Annual Technical Report on Industrial Design Information Activities in 2014 submitted by State Agency on Intellectual Property of the Republic of Moldova
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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 2014 was implemented the online submission of industrial designs applications, which is used by applicants.
New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies(plans) mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks
Starting with 2014, AGEPI sends the refusals on applications received electronically under Hague system. At the moment refusals are sent in electronic and paper format. Sending on paper it will be stopped when WIPO will inform that it is no longer necessary.
Main areas of industrial design 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 (registrations) with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes
In 2014, AGEPI received a total of 318 applications for registration of 1214 industrial designs (ID). Under the national procedure were filed 77 applications (24.2%), which included 321 ID (26.5%), and under The Hague Agreement procedure - 241 applications (75.8%) with 893 ID (73.5%). Compared to 2013, the number of filed applications decreased by 63 (16.5%), and the number of ID embedded in these applications – by 1368 (53%). In the reference period, national applicants filed 70 applications (22% of the total number) with 309 ID (25.5%), being attested a decrease by 37.5% in the number of applications and concomitantly, a decrease by 80.2% in the number of ID, compared with the previous year. To foreign applicants appertain 248 applications with 905 ID (78% and, respectively, 74.5% of the total filed), which is a decrease by 7.8% and, respectively, by 10.8% as compared with 2013. The absolute majority of applications proceeded from foreign applicants (97%) were filed under The Hague Agreement procedure. Under the national procedure, most of applications were filed by applicants from the Republic of Moldova, AGEPI also received applications from foreign applicants from five countries – Russian Federation, Republic of Korea, Ukraine, Poland, Germany. Under the Hague Agreement came applications from applicants from 24 countries, most coming from Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg, Hungary. During the reporting period were also filed 396 registration renewal applications for 1119 DMI, by 16.3% and, respectively, 20.6% less as compared with the previous year. Most renewal applications – 345 (87.1%) come from foreign applicants, of which 316 were filed under the Hague Agreement. Of the number of registrations, which term of validity was supposed to expire in 2014, the weight of renewed ones is quite high, constituting 47.4% (363 of 763) in the case of international registrations and 60.6% (80 of 132) for national ones. On 31 December 2013, of the total number of 1484 ID registration certificates, issued by AGEPI, 592 were valid (39/9%), including 297 renewed (50% of the valid certificates). Of the total of 6682 international registration of ID, for which protection was acquired in the Republic of Moldova, 2560 (38.3 %) were valid, including 1747 renewed (68.2% of the valid international registrations).
During the year 2014, there were subjected to substantive examination:
- 96 applications with 1007 ID, filed under the national procedure, of which 101 ID (10%) were rejected;
- 195 international applications with 744 ID, received under the Hague Agreement, being rejected only one design.
In the year under review, 82 certificates of registration for 1050 ID were issued, compared with 2013being attested a decrease by 3.5% in the number of certificates, but an increase by 40.9% in the number of ID.
Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
The most important office notices and news regarding the trademarks and other IP objects are provided directly on our website with free access www.agepi.gov.md. Detailed information on industrial designs could be found accessing the following link http://agepi.gov.md/en/design/presentation.
As regard the general information about IP objects, their protection and related events organized in the view to promote them on the national and international level, the statistics data and their impact to the national economy, could be found in the Annual Report, published by AGEPI every year and distributed on the official web page
The most important office notices and news regarding the trademarks and other IP objects are provided directly on our website with free access www.agepi.gov.md. Detailed information on industrial designs could be found accessing the following link http://agepi.gov.md/en/design/presentation.
As regard the general information about IP objects, their protection and related events organized in the view to promote them on the national and international level, the statistics data and their impact to the national economy, could be found in the Annual Report, published by AGEPI every year and distributed on the official web page http://www.dev.agepi.gov.md/en/publication/50
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
During the reporting period, AGEPI persevered with the information and tuition of civil society, the development, training and upgrading of staff in the field of IP. Thus, in 2014 were organized 55 training/upgrading/information events in the field of intellectual property (conferences, seminars, round-tables, training courses) (31 – in Chisinau and 24 – in the territory), including: 18 – for business environment, 6 – for academic environment, 4 – in public institutions, 9 – in educational institutions and 18 – in libraries. Approximately 753 economic agents, including from SMS sector, were familiarized with the role of IP as an economic instrument, the modality of registration and use of IPOs, ways of enforcement of IPRs, etc.
During 2014, AGEPI, in collaboration with ODIMM, has organized a seminar “Trademarks, Industrial Designs - Effective Tools to Enhance the Competitiveness of Enterprises”, on November 20, 2014. Their purpose was tuition and training of representatives of business incubators, scientific-technological parks and innovation incubators in the republic on intellectual property, and development of research and documentation skills in the national and international main information sources, in particular in relation to trademarks, industrial designs. It should be noted that, during 2014, AGEPI specialists organized a series of information and training seminars for economic agents, participating in the national exhibitions organized at the IEC “Moldexpo” JSC, on the protection of intellectual property in the Republic of Moldova and the role of IP in developing a business, among which should be mentioned the exhibitions “Made in Moldova”, “Moldagrotech” and “Food & Drinks. Food Technology. Packaging. Depot”. During these seminars were presented reports that included themes: “Intellectual Property - Support for the Stable Development of the Enterprise”, “Trademark - Effective Tool to Promote Business”, “Industrial Designs for Successful Business”,etc.
Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
To face the current challenges determined by the information age, intellectual property offices used different ways to meet the needs of users. Thus, the experience of the World Intellectual Property Organization, and also of the national IP offices from abroad in the implementation of information technologies for submission/receipt of applications for registration of intellectual property objects in electronic format (EF), was the basis of the decision taken by the AGEPI on the implementation of the procedure for online filing of IPO applications and related documents, it becoming one of the priority objectives of the Agency. In this context, in 2014, AGEPI completed the Project “Development and implementation of Software for online filing of IPO applications”, which was launched in 2011 and was implemented by stages. In the period under review, it was successfully tested, parameterized and implemented the Electronic Service (ES) e-AGEPI “Online Filing of IPO Applications”. Filing and payment procedures were divided and implemented in the modules “Receipt/Sending of Applications” and “Online Payment of Fees”, which include the calculation of fees, generation of the account for payment, request of facilities, etc. It was also created the web interface and the functional for the module “Patent Attorney”, which allows of sending IPO registration applications in the name of the applicant, and payment of fees. At the same time, within the system was created the module “Statistics”, for generation of statistical reports. In the e-agepi ES were implemented the following instruments: digital signature, mobile signature, electronic signature e-AGEPI, including the MSign Governmental Service and the Mpay Electronic Payment Governmental Service, which allows the payment of AGEPI services with any instrument of payment (credit card, internet banking, payment terminals, account for payment). It was carried out the monitoring of information systems for proper operation of the portal and its security.It should be mentioned in this context that in order to help the user there were developed and integrated into the e-AGEPI ES the “Guide for Using the Electronic Service for Online Filing of IPO Applications” (in Romanian, Russian, English).
Classification and reclassification activities; classification system used, e.g., International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification), other classification
Republic of Moldova became a state party to the Locarno Agreement Establishing an International Classification for Industrial Designs (1968) on December 1, 1997. The Agency uses the International Classification for Industrial Designs since 1994. All the documents are classified according to the Locarno Classification. The classification symbols (the 10th edition of the Classification) of an application are allotted by the applicant. It is up to the Agency to afterwards check, and eventually to correct, the classification symbols.
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)
The most important publications in the field of industrial design documentation are the following:
- The Official Bulletin of Industrial Property Protection (BOPI) – monthly publication (PDF format);
- The National Industrial Designs Register;
- The National Industrial Designs Applications Register.
BOPI includes Sections V with information on industrial designs. Section V contains:
- BA1L Applications for registration (bibliographic data and graphic reproduction);
- List of industrial designs applications containing a request on publication delay;
- FF4L List of registered industrial designs;
- FG4L List of industrial design certificates, issued in …(date of issuing);
- ND4L List of renewed industrial designs;
- FG4L List of industrial designs registered in the Republic of Moldova according to the Hague Agreement, ranged in the numerical order and in the order of the ICID;
- ND4L List of renewed industrial designs in the Republic of Moldova according to the Hague Agreement.
Section VI contains various types of notices referring to all amendments occurred to the legal status of the protected industrial property objects (List of amendments, List of cession contracts, Errata, FC9L List of rejected industrial designs, FA9L List of withdrawal industrial designs, MK4L List of industrial design registration certificates the term of validity of which has expired, etc), etc.
Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URL), etc.
The Official Bulletin of Industrial Property (BOPI) which appears with a monthly periodicity, on paper carrier (ISSN 1810-7095), CD-ROM (ISSN 1857-050X) and online on the AGEPI website http://agepi.gov.md/ro/publication/48
Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external documentation and databases
Examiners use the information on industrial designs registration from following sources:
- RO – Bulletins in PDF monthly updated;
- RU – Internal database monthly updated;
- OHIM, UA, HU, UK, FI, SI, CZ, PL, MK, EE, LT, GE, BY – Online databases;
- WIPO – internal database weekly updated.
Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) and services available to external users; conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)
External users have access to public Industrial Designs Database http://www.db.agepi.md/DMI/Search.aspx and to IP Official Bulletin (BOPI) http://www.agepi.gov.md/ro/publication/48. The access is free of charge and doesn’t require an authentication. To receive the Official Bulletin of Intellectual Property (BOPI) on paper subscription fee is required.
Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)
In the year under review were continued the actions on updating other special legislative acts in the field of protection of intellectual property, by promoting the draft Law Amending and Supplementing Certain Legislative Acts (Law No. 38-XVI of 29.02.2008 on the Protection of Trademarks, Law No. 161-XVI of 12.07.2007 on the Protection of Industrial Designs, Law No. 39-XVI of 29.02.2008 on the Protection of Plant Varieties). These amendments aim at adjusting the legislation in the field to the rigors imposed by the current reality, taking into account the application of laws in question since their adoption
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 the year under review were administered, updated and improved the databases and their management applications. Among major actions can be highlighted the following:
- optimization of DB “AGEPI Forms” and the program for management, verification, adjustment and integration of standardized documents in the IPO management programs;
- improvement of the procedure for data exchange with WIPO by sending the total or partial refusals of “International ID”;
- migration to the Unicode of public DB “Industrial Designs” and modification of updating and search programs.
Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office
Each expert has a personal computer with LCD monitor and DVD drive. Microsoft Windows XP or Windows 7 is used as operating system. All computers are connected via the 100 Mb/s network into the Microsoft Active Directory 2003 Domain. Agency has a fiber channel link into the internet with 40 Mbps speed foreign traffic and each expert can use internet and has his own official e-mail address.
Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
At the disposal of examiners in their daily practice, there are the following databases:
- National automated searchable database “Industrial Design”;
- International applications received in the International Design Bulletin (paper form and CD-ROM);
- Collection of OHIM, RO, RU, UA, HU, UK, FI, SI, CZ, PL, MK, EE, LT, GE, BY applications received in the Design Bulletins (searchable database or CD-ROM).
Moreover, the manual paper search files consist of special books, periodicals, booklets, and a number of other lists and sources.
The examiner’s search files are updated on a regular basis.
Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file
- RO – Bulletins in PDF monthly updated;
- RU – Internal database monthly updated;
- OHIM, UA, HU, UK, FI, SI, CZ, PL, MK, EE, LT, GE, BY – Online databases;
- WIPO – internal database weekly updated.
Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)
Services rendered by AGEPI
http://agepi.gov.md/en/services/information-services-provided-agepi
Industrial designs. Databases
http://agepi.gov.md/en/design/presentation
Search in ID Databases
http://www.db.agepi.md/DMI/Search.aspx
Industrial Designs. Guides on filling in forms
http://agepi.gov.md/en/formulare/design
http://agepi.gov.md/sites/default/files/formulare/ghid/gh-2112.pdf
http://agepi.gov.md/sites/default/files/formulare/ghid/gh-2109.pdf
http://agepi.gov.md/sites/default/files/formulare/ghid/gh-2110.pdf
http://agepi.gov.md/sites/default/files/formulare/ghid/gh-2113.pdf
http://agepi.gov.md/sites/default/files/formulare/ghid/gh-2116.pdf
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
Within the Moldavian Office, there is a subdivision named AGEPI library structure which provides information-library services in the field of intellectual property to beneficiaries, including on various aspects related to registration and protection of trademarks.
The AGEPI Library is the depository of the National Patent Collection of the Republic of Moldova. The Library has a reading room with the equipment necessary to use the information on various media and from various sources, including the Internet. Beneficiaries of services provided by the library are experts and other collaborators of AGEPI, and all interested individuals from other institutions: counselors in intellectual property, researchers, inventors and rationalizers, teachers, students, etc.
At the Library visitors may obtain the following services:
- to consult, subscribe to or to purchase the official publications of AGEPI in the field of intellectual property which cover information on practical aspects related to trademarks and geographical indications, traditional specialties guaranteed, etc;
- to review the BOPI, "Intellectus", "AGEPI INFO", etc., and the collections of laws and methodical literature in the field of intellectual property, CDs edited by AGEPI;
- to obtain methodological assistance in searching the information from the electronic DB;
- the library-bibliographic services in "request-offer", "information-express" regime, by complying with the bibliographic, thematic and factual references;
- the opportunity to participate in the local and republican activities on promotion of IP information.
The program for beneficiaries is from 9.00 to 16.00 on Monday to Friday. Days without a program - Saturday and Sunday.
Publications related to different business procedures and industrial design information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.
In the year under review, AGEPI continued publishing and distributing on paper carrier, on the basis of mutual agreements with foreign national IP offices and International and European Organizations, and during the main promotion actions organized by AGEPI, periodical provided by its statute, namely:
- Annual Report AGEPI-2013 in 2 languages (Romanian and English);
- Collections of communications “AGEPI Readings-2013” and “AGEPI Readings - 2014”;
- The Official Bulletin of Industrial Property (BOPI), on a monthly basis (ISSN 1810-7095);
Also, AGEPI updated the existing publications:
- IP magazine “INTELLECTUS” (ISSN 1810-7079 – on paper);
- Digest “AGEPI-INFO”, a supplement of the IP magazine “INTELLECTUS”;
The collection Library of Intellectual Property includes the publications which contain useful information in respect to industrial designs:
Brochures
- “How to Register an Industrial Design in the Republic of Moldova”, in Romanian and Russian;
- “The ABC of Intellectual Property”.
Folders
- “Intellectual Property for SMEs”, in Romanian and Russian;
- “Welcome to AGEPI”, in Romanian, Russian, English and French;
Booklets
- Protection of IP Objects (thematic booklets);
- Advertising brochures “INFOINVENT”, in Romanian, English and Russian.
Cooperation with universities, technology and innovation support centers, etc.
AGEPI has a constant relation with national institutions in the field, in particular with universities, research centers and innovation support centers. We have signed about 60 national agreements with national institutions, 20 of which are signed with the national universities and 40 with research centers, technology and innovation support centers. To promote the knowledge about the intellectual property and its protection, AGEPI is involved in organization of Round tables, seminars and trainings for the representatives of universities, research and technology centers.
Education and training: training courses, e learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.
In the period under review, AGEPI participated as organizer and coorganizer of a large number of national events aimed to promote the intellectual property and the benefits for its protection. Here we have to mention 18 national exhibitions in the framework of which the AGEPI experts have participated with reports, about 55 seminars, training courses, organized for public and educational institutions, libraries and entrepreneurs.
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)
All the AGEPI publications in respect to industrial designs can be accessed on the official website of the AGEPI: http://agepi.gov.md/en/publication/48
On the basis of mutual agreements with foreign national IP offices and International and European Organizations, AGEPI distributes on CD-ROM the following periodicals:
- Annual Report AGEPI in 2 languages (Romanian and English)
- The Official Bulletin of Industrial Property (BOPI), on a monthly basis (CD-ROM (ISSN 1857-050X)).
Also, the publications may be accessed online on official website www.agepi.gov.md .
Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to industrial design information
During the 2014 year, AGEPI has actively participated in the following international and regional activities related to industrial designs:
- The 4th session of Working Group on the Legal Development of the Hague System for international registration of industrial design, International Symposium on the 15th anniversary of the Geneva Act regarding the Hague Agreement for international registration of industrial designs - 16 to 19 June 2014, Geneva, Switzerland.
Assistance to developing countries
In 2014 with WIPO support to the AGEPI headquarters has been organized the Study visit of the Iran IP Office officials with the generic „Industrial Designs Applications registration and examination procedure”. The objective of this visit was to enhance the capacity of the participating officials in the field of substantive examination (Moldova) and the examination for formalities of Industrial Design Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (BOIP), Hague.
Other activities