Annual Technical Report on Patent Information Activities in 2015 submitted by Slovakia
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
In 2013 strategy of the Office´s activities by 2016 was adopted. It contains inter alia activities in the patent information area:
- To prepare the draft of the conception of the Office´s information services development by 2016 in accordance with the Strategic Plan of the Office;
- To identify the WIPO standards related to public services and data providing which are not or are partially implemented at the Office and to prepare the proposal for their implementation with the publication of their content in Slovak language for public;
- To prepare the proposal for implementation of new standardised processes and outputs of the Office related to provided services;
- To prepare the proposal for implementation of new and modification of existing public services of the Office;
- To implement a new complex package of public services with relevant information materials and documents.
Evaluation of the period 2013 - 2016 in the area of information services and the report on their status and perspectives is planned for the end of 2016.
New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies and plans mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks
The IPO SR co-operated with the European Patent Office (EPÚ) particularly on projects realised within the Co-operation Plan for 2012 – 2015.The main priorities of cooperation within the European Patent Organisation (EPO) were the implementation of projects Federative European Patent Register and Quality at Source. The aim of both projects is to establish a common European web register containing data on European patents granted by the European Patent Office (EPO) and their status in the national phases of maintaining the European patent by the national offices of the EPO Member States. Register will focus on legal information (e.g. legal status of a patent). Along with these data, data on patents granted by national offices shall be included the system.
Within the Operational Programme Information Society the Office in cooperation with the external company works on the Project Electronic Services of the IPO SR to prepare inter alia the new modern web registers of the Office. In 2015 the works continued under the agreed Schedule.
Main areas of patent information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year
Plans about patent information relate to implementation of a new system for making data from the Office registers available on the internet (Webregisters II) interconnected with European and international systems (EPO Register, Espacenet, WIPO Patentscope,etc.).
The projects and activities mentioned in the item above were realised in the co-operation with the EPO.
Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and grants with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes
Patents and Supplementary Protection Certificates
Totally 256 patent applications were filed with the IPO SR during 2015; It was 9.4 per cent more than in 2014. PCT applications form 3.9 per cent (10 applications) of all applications.
The number of applications filed by domestic applicants (228) increased by 8.1 per cent and applications filed by foreign applicants (28) increased by 21.7 per cent. The Czech Republic (9), Austria (7) and Poland (4) had the largest share in the total number of patent applications filed by foreign applicants (28).
There were 82 granted patents in 2015; the number decreased by 12.8 per cent comparing to the previous year.
There were 15,366 valid patents entered in the Patent Register of the IPO SR by December 31, 2015; 1,995 of them were national patents granted.
From January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015 there were 64 supplementary protection certificate applications filed. All of them were filed by foreign applicants; the most of them were from the U.S.A. – 29, and from Germany – 11; 37 supplementary protection certificates were granted.
Patent applications in the field of Building (8.98 per cent), Transporting, Conveying and Storing (8.2 per cent), Electric Techniques (7.81 per cent), Health and Amusement (7.42 per cent), Horology, Regulation, Checking and Signalling Devices (7.42 per cent) had the largest share.
European Patents
In 2015 4 European patent applications were filed with the IPO SR and 2,077 translations of European patent specifications were published.
There were 13,371 European patents with designation of SR registered by December 31, 2015.
Utility Models
There were 419 utility model applications filed with the IPO SR in 2015. This number increased by 5.8 per cent in comparison with the previous year. The number of applications filed by Slovak applicants increased by 12.7 per cent (373). The share of Slovak applicants in total number of 419 applications is 89.0 per cent.
Decrease by 11.5 per cent occurred in the number of registered utility models (322).
By December 31, 2015, there were 1,715 utility models valid in the Slovak Republic.
The most registered utility models were from the fields of Transporting, Conveying and Storing (15.84 per cent), Building (10.25 per cent), Measuring, Optics and Photography (9.94 per cent).
For comparison there is the statistics on filed patent applications and granted patents, on filed utility model applications and registered utility models and on translations of European patent specifications in the years 2010 – 2015:
Patent and utility model statistics_2015.docx
Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
Annual Technical Reports on Patents:
http://www.upv.sk/?vyrocne-technicke-spravy
http://www.wipo.int/cws/en/atrs/
Annual Reports of the IPO SR:
http://www.upv.sk/?annual-reports
Patent, utility models and supplementary protection certificates-related news
http://www.upv.sk/
Useful links
http://www.upv.sk/?linky
http://www.upv.sk/?dalsie-uzitocne-linky
Intellectual Property Magazine
http://www.upv.sk/?dusevne-vlastnictvo
IPO SR and IPO CZ Publications
http://www.upv.sk/?publikacie
IPO SR E-Zine
http://www.upv.sk/?e-zine-upv-sr
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
Basic information for applicants related to IP subject matters applications are available on the website of the Office www.upv.sk. These are mainly application forms of particular type of industrial property right, legislation, instructions of the IPO SR and information for applicant, administrative fees, contact to expert assistance, etc. Below there are the individual areas of IP subject matters and relevant information sources with links to website of the Office, where they are available:
Patents http://www.upv.sk/?Patents
What Can Be Protected and How?
http://www.upv.sk/?what-and-how-can-be-protected
Information for Patent Applicants
http://www.upv.sk/?information-for-patent-applicants
Legislation
http://www.upv.sk/?patents-legislation
Instruction of the IPO SR
http://www.upv.sk/?instruction-of-the-industrial-property-office-of-the-slovak-republic-defining-uniform-layout-of-the-patent-application
Administrative Fees - Patents
http://www.upv.sk/?patents-administrative-fees
Maintenance Fees - Patents
http://www.upv.sk/?patents-maintenance-fees
Filing Abroad
http://www.upv.sk/?patenty-prihlasovanie-do-zahranicia
PCT Fees
http://www.upv.sk/?patents-pct-fees
License Offers
http://www.upv.sk/?patenty-ponuky-licencii
Patent Classification
http://ipc.indprop.gov.sk/ipcpub/#refresh=page
Data Extracted from Registers
http://registre.indprop.gov.sk/registre/searchForm.do?lang=en®ister=p
Downloads
http://www.upv.sk/?downloads
http://www.upv.sk/?patenty-dokumenty-na-prevzatie
Contacts
http://www.upv.sk/?contacts
Utility models http://www.upv.sk/?utility-models
Why Utility Models ?
http://www.upv.sk/?why-utility-models
Information for Utility Model Applicants
http://www.upv.sk/?information-for-utility-model-applicants
Legislation - Utility Models
http://www.upv.sk/?utility-models-legislation
Instruction of the IPO SR
http://www.upv.sk/?instruction-of-the-industrial-property-office-of-the-slovak-republic-defining-uniform-layout-of-a-utility-model-application
Administrative Fees - Utility Models
http://www.upv.sk/?administrative-fees-utility-models
Filing Abroad
http://www.upv.sk/?uzitkove-vzory-prihlasovanie-do-zahranicia
PCT Fees
http://www.upv.sk/?uzitkove-vzory-poplatky-pct
Downloads
http://www.upv.sk/?downloads
http://www.upv.sk/?uzitkove-vzory-dokumenty-na-prevzatie
Data Extracted from Registers
http://registre.indprop.gov.sk/registre/searchForm.do?lang=en®ister=uv
Patent Classification
http://ipc.indprop.gov.sk/ipcpub/#refresh=page
Contacts
http://www.upv.sk/?contacts
Supplementary Protection Certificates http://www.upv.sk/?supplementary-protection-certificates
What is a Supplementary Protection Certificate
http://www.upv.sk/?what-is-a-supplementary-protection-certificate
Information for Applicants
http://www.upv.sk/?supplementary-protection-certificate-information-for-applicants
Legislation - Supplementary Protection Certificate
http://www.upv.sk/?legislation-supplementary-protection-certificate
Administrative Fees - Supplementary Protection Certificates
http://www.upv.sk/?administrative-fees-supplementary-protection-certificate
Maintenance fees - Supplementary Protection Certificates
http://www.upv.sk/?supplementary-protection-certificate-maintenance-fees
Filing Abroad
http://www.upv.sk/?dodatkove-ochranne-osvedcenia-prihlasovanie-do-zahranicia
Downloads
http://www.upv.sk/?downloads
http://www.upv.sk/?dodatkove-ochranne-osvedcenia-dokumenty-na-prevzatie
Data Extracted from Registers - Webregisters
http://registre.indprop.gov.sk/registre/searchForm.do?lang=en®ister=do
Contacts
http://www.upv.sk/?contacts
In the past the Office in the cooperation with the European Patent Office implemented the system EPTOS enabling to file with the Office:
- European patent applications
- International applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)
- National patent applications
- National utility model applications
- Applications for granting supplementary protection certificates
- Translations of patent claims of published European patent applications with designation for the Slovak Republic into the Slovak language
- Translations of European patent files with designation for the Slovak Republic into the Slovak language
- Subsequently filed documents to:
National patent applications
National utility model applications
Translations of patent claims of published European patent applications into the Slovak language
Translations of European patent files into the Slovak language
The mentioned electronic filings shall be signed with electronic signature.
For electronic filing there is the Office´s helpdesk available on the website of the Office http://www.upv.sk/?uzivatelsky-servis-a-helpdesk. Within the helpdesk it is possible to obtain the basic information on electronic filing using the EPTOS system and also to solve possible problems. Also users’ manuals are published here and answers to frequently asked questions are available on the address http://www.upv.sk/?elektronicke-podavanie-prihlasok-faq.
Comparing to 2015 the number of national patents, utility models and supplementary protection certificates applications filed electronically via EPTOS system increased by more than 7.2 per cent.
As of February 1, 2014 the form for the general agenda service has been available on the Central Public Administration, through which it is possible to perform filings with any public authority thus also the Industrial Property Office of SR. This service is used mostly for proceedings on trade marks. More than 20 per cent of the total number of national trade marks applications were filed this way in 2015.
Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
The Office conducts the application file only in the paper form.
Classification1, preclassification2 (if applicable), reclassification3 activities; classification systems used (e.g., International Patent Classification (IPC)); matters concerning indexing of patent information
Patent applications and utility model applications were classified, preclassified (i.e. preliminarily classified at the subclass level) and reclassified by Office’s experts according to the edition MPT 2015.01 of the International Patent Classification. The WIPO Standards ST.8 and ST.10/C were also used for these purposes. Classification of applications was conducted before the publication of the application, while final specification of the classification symbol can be done during the search of the application. Patent applications were preclassified by allotting subclass symbols to route a patent application to the appropriate examiner or for statistical purposes. Reclassifying of applications according to the current edition of the IPC was carried out after entry of a new edition of the IPC core level into force.
The IPC 2015.01 had been used in the Office for classification the Slovak patent documents until the end of 2015.
Software tools to operate the Slovak version of the IPC in standardized electronic form in the Internet were implemented within co-operation with the WIPO. The tools simplify preparation of Slovak translations of the IPC issued annually after changes effective since 2011. Slovak editions of the IPC in the electronic form are made accessible to public and the Office employees on the site http://ipc.indprop.gov.sk.
Digitalisation and indexing
In 2015, the Office continued in regular monthly digitalisation of new entries of national patent documentation (patent applications, patent specifications, utility model applications, utility models), corrected documents to relevant patent documents issued by the Office, translations of patent claims of European patent applications and translations of European patent specifications with designation for SK. The Office also continued the production of Official Gazette on CD ROM.
Patent documents were digitalized by the scanner Canon imageFORMULA DR-9050C and software tools Eposcan, version 1.05.00 (documents scanning and indexing), Wipost33 EPO, version 1.0.0.4 (conversion of scanned and indexed documents to BAC format under the WIPO ST.33 standard) and ST.33 to PDF format (conversion of documents from BAC format to PDF format, version 1.3).
The WIPO Standard ST. 9 is used for patent and utility model bibliographic data coding in all relevant outcomes or records. All bibliographic data are being processed in electronic database form. The fully searchable data are updated and made available to the public daily in the Internet.
Abstracting, reviewing, and translation of the information contained in patent documents
An abstract is an obligatory part of a patent application and a utility model application (Article 37(4) (b) of the Act No 435/2001 Coll. and Article 32(4)(b) of the Act No 517/2007 Coll.); i.e. an applicant is obliged to file an abstract together with an application. The Office may amend an abstract ex officio (Article 7(2) of the Decree No 223/2002 Coll. and Article 5(2) of the Decree No 1/2008 Coll.), but in the case of abstracts to utility model applications their content can not be amended (Article 5(2) of the Decree No 1/2008 Coll.).
When publishing applications the Office shall translate the names of patent and utility model applications into English. When granting a patent and entering a utility model into the Register the Office shall translate also an abstract into English. Translations of these abstracts and names into English are being sent to the European Patent Office regularly to publish them in the Espacenet database, in which their machine translations are available in 29 other languages.
Abstracts are being published on title pages of patent specifications and as parts of notifications in the Official Gazette in the part related to published patent applications and published utility model applications.
Other activities
Information Centre
http://www.upv.sk/?information-centre
The Information Centre provided the clients of the Office with general information on IP protection for individual subject matters, on filing applications and related administration fees. Within the consultations also information on IP protection in the Slovak Republic and also abroad were provided (European patent, international application filed under PCT).
The information were provided personally, by phone (+421 48 4300 131), by post and e-mail address infocentrum@indprop.gov.sk.
In 2015 the Information Centre dealt with 7.903 requests for information; 6.128 thereof were provided by phone, 1.528 by e-mail, 245 personally and 2 by post.
Pre-diagnostics of industrial property rights
http://www.upv.sk/?prediagnostika-priemyselnych-prav
To increase the IP awareness, to support innovations, creativity and competitiveness of small and middle-sized enterprises is a primary goal of the IP pre-diagnostics, which have been provided by the IPO SR experts since 2008. During 2015 the Office employees visited 30 companies in Slovakia. The most of them were from the self-governing regions of Bratislava (11), Banská Bystrica (6) and Nitra (4).
Workplace of the IPO SR in Bratislava
Workplace of the Office, which was opened in 2004 offered information relating to filing applications for industrial property rights subjects last year. In the workplace, there is a filing room.
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)
Main Types of Publications of the Office:
Patent Documents (codes of documents according to the WIPO ST.16):
- Published patent applications (A3)
- Patent specifications (B6)
- Supplementary protection certificates (without code)
- Translations of patent claims of European patent applications with designation for SK (T1)
- Corrected translations of patent claims of European patent applications with designation for SK (T2)
- Translations of European patent specifications with designation for SK (T3)
- Corrected translations of European patent specifications with designation for SK (T4)
- Translations of amended European patent specifications with designation for SK (T5)
- Published utility model applications (U1)
- Registered utility models without change (Y1)
- Registered utility models with change (Y2)
- Corrections of patent documents (A8, A9, B8, B9, U8, U9, Y8, Y9, T8, T9)
Patent documents are available in the paper form in the study room of the IPO SR and also in the electronic form on the web page of the IPO SR http://data.indprop.gov.sk/Patenty/search.php?jazyk=en extent: patent specifications SK a CS (213521 – 288151), European patents with designation for SR (1 – 15009) and utility models (1 - 6628).
Moreover, all kinds of patent specifications published in the Official Gazette regularly in the PDF format are available in the Office´s web databases http://registre.indprop.gov.sk/registre/?lang=sk, in the system http://sk.espacenet.com/ and also http://worldwide.espacenet.com/?locale=en_EP.
Slovak patent documents from 1993 to 2008 are available on ESPACE ®-PRECES CD-ROM (CD-ROM contains patents from the Region of Eastern and Central European States). ESPACE ® ACCESS PRECES (complete bibliographic information) is used as an index to these fulltext CD-ROMs.
Official Gazette “Vestník ÚPV SR“ http://www.upv.sk/?vestnik-uradu-priemyselneho-vlastnictva-slovenskej-republiky
Patents and utility model information forms part of the Official Gazette - “Vestník ÚPV SR”, covering all industrial property rights in one publication. In 2015 the Gazette had a circulation of 100 copies, of which 19 were distributed monthly by subscription. Other copies were sent free of charge to patent information centres and contact and information points of the IPO SR, to information and consulting sites INNOINFO, within the frame of industrial property information exchange to foreign offices (32 copies) and as statutory copies according to the act as well.
The following numbers of documents were published in the Official Gazette in 2015:
147 published patent applications
87 granted patents
292 published utility model applications
320 registered utility models
58 applications for granting SPC's
38 granted SPC's
2 translations of patent claims of European patent applications with designation for SK
2 077 translations of European patent specifications with designation for SK
13 corrected translations of European patent specifications with designation for SK
34 translations of amended European patent specifications with designation for SK
Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URL), etc.
IPO SR publishes official version of the Official Gazette in electronic form on CD ROM in PDF format. The electronic version of the Gazette in PDF format is available via Internet address http://www.upv.sk/?vestnik-uradu-priemyselneho-vlastnictva-slovenskej-republiky.
The Gazette contains announcements on granted patents and patent applications, including translations of European patents and patent claims of European patent applications with designation for SK, announcements on applications for supplementary protection certificates and granted supplementary protection certificates and announcements on utility model applications and registered utility models, arranged in following main chapters:
PATENTS
- published patent applications (list of published patent applications, bibliographic data and abstracts of published patent applications with an image, where available, arranged according to the International Patent Classification)
- granted patents (list of granted patents, bibliographic data of granted patents arranged according to the International Patent Classification)
- suspended patent application procedures
- lapsed patents due to abandonment
- lapsed patents due to expiration of the validity term
- lapsed patents due to non-payment of maintenance fees
- refused patent applications
- revocations of patents
- partial revocations of patents
- assignments and transfers of rights to patents and patent applications
- changes of rights of disposal to patents and patent applications (lien)
- changes of rights of disposal to patents and patent applications (termination of lien)
- license offers to patent applications and granted patents
- withdrawals of license offers to patent applications and granted patents
- license contracts registered or granted to patents
- the termination of force of license contracts to patents
- patents registered in the register after declassification
- corrections and changes of names, addresses, dates and mistakes
UTILITY MODELS
- published utility model applications (list of published utility model applications, bibliographic data and abstracts of published utility model applications with an image, where available, arranged according to the International Patent Classification)
- registered utility models (list of registered utility models, bibliographic data of registered utility models arranged according to the International Patent Classification)
- extension of an utility model validity (list of utility models with the extended validity term and their bibliographic data arranged according to the International Patent Classification)
- suspended proceedings on utility model applications on the applicant´s request
- suspended proceedings on utility model applications
- refused utility model applications
- lapsed utility models due to abandonment
- lapsed utility models due to expiration of the validity term
- cancelled utility models
- partially cancelled utility models
- assignments and transfers of rights to utility models and utility model applications
- changes of the rights of disposal to utility models (lien) and utility model applications
- changes of the rights of disposal to utility models (termination of lien) and utility model applications
- license contracts registered or granted
- termination of force of license contracts
- registered utility models in the register after declassification
- forfeitures of protection and transfers of an applicant or owner (based on the court decision)
- corrections and changes of names, addresses, dates and mistakes
EUROPEAN PATENTS
- available translations and available corrected translations of patent claims of European patent applications (list of available translations and available corrected translations of patent claims of European patent applications with designation for SK and their bibliographic data arranged according to the International Patent Classification)
- available translations and available corrected translations of European patent specifications (list of available translations and available corrected translations of European patent specifications with designation for SK and their bibliographic data arranged according to the International Patent Classification)
- available translations of amended European patent specifications (list of available translations of amended European patent specifications with designation for SK and their bibliographic data arranged according to the International Patent Classification)
- suspended procedures on European patent applications by reason of withdrawal
- conversions of the European patent applications to national applications
- lapsed European patents due to abandonment
- lapsed European patents due to expiration of the validity term
- lapsed European patents lapsed due to non-payment of maintenance fees
- revocations of European patents
- partial revocations of European patents
- revoked European patent after the opposition proceedings before the EPO
- assignment and transfer of the rights to European patents and European patent applications
- European patents amended after the opposition proceedings before the EPO
- changes of the rights of disposal to European patents and European patent applications (lien)
- changes of the rights of disposal to European patents and European patent applications (termination of lien)
- license offers to European patents and European patent applications
- withdrawals of license offers to European patents and European patent applications
- license contracts registered or granted
- termination of force of license contracts
- European patents registered after declassification
- Corrections and changes of names, addresses, dates and mistakes
SUPPLEMENTARY PROTECTION CERTIFICATES
- published requests for granting the supplementary protection certificates (their bibliographic data arranged according to document numbers)
- published requests for granting the supplementary protection certificates containing requests for validity extension
- granted supplementary protection certificates (their bibliographic data arranged according to document numbers)
- suspended proceedings on requests for granting the supplementary protection certificate on the applicant´s request
- suspended proceedings on granting the supplementary protection certificate on the applicant´s request
- refused requests for granting a supplementary protection certificate
- published requests for extension of validity term of supplementary protection certificates
- extension of a supplementary protection certificates validity
- revocations of extended terms of validity of supplementary protection certificates
- suspended procedures and refused applications for extension of validity term of supplementary protection certificates
- declaration of invalidity of supplementary protection certificates by reason of granting contrary to Article 3 of the European Parliament and Council Regulation (EC) No. 469/2009, respectively No. 1610/96
- declaration of invalidity of supplementary protection certificates by reason of lapse of basic patent before expire of validity term
- declaration of invalidity of supplementary protection certificates by reason of revocation or limitation of basic patent
- change of validity term of supplementary protection certificate as amended by Article 17 (2) of the Regulation (EC) No. 1610/96 and Article 18 of the Regulation (EC) No. 469/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council
- assignments and transfers of rights for requests for granting the supplementary protection certificate and the supplementary protection certificate
- lapsed supplementary protection certificates due to abandonment
- lapsed supplementary protection certificates due to expiration of the validity term
- lapsed supplementary protection certificates due to non-payment of maintenance fees
- lapsed supplementary protection certificates due to withdrawal of the authorisation to place the medicinal product or plant protection product on the market in the Slovak Republic
- license offers to requests for granting the supplementary protection certificate and the supplementary protection certificate
- withdrawals of license offers to requests for granting the supplementary protection certificate and the supplementary protection certificate
- license contracts registered or granted to supplementary protection certificate
- changes of the rights of disposal to requests for granting the supplementary protection certificate and the supplementary protection certificate (lien)
- changes of the rights of disposal to requests for granting the supplementary protection certificate and the supplementary protection certificate (termination of lien)
- corrections and changes of names, addresses, dates and mistakes
Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external collections and databases
- IPO SR Official Gazette http://www.upv.sk/?vestnik-uradu-priemyselneho-vlastnictva-slovenskej-republiky
- Patent documents since 1984 http://data.indprop.gov.sk/Patenty/search.php?jazyk=en
- Extracted data from register http://registre.indprop.gov.sk/registre/?lang=en
- Patent documents in the system Espacenet Level I http://sk.espacenet.com/
- Internal database system „INVENTIO“ for managing the industrial property subjects
- Freely accessible foreign databases http://www.upv.sk/?zahranicne-online-databazy#patenty
External databases
- STN online (e.g. database CAS), coverage: worldwide
- access to EPOQUE (search database system EPO), coverage: worldwide
- Database Derwent World Patents Index® (DWPI) available within the EPOQUE, coverage: worldwide
- Database EPO Global Patent Index, coverage: worldwide
- Database EPO Espacenet
- European Patent Register (with links to national registry data, deep linking )
- other free available databases of national offices, e.g.. Czech patent and utility models databases, coverage: CZ, USPTO national database, coverage: US, IPOUK national database, coverage GB
- WIPO PATENTSCOPE (collections of international and national applications), coverage: PCT applications and national collections in the limited scope.
See also foreign collections of patent literature and optical discs as parts of the examination file mentioned in the Chapter 4.
Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to external users, conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)
ON-LINE DATABASES http://www.upv.sk/?databases-and-registers
IPO SR makes accessible various databases on its web site.
Freely accessible national databases are:
- "Data extracted from Registers" http://registre.indprop.gov.sk/registre/?lang=en also called "Webregisters" give public access to data extracted from patent, utility models, European patents with designation for SK, supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) registers, which are kept by the Office with the possibility of simple and advanced search or browsing results. Data concerning in particular pending patent, utility model and SPC applications, all filed applications or granted patents, SPCs and registered utility models in the register are daily updated.
- “Patent documents of the IPO SR” - SK and CS patent documents including bibliographic data and also complete patent documents, utility models documents and European patents documents with designation of SR http://data.indprop.gov.sk/Patenty/index.php?jazyk=sk&typdokumentu=patenty&new=1 a patent documents in the system Espacenet Level I http://sk.espacenet.com/
- “Classification Systems” http://www.upv.sk/?systemy-triedenia contains patent classifications used in Slovakia and abroad http://www.upv.sk/?systemy-triedenia-patenty
including various additional information.
- Official Gazette "Vestník ÚPV SR" may be viewed on the address http://www.upv.sk/?official-gazette - each issue is available as a one PDF file containing the whole issue. At the same time it is divided into PDF files containing only selected parts of the gazette, e.g.: patents, designs, trademarks or official announcements. In the archive on this webpage are available the previous volumes also in PDF format. The older volumes are gradually being added.
In the part ”International and EU databases” there are links to the most frequently used on-line databases http://www.upv.sk/?zahranicne-online-databazy#patenty.
Products and services
URL addresses providing basic information concerning the information services offered and information products issued by the Office and other relevant information relating to their accession and utilization
- IPO SR Official Gazette http://www.upv.sk/?official-gazette
- patent documents http://data.indprop.gov.sk/Patenty/search.php?jazyk=en
- magazine “ Intellectual Property” http://www.upv.sk/?dusevne-vlastnictvo
http://www.upv.sk/?other-products
- IPO SR and IPO CZ publications http://www.upv.sk/?publikacie
http://www.upv.sk/?other-products
- IPO SR E-zine http://www.upv.sk/?e-zine-upv-sr
- IPC 2015.01 in standardized electronic form http://ipc.indprop.gov.sk
- on-line order forms http://www.upv.sk/?online-orders
- price list http://www.upv.sk/swift_data/source/pdf/Cennik.pdf
- data extracted from register http://registre.indprop.gov.sk/registre/?lang=en
- patent documentation fund http://www.indprop.gov.sk/swift_data/source/dokumenty/patfondy.pdf
- IPO SR reading room http://www.upv.sk/?other-services
- searches http://www.upv.sk/?searches
- Information centre http://www.upv.sk/?information-centre
- Contacts http://www.upv.sk/?contacts
The Office library provides following services to the public:
- providing general information, methodical and professional consulting assistance for the public
- lending service (patent documents, Official Gazettes, special monographs, patent associated literature and reference literature) in the reading room
- sale of special monographs and periodical publications (“Intellectual Property” in electronic form, Official Gazette “Vestník ÚPV SR” on CD-ROM) upon request or on the place
- reprographic services upon request or on the place
- sending of copies of patent documents upon request
- searches on state of the art, international patent search, searches on patent families, bibliographic data upon request in written or on-line form
- on-line searches in Office’s databases for patents, European patents with designation for SK, utility models and supplementary protection certificates and self-service during a personal visit
- monitoring of the state of selected technical fields upon request (permanent sending of documents)
- registry information provided in the reading room
Patent and related information on the World Wide Web:
- general information
- information about Office activities (seminars, training courses, etc.)
- application guide and forms
- administrative fees
- relevant laws
- Annual Reports
- extracted data from register
- patent specifications (meanwhile since 1993)
- Official Gazette (PDF form)
- order forms (searches, patent documents, Official Gazette, special literature)
- products and services
- 7-th edition of the IPC (fully searchable)
- core level of the IPC 2006 and IPC 2009 (in PDF format only)
- IPC 2009 - IPC 2015.01 in standardized electronic form
- patent classifications and related information
- Annual technical reports on patent information (2002-2015)
Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)
Information on the legal status is in the internal register of patents, utility models and supplementary protection certificates. The Office provides information on the request in the form of an extract from the Register. In addition, data of this type are also published in the IPO SR database on the internet http://www.upv.sk/?databases-and-registers but have only informative character and do not substitute the extract from the Register; similar to the system Espacenet where the data are mentioned by the European Patent Office based on the information from the IPO SR Official Gazette.
Other sources
In addition the Office makes single captures of the Journal available monthly on the portal www.zbierka.sk.
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
LAN is a net built on the technology Cisco, Fast ETHERNET 1000/100/10 Mbit/s, WINDOWS 2003/ 2008 Server, 2008 R2 Server, 2012 R2 Server; MS SQL Server 2005 / 2008 / 2012; working stations PC Pentium, Windows 7, thin client WYSE V10, WYSE S10, HP t5740, Zotac Zbox BI323.
Linux Red Hat Enterprise 5.0
Citrix XenApp 7.8
SAN HP MSA 1500 CS, SAN HP MSA P2000, G3, EMC VNX 5100
HP MSL LT04 4048, MSL LZ05 2024
HP open view Storage Data Protector version A.09.05
Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
The IPO SR maintains the online database of patents, utility models and supplementary protection certificates necessary for searches and proceedings on patent applications, utility model applications and requests for granting and extension of the validity of supplementary protection certificates. Selected data are available to public on the internet http://www.upv.sk/?databases-and-registers.
Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file
The Office builds, keeps and completes regularly the examination file containing national patent applications, utility model applications, requests for granting supplementary protection certificates, granted patents, registered utility models, granted supplementary protection certificates and translations of European patents and patent claims of European patent applications with designation for the Slovak Republic via the internet system INVENTIO II. Selected data are available to public in webregisters and are updated daily.
It is possible to carry out searches according to bibliographic data in all the databases used for granted patents, published patent applications, registered utility models, utility model applications, European patents with designation for SK and supplementary protection certificates.
The patent documentation search file used by the patent examiners and the technical public contains patent documents from 26 countries, the EPO, the WIPO and the OAPI, patent gazettes from 35 countries, including the EPO and the WIPO and the non-patent literature (15 titles of technical periodicals and 9 587 titles of special literature).
Updating of patent documentation search file is performed regularly according to current technical possibilities.
The basis of the patent fund forms the collection stored on the paper medium (cca 10 millions documents). However the majority of the patent documentation is currently received on electronic carriers. In 2015 the regular annual accession of optical discs reached 365 pieces of optical discs with full texts and bibliographic information concerning the patent documents.
IPO SR is maintaining the patent documentation collection stored in paper form, which forms, as a part of PCT minimum documentation, the basis of search files within the range:
- from 1950 to 1992: the documentation DD (from 1958), DE (from 1951), CH (from 1944), FR (from 1945), GB (from 1967), PL (from 1963), SU (from 1941), US (from 1960) and the documentation EPO (from 1978) a WIPO (from 1978)
- from 1919 to the present: national documentation SK and formal CS
- from 1993 to the present: national documentation CZ
In the past the Office had received patent documents stored on optical discs from following countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, France, Georgia, Italy, Japan, Canada, China, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Switzerland, Slovenia, Spain, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Hungary, United States of America, United Kingdom and from international organisations EPO, OAPI and WIPO. In 2015 the patent documents collection was supplemented by documents stored on optical discs from these states: Austria, Canada, China, Denmark, Japan, Republic of Korea, Slovenia, United Kingdom and EPO.
Patent and utility model gazettes form also part of the available search files of the Office. In 2015, within the frame of mutual exchange, the IPO SR continued in receiving gazettes from the following states and organizations: Bulgaria, Germany, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and EPO.
The collection of search CD-ROMs:
ESPACE – ACCESS EP – A (1997-2004)
ESPACE – ACCESS EP – B (1994-2004)
ESPACE – ACCESS EP – A, EP-B (2005-2015)
ESPACE – UK (1979-2014)
ESPACE – AT – A (1990-2015)
ESPACE – AT – B (1990-2015)
ESPACE – AT – U (2005-2015)
ESPACE – DK – B (1990-2015)
ESPACE – DK – C (1990-2015)
ESPACE – SI (1993-2015)
ESPACE – ES (1990-2010)
ESPACE – BENELUX (BE-A, LU-A, NL-A, NL-C) (1991-2011)
ESPACE – CH (1990-2008)
PAJ (Patent Abstracts of Japan) (1976-2015)
KPA (Korean Patent Abstracts) (2007-2015)
Chinese Patent Bibliography Abstract (1985-2015)
Patent Applications of Canada – CA – A (1999-2015)
Granted Patents of Canada – CA – B (2000-2015)
DEPAROM – U (1995-2011)
DEPAROM – ACT (1995-2011)
COSMOS FR – A (1992-2010)
COSMOS FR – B (2000-2010)
ESPACE – ACCESS – EPC (EUROPE) (2005-2009)
ESPACE – FIRST (1978-2009)
ESPACE – WO (2000-2009)
ESPACE – PRECES (1993-2008)
ESPACE – ACCESS – PRECES (1993-2008)
ESPACE – ACCESS – RUSSIA (1924-2004)
ESPACE – BULLETIN (2009)
GlobalPat (1971-2000)
USAPat (1994-2011)
USAApp (2001-2011)
Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)
Official automated system for managing the industrial property subjects “INVENTIO”contains registers of patents, European patents with designation for SK, utility models, supplementary protection certificates and PCT registry (data since 1993 – patents, data since 2003 - European patents with designation for SK, data since 1992 – utility models, data since 2002 - supplementary protection certificates and data since 1995 – PCT applications filed with IPO SR as a receiving office).
Administrative management system is based on Lotus Domino and Fabasoft eGov Suite.
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
In 2015, the Office’s reading room has been visited by 559 users. In total there were provided 2 728 borrowings of patent and other literature made available to the public and 880 copies of patent documents and other industrial property documents for the manual and computer search purposes, as well as copies from technical periodicals and other associated and non-patent literature were made. In 2015 there were performed 26 patent searches and 31 searches on bibliographic data.
The Office’s reading room serves as a WIPO deposit library as well. The deposit library fund includes 257 volumes of publications issued by WIPO, which are available for study in reading room.
The Office’s reading room including the search workstation opens daily from 9:00 to 15:00.
Collecting, acquisitions, preparation
In the last year were processed 3 017 patent documents in paper form and 365 optical discs containing full texts and bibliographic information relating to patent documents as well to made them available for search purposes. The entire acquisition of patent documents amounted to 1 670 380 documents, out of which 1 667 363 entries represented documents in electrical form. The patent literature (patent documentation and official gazettes) were acquired within the frame of mutual exchange and the non-patent literature mostly by purchase or as a gift.
A list of the complete patent documentation was regularly updated on the Office’s web site. Non-patent literature was processed, stored according to librarian rules and made available via in-house database system “Knižnica” to the staff.
Patent Information Centres and Contact and Information Points
Since 2003 the Office has established 10 contact and information points, while four of them are the Patent Information Centres. They are located in state, regional and district libraries as well as in the Slovak National Library (SNK) in Martin and Centre of Scientific and Technical Information (CVTI) in Bratislava. A list of centres and points is available on the Office’s web site http://www.upv.sk/?partners.
The main goal of patent information centres is to provide complex information services in the field of patent, trademark and industrial design information, search services, consultation and methodical assistance concerning the searching of information, making copies of required patent documents, printing records from electronic form etc. Every patent information centre serve as a contact and information point.
The main goal of contact and information points of the Office is to inform the public about where can apply for protection of the results of creative activity, and particularly to inform the general public about the existence of the national institution, which protects immaterial goods, industrial property.
The Office supported the activity of centres and contact and information points by regular sending Slovak patent specifications in paper form and the Official Gazette in electronic form, as well as all information materials and resources made available to the public, publications published by Office, information pamphlets, documents and forms relating to applying for protection of industrial property rights, access to office's databases via Internet etc.
Information and Advisory Points for Innovations (InnoInfo)
The role of thirteen INNOINFOs working in Slovak regions is to orientate particularly SMEs in IP protection. INNOINFOs are placed in business incubators (Incubator Malacky and BIC Bratislava, spol. s r.o.), regional information and advisory centres – RPIC Komárno, Poprad and Prešov, regional chambers of the Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry and at technical universities – Technical University of Košice, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava and Institute for Competitiveness and Innovations, University in Žilina.
Four regional chambers of SCCI – Bratislava, Trenčín, Banská Bystrica and Košice – are the IPO SR partners within INNOINFO. Active cooperation of the IPO SR has been launched also with other regional chambers which are not included in the net but they showed an interest to become a part of it in future. These are RC SCCI in Trnava, Žilina and Prešov.
The first phase of cooperation is focused on providing partners with promotional and expert publications and contact persons training. During the second phase the trained persons provide consultations to SMEs how to distinguish and to protect the intellectual potential. They participate in organising seminars aimed at IP issues with the IPO SR experts as the lecturers.
Publications related to different business procedures and patent information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.
The Office publishes classifications, miscellanies, expert monographs, acts and related commentaries, promotional and information brochures, leaflets or translations of the WIPO and the EPO original publications providing valuable information on industrial property field to public.
Publication activities of the Office during 2015 include:
• Annual Report of the Industrial Property Office of SR 2014 – for the fifth time in electronic CD version. Also the web version of the Annual Report 2014 is available on the website www.upv.sk;
• The magazine Duševné Vlastníctvo 1 – 4/2015 in the electronic version and the fifth edition in printed version; printed version of Duševné Vlastníctvo – Selection 2015 consisted of the core author articles supplemented with the category From Decisions of the IPO SR and From the Gallery of Creators.
For more information please see the list of publications issued by the Office http://www.upv.sk/?publikacie
WEBSITE OF THE OFFICE – www.upv.sk
The website of the Office allows the public to access quickly and conveniently to information and databases relating to IP. Selected data from the registers of patents, utility models, industrial designs and trade marks are updated at regular daily intervals (except EP). The website in Slovak and English versions also publishes information about upcoming conferences, seminars and other events. The website of the Office thus became not only the most complete source of information but also an effective means of communication to the public.
The number of visitors of the website proves the interest of public in such form of communication. On weekdays, the average number of accesses was 453; 215 during weekends, the year 2015 together amounted to 125,000 accesses. Every eighth visitor of the Office´s website regularly returns and about 52 per cent accessed the website using the favourites bar or directly by writing the address without using a searching tool. The most visited sub-pages were:
- trade marks (121,917 accesses);
- patents (64,044);
- registers and databases (40,383);
- utility models (18,348);
- and designs with 11,133 accesses.
65.38 per cent of visits were from Slovakia, 6.01 per cent from the Czech Republic and the rest 28.61 per cent from other countries.
PORTALS www.patentovat.sk and FACEBOOK
In addition to the official website, the Office maintains the popularisation web portal www.patentovat.sk, linked to the social network Facebook. The site was renamed to The Industrial Property Office of SR - patentovat.sk to be searched better, which was positively reflected in the increased number of its supporters. In addition to the promotion of IP it serves as a contact point for public seeking necessary information and specific services of the Office.
In 2015 the number of visitors and fans of Facebook site increased by 100; there were almost 300 fans in the end of the year.
PORTAL http://www.dusevnevlastnictvo.gov.sk/
In the end of 2015 in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture of SR the portal http://www.dusevnevlastnictvo.gov.sk/ was restored and made available again on December 15, 2015.
Information portal is a digital platform to get basic information on IP subject matters. It provides information on copyright and related rights, on IP rights, law against unfair competition and also information on legal regulation of trade names, trade secret and know-how.
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.
In 2015 the training Innovations Transfer Management aimed at patent databases, patent solutions and business plan for technology transfer at the Technical University in Zvolen was held. The IPO SR also organised the seminar International and European IP Protection for students of the European Law Students Association (ELSA). In November 2015 the IPO SR in cooperation with the WIPO and the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava organised the International Conference IP Protection at Universities VII. The Conference with the topic Intellectual Property – Academy & Business was for academics, PhD. students, students and all those interested in IP issues.
Education and training: training courses, e-learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.
The Office also in 2015 continued in education on IP protection importance for pupils of elementary and secondary schools and also for academic community and entrepreneurs. 3 lectures were presented for elementary schools. 25 lectures were organised for secondary schools and universities; 6 of them were interconnected with the Office excursion and 1 was for directors and pedagogues of secondary and vocational schools. Business community showed the interest in lectures for which 11 training sessions were organised. Recently the IPO SR noticed and increased interest in IP protection lectures of secondary schools, universities, business community and professionals.
Education Programme Intellectual Property
IPO SR provides the education programme Intellectual Property accredited by the decision of the Ministry of Education of the SR of April 30, 2014 and the accreditation certificate No. 1308/2014/44/1.
Three modules were realised in the school year 2014/2015:
Module A – Intellectual Property and Copyright Basics;
Module B – Creativity – its Management, Marketing and Economics;
Module C – Information in the Field of Intellectual Property.
32 participants completed these three modules successfully. From September 2015 20 participants including 4 Office employees continue in Module D – Industrial Property Law.
Participation at fair trades and exhibitions is another active form of providing information on IP protection. In 2015 the Office employees provided general information and consultations at four international fair trades – CONECO in Bratislava, Furniture and Living in Nitra, International Engineering Fair and Agrokomplex in Nitra.
The IPO SR representatives actively participated in the 5th year of the job fair JobExpo 2015 and also the 23rd year of the sales and presentation exhibition of products made by students of training colleges Young Creator 2015.
On September 25, 2015 the 9th year of the European Science Festival – Researchers´ Night – organised at the same time in 33 European states took place. The IPO SR participated in the event for the 5th time – in the Europa Shopping Centre in Banská Bystrica and in Stará Tržnica in Bratislava. The Office representatives discussed with visitors particularly IP protection issues and they also provided information materials issued by the Office. The visitors were interested particularly in quizzes prepared for basic schools pupils.
At the IPO SR premises there has been a mobile exhibition Intellectual Property in a Cube installed since April 2015. The project of attractive exhibition was financially supported by the WIPO. It is aimed particularly at secondary schools students but it attracts people of all ages. The object is the part of the IPO SR entrance area.
In September 2015, the Postal Museum in Banská Bystrica was for the first time in the history presented in the IPO SR premises through two parallel exhibitions. The Exhibition Inventors and Technical Artifacts on Slovak Post Stamps presents by album leafs Slovak post stamps with the 1st day of issue envelopes dedicated to important pioneers of science and technology and to technical artifacts.
The Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava on Czechoslovak Post Stamps is the name of the other Exhibition. This Exhibition presents the works of participants in 70s to 90s of the last century. It was in the middle of November replaced by not less interesting Exhibition How We Lived before 1989 to commemorate the end of the totality period and democratic changes. The Exhibition does not evaluate the past period but represents it and evokes the visitors memories and inspires them to reflect.
Other activities
The World IP Day
http://www.upv.sk/?aktuality&clanok=svetovy-den-dusevneho-vlastnictva-1
As last year´s World IP Day (WIPD – April 26) fell on Sunday, the Industrial Property Office of SR employees and invited guests commemorated it on Tuesday, April 28. WIPD 2015 – Get up, stand up. For music – was opened by the ceremonial speech of the IPO SR President Ľuboš Knoth.
The formal part was followed by the regional seminar Business in the International Context organised by the IPO SR in cooperation with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) and the Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information (SCSTI). The aim of the regional seminar was to provide information to entrepreneurs and expert public of the central Europe how to do a business via internet without violation of IP rights and what products and services of the international organisations WIPO and OHIM could be helpful in their businesses.
WIPD was also the Open Day of the Office. The Exhibition documenting traditions related to trade and catering in Slovakia was accessible in the Office during the Open Day. The IPO SR in cooperation with the Trade Museum Bratislava opened it in the end of 2014. Famous and less famous trade marks, brands and historical designs of various products were the part of the Exhibition, which was open to public till the end of April 2015.
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
Bibliographic data and abstracts of the published patent and utility model applications, granted patents and registered utility models in English were supplied to the Espacenet and INPADOC database in electronic form.
The Office sent the copies of patent documents in electronic form monthly within the bilateral cooperation with the European Patent Office related to patent information. The data were subsequently provided for the database Espacenet – administered by the EPO – freely accessible to public in Slovak language on the address http://sk.espacenet.com/ and European patent translations into the Slovak language were used for corpus of language necessary for realisation of another project of bilateral cooperation – Patent Translate.
In 2015 continued the mutual exchange of official gazettes between the IPO SR and other offices also international organisations, including the EPO and the WIPO.
Priority documents have been supplied to applicants on request in paper form.
Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to patent information
Participation in the project of the Federative Patent Register conducted by the European Patent Office.
Participation in PATLIB 2015 Conference.
Participation in the meeting PATLIB Committee 2015.
Participation in the EPO Patent Information Conference in Copenhagen.
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.