette issue number;

- a specialized collection of a broad range of industrial design publications; the collection is arranged according to LOC indexes.

The collection is kept up to date by including current documentation on RF industrial designs and documentation from Rospatent’s foreign partners received under international exchange, as well as by acquiring literature through subscription from major foreign and Russian publishers.

The specialized collection on industrial designs includes:

- periodicals and books on industrial design and style;

- advertising brochures and catalogs associated with exhibitions, and adverts for new goods and products;

- thematic collections containing publications from the national Gazettes of a range of foreign countries with a translation into Russian of the name of the industrial design;

- methodology and reference literature.

As of January 1, 2018, the collection contained, in total, over 2.6 million publications, including:

- national and foreign journals on design and new production methods – over 20,200 copies;

- more than 999 books on design;

- advertising brochures and catalogs – over 48,300 copies;

- the thematic collections of national Gazettes from a range of other countries – approximately 2.5 million publications.

A collection contains official publications on industrial designs produced by different countries for various retrospective periods.

A room has been specially equipped at VPTB for all categories of users working with industrial design information.

In 2018, 45,900 copies of publications were issued from the industrial design collection, including:

- 0,400 paper copies, and more than 3,400 electronic copies of Official Gazettes were issued;

- more than 5,900 copies of design magazines were issued;

- approximately 131 copies of books on design were published;

- approximately 31,400 advertising brochures and catalogs were issued.

The collection of applications and contracts for the results of intellectual activities and means of individualization includes applications for industrial designs. As of December 2018 this part of the applications collection consists of 44,617 copies on paper and micro carrier.

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

The VPTB patent law collection includes books and periodicals on a broad range of issues of legal protection and use of industrial designs in Russia and overseas. The collection is available electronically and in hard-copy, and also includes publications found on the official Rospatent and FIPS websites, and contains different types of information sources: national and international law, commentaries and reviews, guidelines, training aids, standards, patent office reports, conference and seminar materials, compilations of court decisions and collections of statistics, etc. 

In 2018, in order to improve the methodological support of the provision of State services, a new Guide to State Registration of Industrial Designs and Grant of Patents for Industrial Designs and Duplicates Thereof was adopted:

 https://rupto.ru/ru/documents/rucov_po/download.

Practical guides on protecting and using industrial designs may be downloaded in the e-Brochures section:

Internet publications from the All-Russian Patent Technology Library Division are available on the FIPS website in the State Patent Collection and VPTB Information Products sections at:

http://new.fips.ru/about/vptb-otdelenie-vserossiyskaya-patentno-tekhnicheskaya-biblioteka/index.php

http://new.fips.ru/about/vptb-otdelenie-vserossiyskaya-patentno-tekhnicheskaya-biblioteka/bibliograficheskie-ukazateli-i-spiski.php

Brief information on legal protection of created designs:

http://www.rupto.ru/ru/faq/kak-mozhno-zashchitit-originalnyy-dizayn-ot-poddelok-i-zaimstvovaniy.

For novice users of patent information, links can be found to WIPO publications in Russian under the What is Intellectual Property? heading in the For Beginners section:

http://new.fips.ru/to-applicants/dlya-novichkov/chto-takoe-intellektualnaya-sobstvennost-.php

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

In 2018, implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding between Rospatent and WIPO on the establishment of TISCs in the Russian Federation continued.

On September 3-4, 2018, the Sixth Congress of the Technology and Innovation Support Centers of Russia was held in St.Petersburg (number of participants- 152).

On November 27-29, 2018, the National Training Seminar of the Technology and Innovation Support Centers of the Russian Federation, organized in conjunction with WIPO, was held in Moscow. The seminar was attended by 92 delegates.

As part of the spring/autumn session of the WIPO Academy, 42 specialists from the national regional TISC network underwent training.

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

Training of civil servants of Rospatent

The organization of additional professional education of federal civil servants of Rospatent in 2018 was conducted in accordance with the List of priority areas of professional development of civil servants, such as:

• modern technologies in public administration;
• socioeconomic development of the Russian Federation;
• effectiveness of control and supervisory activities;
• use of digital technologies in the socioeconomic sphere and public administration;
• regulatory and legislative activities.

In 2018, five civil servants of Rospatent completed a master's degree program on 04.04.01 “Jurisprudence”, a training profile “Legal Protection of Intellectual Property”. Of these, 3 graduates were trained in full-time education and 2 graduates in part-time education.

Advanced training of FIPS specialists

Organization of training and professional development of FIPS employees is carried out within the framework of the Unified Training System (UTS) on the principle of continuity, starting from the moment of employment. The provision of conditions for continuous professional development of employees is stipulated by the FIPS Charter.

The primary objective in 2018 was to continue the work on organizing classes for various categories of FIPS employees in connection with the issuance of new regulatory and legal acts regulating the rules and procedure for the provision of public services.

This was achieved through training employees according to the plans of professional training directly in FIPS subdivisions and centralized classes.

In accordance with the consolidated plans for internal training of employees approved by the Director of FIPS, in 2018, 18 centralized training sessions were held, in which 366 FIPS specialists took part. Also directly in the divisions of FIPS 368 sessions were organized. In 2018, the main focus of the classes was on studying the new provisions of regulatory acts relating to the provision of public services, changes to the Regulation on patent and other fees.

The system of expert staff continued to be trained in the use of computer databases selected for conducting information searches during the examination process, and the automated systems used in the work.

Advanced training of FIPS novice experts is held on a regular basis in the field of examination of inventions and utility models, as well as trademarks. Training is carried out with granting an appropriate certificate.

Organization of additional professional education of specialists of organizations in FIPS

In order to saturate the domestic economy with specialists with a high level of professional competence in the field of intellectual property, the management of Rospatent and FIPS decided to intensify educational activities of the Federal Institute of Industrial Property, given the high professional level of FIPS expert staff.

The implementation of additional professional programs is carried out on the basis of the license series 77Л 01 No. 0008944 (reg. No. 038110), given on December 19, 2016 by the Moscow Department of Education; educational activities have been carried out since 2017.

Since the specified time, 20 advanced training programs and 1 professional retraining program were developed and approved at the STC sections aimed at improving the level of professional competence of IP employees.

Leading state intellectual property experts of FIPS, as well as well-known external practitioners are involved in teaching.

In order to coordinate the educational activities of FIPS, a Research and Education Center has been established.

In 2018, training was carried out under one professional re-training program, Legal Protection of the Results of Intellectual Activity and Management of Rights Thereto, and 22 diplomas were awarded; 343 accreditations and 42 certificates were awarded under 21 professional-development programs, and 14 certificates for one training seminar. A total of 421 people underwent training during 2018.

In 2018, VPTB of FIPS held 12 thematic meetings on issue of «Training to work with the electronic filing system for industrial design applications». The other two thematic meetings touched upon following issues: «Accession of the Russian Federation to the Hague Industrial Designs Registration System», «Discussion of the draft Guidelines for the registration of a trademark, a service mark and the Guidelines for the registration of an industrial design». Information about thematic meetings is available at:

https://new.fips.ru/about/vptb-otdelenie-vserossiyskaya-patentno-tekhnicheskaya-biblioteka/tematicheskie-vstrechi/index.php

The addresses of web pages of the Office’s site containing information about training, seminars and conferences:

- the "Training. Advanced professional training. Retraining":" section

http://new.fips.ru/about/deyatelnost/obuchenie/index.php;;

 - the "Training seminars" section for TISCs of the RF:

http://www1.fips.ru/TISCs/teach_sem;

   -  a plan of thematic meetings of the employees of Rospatent and FIPS with representatives of the business community dedicated to acquaintance with new by-laws for 2018.:

http://new.fips.ru/about/vptb-otdelenie-vserossiyskaya-patentno-tekhnicheskaya-biblioteka/tematicheskie-vstrechi/tematicheskie-vstrechi-provedennye-v-2018-g.php;

 - conferences and seminars in the regions of the Russian Federation in 2018:

http://new.fips.ru/about/deyatelnost/konferentsii-seminary/plany-provedeniya/2018.php

Other activities

VI.INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION

International exchange of industrial design information in machine-readable form (e.g., Official Gazettes)

In order to fulfill its obligations in relation to exchange of patent information, FIPS posts electronic Gazettes, including trademark information, on the Institute’s FTP server, and has granted log-in and password access to documentation to the offices of 47 foreign countries and two international organizations.

In 2018, 1,616 copies of industrial design gazettes were received from 40 countries and one international organization on all kinds of carriers: 23 paper copies; 149 copies on optical disks, and 1,444 copies downloaded from office websites or Internet resources.

Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to industrial design information

In 2018, Rospatent was involved in organizing and holding five Russian exhibitions and two international exhibitions of inventions and innovations in six regions of the Russian Federation.

In total, over 4,000 people from various regions of the Russian Federation attended the conferences, seminars and round tables held in 2018.

April 5 - 8, 2018, at the 21th Moscow International Exhibition of Inventions and Innovation Technologies, Archimedes 2018, which was organized with Rospatent’s support, and attended by representatives of more than 250 organizations and participants from 26 countries and 55 regions of the Russian Federation, the traditional competition, ‘Best Industrial Design of the Archimedes Exhibition’, was included in the competition program.

Assistance to developing countries

Rospatent has no special programs to help developing countries. Assistance is provided in response to individual requests from the Offices of developing countries.

Other activities

VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS

Section "International Cooperation" on the website of the Office:

http://www.rupto.ru/ru/international-cooperation;

"The Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designs" subsection:

http://www.rupto.ru/ru/activities/inter/coop/wipo/hague_system.