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Annual Technical Report on Patent Information Activities in 2014 submitted by

I. 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

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

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

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

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

II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT 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

Guidance manuals for patent filling on paper are available at http://www.inpi.gov.br/portal/artigo/guia_basico_patentes 

Information regarding on-line patent applications can be obtained at: 
http://epatentes.inpi.gov.br/modulo2/edeposito/ 

Additionally, the Directorate of Patents offers a customer care sector to support the user with general information and orientation by phone, e-mail or face to face.

Electronic filing, which started in March 2013, represented in 2014 75% of all the patent applications filed in Brazil. The Directorate of Patents started to work on an easier, web-based platform to accept patent applications, and intends to release this platform by the end of 2015. 

Availability of the application dossier in electronic form

The dossiers of the application are now indexed and can be accessed on the internet through a patent search system (https://gru.inpi.gov.br/pePI/jsp/patentes/PatenteSearchBasico.jsp), when available in electronic format. The Directorate of Patents is making a strong effort to generate a digital version of all the information that is currently on paper.

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

The official classification system used in INPI is the IPC, available in Portuguese at http://ipc.inpi.gov.br. In parallel, since 2014, CPC classification is also being used to classify applications in some areas. On 9 December 2014 the first document with a CPC symbol was published in our magazine under INID (52).

Examiners are being trained in the CPC classification system since 2013. The training was done in parts, first a general training was held in Brazil and thereafter groups of examiners, two per area, were filed specific trained at the EPO. In total, eight areas were covered with 16 examiners trained in The Hague and Munich.

Regarding IPC projects, the INPI was Rapporteur of several projects, including definitions, maintenance and C-projects (C468, C478). We continue our engagement in the IPC-forum and IPC meetings.

The WIPO systems related to classification were used in 2014, i.e. IPCA6TRANS for translating IPC 2015 and IPCRECLASS for reclassification due the IPC 2015 new version.

INPI pre-classifies an application by allotting an administrative unit, i.e. a technical area, using automated means (neural network algorithm). All administrative units are automatically ranked for every application and the application is then routed to the first technical area ranked. If this first choice is incorrect, the application can be rerouted to another unit, usually the second one ranked.

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

Other activities

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)

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

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

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

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

Nowadays the legal status of a patent can be obtained only by consulting the historic of legal events of the application. Starting in May of 2014, the Directorate of Patents started a working group to automatically provide and track in real time the legal status of all the applications and patents filed in Brazil.

Other sources

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

Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office

Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources

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

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

Other matters

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

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

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

Other activities

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

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

Assistance to developing countries

Other activities

VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS

 

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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