Annual Technical Report on Patent Information Activities in 2015 submitted by
Patent Office of the Republic of Poland
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
The Patent Office of the Republic of Poland aims at development of patent information activities within cooperation with PATLIB centres, European Patent Office, World Intellectual Property Organisation and the European Commission. Within the above mentioned cooperation the Office implements new services as well as adapts and improves the existing services and tools provided by national intellectual property offices.
Main policies and plans of the Office include among others activities aimed at supporting innovativeness of SMEs, commercialisation of intellectual property and development of entrepreneurship. Those activities are implemented by improving business skills in patent information usage, especially in creating strategies of enterprises, creating cooperation platform between business and scientific environment as well as platform for exchanging experience and knowledge.
New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies and plans mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks
In 2015 the Office in collaboration with WIPO started implementation of a two-year scientific-research project “Intellectual Property and Socio-Economic Development”. The aim of the project is to analyse the relation between intellectual property in a given industry sector and socio-economic development of the country. The results of the project may have impact on more conscious development of national policy in the scope of intellectual property on both central and local level. Taking into account current trends in scientific and economic development in Poland, the health care sector is to be analysed. The methodology of research is based mainly on statistical and comparative analyses.
In 2015 PPO was active in the field of e-administration services, taking part in the development of functionalities related to the use of new version of governmental Electronic Platform of Public Administration Services (ePUAP2). PPO has dealt with maintaining of the existing forms in terms of their functionality and reliability and has refined the process of exchanging documents between ePUAP2 and Electronic Document Management system (EZD). PPO has also completed additional tasks related to migration of services between production and test instances of ePUAP2 platform.
Electronic Document Management System (EZD) based on Alfresco Community Edition software was developed and adapted to meet the needs of the PPO.
PPO has carried out the development of the Register Plus system. The scope of data presented has been extended for national, EP and SPC patents and utility models.
Under the Innovative Economy Programme project, the PPO has continued the development of main search engine of industrial property items, based on the SharePoint 2013.
PPO launched new version of publication (searching) server “Lista Rzeczników Patentowych” [Patent Attorneys List], containing list of patent attorneys. Adjustments to the data structure and adaptation of the system to the current legislation were made.
PPO continuously updated the versions of IPC, Nice, Vienna, Locarno and Eurolocarno classifications in Polish, English and French.
PPO conducted go-live of a new intranet on SharePoint 2013: new versions of personal pages, updating and ordering official documents, launching the search of documents and adding other new functionalities.
Main areas of patent information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year
The RegisterPlus software application for patents was further developed and enhanced in 2015. The quality of data was improved and a wider range of presented data was introduced.
As the continuation of work on the main search engine of industrial property items in the year 2015 there were introduced dozens of amendments requested by users, aimed at improving the functionality of the search engine. It is linked to other search systems, which are in the portfolio of the Office (Publication Server, Register Plus, etc.).
Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and grants with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes
Filings to the Office are increasingly more often preceded by searches in the electronic collections than in the paper holdings.
In 2015, the PPO received 4,773 patent applications under the national procedure, out of which 4,674 were filed by domestic applicants and 99 by foreign applicants.
42 applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty entered the phase of examination carried out by the Office (so-called national phase).
Under the international procedure, as the receiving Office, the PPO received from domestic applicants 305 patent applications under the PCT procedure and 239 European patent applications with the aim of seeking protection abroad.
In 2015, the Office received from foreign applicants 60 applications for the grant of supplementary right of protection for medicinal products and plant protection products in order to protect rights under Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC).
On 31 December 2015, 57,951 patents remained in force, out of which 39,664 were European patents.
Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
Statistics are accessed at the following URLs:
http://www.uprp.pl (Annual Reports' box)
Detailed statistics may be bespoke provided (write to http://portal.uprp.pl).
News page: http://www.uprp.pl/aktualnosci/Menu01,16,7,index,pl
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
The PPO information and support options in 2015 included:
1) Via website: http://www.uprp.pl/przedmioty-wlasnosci-przemyslowej/Menu02,12,4,index,pl/ (all information about patents, trademarks, designs, etc. and instructions e.g. "How to patent an invention or utility model to protect? ");
2) via telephone: (+48 22 579 05 55);
3) via e-mail: http://www.uprp.pl/Text01,205,161,1,index,pl,text/.
Management of the contacts in 2015 (phone + mail) was performed through a software:
1) Personal contacts (CRM system);
2) Within Register IP Info Center customer contacts (OSCC, CRM systems);
- 921 emails were received
- 21,929 calls were answered and performed (including the call back)
- 2,270 meetings took place with examiners and at the center of information
3) Identification and differentiation of customers (OSCC, CRM systems);
4) Carrying out customer satisfaction surveys (CRM system) - level of satisfaction 94.4 %;
5) Analyses of the contacts (analyses, statistics - CRM, OSCC systems);
6) Keeping records and transferring customer requests (satisfaction, complaints, suggestions for improvement) (TRX system).
The CRM system is shared between 11 departments in contact with the public. A change of version was introduced for :
- independent work with the contact, regardless of the fact who established the contact and possibility to change/edit the contact data;
- interfacing with other applications (Computer Telephony Integration, callback, meetings time and visits) to facilitate the customer relation management. Tool for measuring the customers’ satisfaction.
Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
Customers using the Online Services Portal have access to the application files sent by them electronically to the PPO. If they agree to further conduct correspondence electronically they have access to the application dossier in electronic form.
Classification1, preclassification2 (if applicable), reclassification3 activities; classification systems used (e.g., International Patent Classification (IPC)); matters concerning indexing of patent information
In 2015, the electronic 2015.01 version of the International Patent Classification was used at the PPO, while the electronic 2016.01 version was being prepared to be launched in 2016.
Abstracting, reviewing, and translation of the information contained in patent documents
In 2015, Patent literature collection was enlarged by the 7,669 pdf files of European patent specifications, translated into Polish (available online).
Polish abstracts and their English equivalents are stored in the database, and thus are searched and accessible for further treatment.
The Office's abstracting services are handled by electronic means which aid to place the abstract deliveries in the in-house and external retrieval systems, like: Polish databases, Official Journal records, Espacenet (both collections - PL database and the Worldwide data base), etc.
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)
In 2015, the following publications (periodicals) were issued:
- "Biuletyn Urzędu Patentowego" (first level Official Gazette - bi-weekly) 26 numbers, i.e. 2,954 copies;
- "Wiadomości Urzędu Patentowego" (second level Official Gazette - monthly) 12 numbers, i.e. 1,305 copies;
- 2014 Annual Report of the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland – 1,049 copies;
- Patent Specifications (type B1 documents) 2,210 titles - 37,706 copies;
- Protection Specifications of Utility Models 584 titles - 2,336 copies.
Most publications are available on the PPO's website: http://uprp.pl - and continue at http://portal.uprp.pl/wydawnictwa.html (Online Services Portal)
Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URL), etc.
Announcements on patents and utility models are primarily published in the official gazettes on paper carrier: "Biuletyn Urzędu Patentowego" - first level Official Gazette (information on inventions and utility models applications) and in "Wiadomości Urzędu Patentowego" - second level Official Gazette (information on granted patents and granted protection rights on utility models). Announcements containing ordinances of the President of the Patent Office, official announcements and communications are published in the Official Journal of the Patent Office. In 2015, 3,819 announcements on filed patent applications and 869 announcements on utility model applications were published in "Biuletyn Urzędu Patentowego" (first level Official Gazette) and 2,180 announcements on granted patents and 584 granted protection rights on utility models were published in "Wiadomości Urzędu Patentowego" (second level Official Gazette).
All these publications are forthwith available free of charge in PDF format on the PPO's Online Services Portal http://portal.uprp.pl/wydawnictwa.html
Announcements regarding non-procedural matters, but coupled with the Office's activity like: general information on the PPO's tasks, references, organizational structure, HR matters are published on the Internet version of "Biuletyn Informacji Publicznej" which falls under the official PPO's web site. Many non-regular, important announcements are immediately published within the content of the website.
Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external collections and databases
- IP information on patents and utility models: http://grab.uprp.pl;
- Publication Server - Polish patents (B), utility models (Y) and EP translations into Polish (T): http://pubserv.uprp.pl (user interface in 3 languages - PL, EN and FR);
- Polish patents and utility models under Polish version of Espacenet (http://pl.espacenet.com) with possibility of the redirection to the Worldwide database containing PL collections (bibliographic data in English);
- Online Services Portal with access to patent gazettes, classifications, e-filings and patent attorney's directory: http://portal.uprp.pl;
- Register Plus with access to published Polish applications (Description, Claims, Figures and Search Report): http://regserv.uprp.pl/register/regviewer
- EPOQUENET Suite;
- Reaxys (the chemistry Database) and ScienceDirect (full-text scientific database) hosted by Elsevier;
- STN (the Scientific and Technical Information Network);
- ACS (the American Chemical Society) Journals;
- Springer Journals (accessed also via Epoquenet);
- IEEE (accessed also via Epoquenet) scientific and technical content published by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and its publishing partners.
Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to external users, conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)
Patent literature collections are available in the PPO's reading room.
Copies of documents are available upon payment (price list available on the PPO website or on the spot) on the premises of the reading room or can be sent to external users by fax, electronic mail or traditional post.
Patent Office possesses collections of:
- 6.26 million patent documents on paper;
- over 36 million documents on CD-ROM.
Supplementary literature comprises:
- official bulletins of 42 patent offices;
- legal and methodology publications;
- general technical and specialised magazines.
PPO provides access to patent literature in the reading room where external users can also search free of charge in online databases and databases on CD and DVD. The latter include: bibliographic databases, databases of full text patent documents, thematic databases of patent and technical literature.
Information rendered available free of charge included:
- provision of 8,446 single Polish and foreign patent specifications;
- 854 volumes of books and magazines;
Information provided upon payment includes:
- bibliographic data of patent and utility model applications and granted exclusive rights.
Online sources of patent information and collections include:
- Online Services Portal with: IP information on industrial design, access to patent gazettes, classifications, e-filings and patent attorney's directory. Available at: http://portal.uprp.pl;
- Publication Server – a portal giving free, open, and wide access to patent information, with integrated facilities to search full texts of Polish patent specifications, Polish utility models, Polish industrial designs and translations into Polish language published by the European Patent Office patents which are valid in the territory of the Republic of Poland. Documents are disseminated in PDF format. Available at: http://pubserv.uprp.pl/;
- Register Plus available at:
http://regserv.uprp.pl/register/regviewer
Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)
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.
Within promotion of knowledge on industrial property the Patent Office issues various publications such as guides, informational-promotional brochures addressed to wide audience, among others to entrepreneurs, students, school youth. Those publications are available free of charge both in electronic version and PDF format as well as on paper on the premises of the Office.
Publication titles are as follows: Your world of intellectual property, What is intellectual property, Inventor's guide, Inventions in SMEs activity, Inventions and patents. Use the past to create future, Industrial protection in a nutshell, Inventions in your house, Patents (comic book).
In 2015 the PPO completed implementation of the project aimed at preparing and distributing 22 booklets on different aspects of intellectual property. The booklets were distributed as training and conference materials at different events and were also posted on the Internet Educational Platform.
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.