Where URLs are requested below, it is preferred that either URLs which are likely to remain stable over time (three years or more) are provided, or home (main) page URLs are provided with a short explanation of how to access the corresponding information.
The expression "industrial designs" covers industrial designs and models. Offices which issue design patents should report their design patent information activities in this series of Annual Technical Reports.
The Office procedures for filing and examining applications for the grant of Russian Federation patents for industrial designs did not change in 2006.
In order to increase the effectiveness of examinations, recommendations were devised for examining industrial designs relating to objects, the particular external features of which do not allow them to be distinguished from known solutions in visual terms. Furthermore, recommendations were prepared relating to the aspects of verifying the patentability of an industrial design in which a trademark is used, for which the rights belong to another person, as well as the possibility of granting legal protection as an industrial design to separable and inseparable parts of an object.
Table 1 (attached below) shows the rate at which applications were filed and patents granted for industrial designs in 2005-2006.
In 2006 the growth in the number of industrial design applications received continued and reached 111.95 per cent, mainly owing to foreign applicants (growth of 25.48 per cent). The number of industrial design patents granted increased in comparison with 2005 by 8.34 per cent.
Statistical information on all forms of industrial property is provided on the Office site in the About Rospatent section, Reports, Reviews, Statistics subsection:
During the reporting period the following were published in Official Gazettes:
Documents providing protection were prepared and sent to rightsowners for all types of industrial and intellectual property subject matter.
CD-ROMs containing the Official Gazette were printed by a firm which specializes in publishing such products.
The paper gazette is printed on the FGU FIPS polygraphic base by polygraphic means using a Romajor-314 printing machine and a Docutech 6100 operational printing system by electrographic means.
All printing materials are transferred electronically in PDF format.
Table 2 (attached below) shows Rospatent publications on industrial designs.
In 2006, the annual index to the Gazettes for 2005 was issued:
The Industrial Designs Official Gazette on CD-ROM electronic carrier with a search system and the corresponding paper Gazette are distributed by subscription. The latest Gazette is available on the Rospatent site.
Data are stored on paper, diskettes and optical disks, as well as in the form of databases or data files.
As part of the comprehensive program of modernization of the automated systems of Rospatent, in 2006 the following work was completed:
In 2005, the CD-ROM collection continued to be updated with disks from the Industrial Designs database containing documents providing protection from 1993 to 2006.
Web page addresses on the Rospatent site provide access to:
In the Rospatent system the International Classification for Industrial Designs (ICID) (Locarno Classification) is used.
The eighth edition of the ICID is used in the publication of patent documents.
Rospatent helped to prepare corrections to the current edition of the ICID, which will be inserted into the ninth edition. All the changes and updates to ICID-8 adopted by the Committee of Experts are currently being translated into Russian and prepared for inclusion in both the electronic and paper versions of the ICID.
In the transition to the new edition of the ICID, the collection of industrial designs is not reclassified.
Two-digit digital INID codes are used to index bibliographical data on standard forms and in the automated system.
The industrial designs collection consists of two arrays of documents:
The collection is updated by means of the inclusion of current documentation on industrial designs of the Russian Federation and documentation received from foreign partners of Rospatent as part of the international exchange system, and also through the acquisition of literature by subscription from major foreign publishing houses.
Storage conditions for the collections correspond to the types of information carriers used:
The All-Union Patent Technology Library (VPTB) Division receives information on industrial designs from 49 countries and three international organizations.
The in-house system used since 1991 is the Russian Federation Industrial Designs Automated System, which is used for information searches on national industrial designs during the examination of applications for such designs. The system in question contains an information file of national patents and applications, as well as graphics files with illustrations of industrial designs and an International Classification of Industrial Designs Automated Subsystem.
Rospatent uses the following databases on CD-ROM and DVD optical disks:
In 2006, the Rospatent Internet site provided access to:
Since 1986 an automated system for prosecuting applications for inventions, utility models and industrial designs – the FGU FIPS Automated Database – has operated within Rospatent.
The system is designed to monitor the prosecution of applications for inventions, utility models and industrial designs, account for the payment of patent fees, draw up plans and reports relating to the activities of examination divisions, prepare data for publication and obtain responses on Rospatent activities included in the Rospatent and WIPO Annual Reports.
The system guarantees the entry and registration of application materials and incoming correspondence, prepares outgoing correspondence, inputs data according to application processing procedures and monitors all processes in the life cycle of applications, beginning from application filing up to the examination decision (grant, refusal, withdrawal).
The automated database is a UniVerse relational-type database management system, functioning under the management of an OS Reliant Unix V5.45 operating system on an RM600 computer and consisting of a series of data files, dictionaries and programs.
The number of simultaneously connected system users is 300. Access to the system is provided from more than 700 workstations.
Since 1997 application documents have been scanned and downloaded into the Electronic Applications Archive. In 2005-2006, software for managing documents and tasks for users in the Electronic Applications Archive, means of preparing outgoing correspondence, and of processing incoming correspondence and creating an Electronic Applications Archive for inventions and utility models were devised. The Electronic Applications Archive system has a web interface and is closely linked to the FGU FIPS Automated Database.
At the beginning of 2007, the Applications section of the Rospatent site was expanded with information on the prosecution of applications for inventions, utility models and industrial designs. The aim of expanding this section of the site is to increase the openness of information from Rospatent for applicants and other external users. Interested persons may follow the prosecution of applications of interest to them and, following publication of invention applications, have access to information on published applications for Russian inventions, beginning from 1992. Access to data on the site is provided through subsequent entry in the following sections: Information Resources – Open Registers – Register of Applications.
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The specialized collection of industrial designs includes:
The overall volume of this collection is 1.9 million editions, including:
The collection of official industrial design publications in the Central Patent Collection is provided by various countries and covers various periods.
In the FGU FIPS VPTB a special room has been equipped for work with information on industrial designs, primarily for examiners but also accessible to external users.
Access to official publications of patent offices is unlimited for all categories of users.
In 2006:
Within the framework of international exchange, in 2006 the Rospatent Industrial Designs Official Gazette was sent to 51 foreign countries in 55 annual sets.
In 2006, the following were received:
Within the framework of international exchange, in 2006 the Rospatent Industrial Designs Official Gazette was sent on optical disk to 51 countries in 55 annual sets.
In 2006, the following were received:
In 2006, three seminars, held in different regions of Russia, were devoted to trademark-registration problems:
Representatives of the following took part in the work of the Conference and Round Table: All-Russian Society of Inventors and Rationalizers (VOIR), the Moscow Chamber of Trade and Industry, Parliamentary Center attached to the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Moscow Region, Saint Petersburg, Astrakhan’, Izhevsk, Krasnoyarsk, Stavropol’, Tambov, Tver’, Tula, Rostov-on-Don and other cities in the Russian Federation, together with representatives of the patent offices of Armenia, Moldova and Romania. Conference participants included patent attorneys, representatives of industry, scientific organizations and the press.
Representatives of the following took part in the work of the Conference: international organizations (WIPO, European Patent Office (EPO), Eurasian Patent Office (EAPO), the European Commission in Russia, International Scientific and Technical Center (ISTC)); patent offices of foreign countries (Finland, Japan, Moldova, People’s Republic of China, Poland, Republic of Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine); Federal Patent Court of Germany; the Embassies of France, the People’s Republic of China and the United States of America; a number of State bodies (Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, Parliamentary Center of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, Moscow Court of Arbitration, etc.); public organizations and associations (VOIR Republican Council, the Association of Russian Patent Attorneys, Russian Association of Trademark Owners, Russian Authors’ Society etc.); Russian Academy of Sciences; higher education institutions and higher research institutions; industrial firms; administrative and managerial bodies, information centers and other organizations from a number of regions of the Russian Federation; individual foreign organizations, companies and firms. The leaders and specialists of the central authorities of Rospatent, FGU FIPS, the FGU Chamber on Patent Disputes, Russian State Institute of Intellectual Property (RGIIS) and also RGIIS students were widely represented.
In 2006, two distance learning sessions were held in Russian on the WIPO Worldwide Academy Program Foundations of Intellectual Property for Russian citizens and Russian-speaking citizens of other countries, where the fundamental aspects relating to all forms of intellectual property subject matter were discussed.
In 2006, of the 1,582 registered persons, 825 successfully completed the training. In comparison with 2005, in 2006 the number of those registered for the WIPO Worldwide Academy distance-learning course increased by 276. The results of the distance learning are available on the site http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/Regions/dist_itog.htm.
Inventions, Utility Models and Industrial Designs subsection in the Normative Documents section http://www.fips.ru/npdoc/index.htm#2; the Normative Documents subsection in the Industrial Designs section http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/design.htm
Reports, Reviews and Statistics section http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/reports.htm
References section http://www.fips.ru/russite/search/search.html
Main News section http://www.fips.ru/Rospatent/index.htm, News section http://www.fips.ru/ruptoru/news.htm