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 main trends in the development of activities in the field of industrial design information are defined by the Comprehensive Plan for Development of the Rospatent System up to 2015, the Rospatent Computerization Plan for 2010, and the Plan of Measures by the Federal State Institution, Federal Institute of Industrial Property (FIPS) for the enhancement and development of its activities for 2010.
The main trends in the Plans include:
- the creation for natural persons and legal entities of conditions assisting the fuller implementation by them of the rights for the protection of the results of intellectual activity and means of individualization, and their enforcement;
- a reduction in the time taken to examine applications, bearing in mind the forecast growth in the volume of such applications received;
- provision of high-quality examination and documents granting protection issued;
- increased effectiveness of information technology resources within the Rospatent system;
- formation of a State patent collection and provision of access thereto;
- training of specialists in the field of protection and use of intellectual property;
- implementation of monitoring in the sphere of legal protection and use of results of scientific research, design and technological work for civilian purposes, financed by the Federal Budget;
- implementation of international cooperation.
Depending on the type of measure, the anticipated deadlines for their implementation are planned between 2010 and 2015.
Table 1 shows the rate at which applications were filed and patents granted for industrial designs in 2009-2010.
The overall number of industrial design applications increased in comparison with 2009 (by 6.87 per cent), to a minor extent on account of Russian applicants (0.46 per cent), and foreign applicants (14.03 per cent).
The number of patents granted for industrial designs decreased in comparison with 2009 by 25.18 per cent.
The following web page addresses on Office sites contain:
• information on industrial design legislation – Inventions, utility models and industrial designs heading in the Normative Documents section
http://www.rupto.ru/norm_doc/sod/norm_doc/iz_pm_po.html;
• statistical information – Rospatent Annual Reports section
http://www.rupto.ru/about/sod/otchety.html;
Statistical information on the use of intellectual property heading:
http://www.rupto.ru/rosp_reg/sod/Statistika/Stat_infa.html;
• information on open sources relating to industrial design information systems – References section
http://www.rupto.ru/ssilki.htm;
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/link_resources/;
• information communications in the Industrial Designs section
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/industrial_designs/.
Rospatent publications on industrial designs are presented in Table 2
The Industrial Designs Official Gazette on CD-ROM electronic carrier with search system and the corresponding paper Gazette are distributed by subscription. The last Gazette is available on the Rospatent site.
The web page addresses on Office sites, which provide information relating to Office publications, are:
• Administrative Regulations for the performance by the Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks of State functions relating to the keeping of registers of registered intellectual property subject matter, publication of information on registered intellectual property subject matter, applications filed and patents and certificates granted therefor, on the validity, termination and renewal of validity of legal protection in relation to intellectual property subject matter, the transfer of rights in protectable subject matter, and the official registration of intellectual property subject matter.
http://www.rupto.ru/norm_doc/sod/prikaz/minobrnauka/346_07/Po_vedeniyu_reestrov_zaregistrirovannih_obektov.htm#1;
• Regulations on official publications of the Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks in the Patent-Information Products section
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/publishing_activities/publication_act;
• Rospatent Annual Reports
http://www.rupto.ru/about/sod/otchety.html;
• Prospectus of publications and databases in the Patent-Information Products section
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/publishing_activities/http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/inform_resources/electron_bulletins/inventions_utility_models/.
Forms of notifications on industrial designs published in Rospatent Industrial Designs Official Gazettes are presented in Table 3.
In 2010, with the assistance of the firms Fujitsu Siemens and Limited Liability Company “ARK Kommersal’”, work was completed to transfer software and data contained in the Automated Database systems to the program-apparatus platform Prime Power 1500, and Webuilder 3/3 for UniVerse for OS Solaris 10 FS Prime Power licenses were obtained and activated, thereby significantly increasing the productivity of the systems in question, enabling them to operate in a stable manner and reducing the labor input of the staff using those systems.
In 2010 experimental operation of the unified system for the accounting of fees was undertaken as part of the use of electronic bank payments relating to the examination of inventions, utility models and industrial designs, and maintenance of patents in force, using web services as means of integration of the prosecution systems for Automated Databases and the Automated Fees System. The results of the operation confirmed that it is possible to transfer to a system of fee accounting, using verification that payments have reached the FIPS account, the legal effect for which the fee was paid has been achieved and also the possibility of verifying the state of payments has been created.
Work was done to take account of the amendments to legislation, reflected in the adopted Administrative Regulations for the performance of the functions of the Federal Office, resulting from the requirements of Part Four of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. As part of this work, substantive changes were made to such Rospatent automated systems as the Automated Databases and the Industrial Designs of the Russian Federation Automated System.
Web page addresses on the Office site, which provide access to online publications, are:
• Industrial Designs in the Electronic Gazettes section
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/inform_resources/electron_bulletins/industrial_designs/;
• in the Information Resources section:
International classifications of industrial designs
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/inform_resources/international_classification/industrial_samples/;
Open registers of Russian patent documents
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/portal/Registers/ subsections.
From the above page, a user may refer to the following resources by means of the corresponding link:
Register of Industrial Designs of the Russian Federation;
Register of Applications for the Grant of a Russian Federation Industrial Design Patent.
In the Rospatent system for classifying industrial designs, the International Classification of Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification) is used. Beginning from January 1, 2009, the Ninth Edition of ICID has been entered on patent documents. For the publication of patent documents, the Ninth Edition of ICID was used in 2010.
During the year, Rospatent prepared proposals and comments on the problem of creating a search indexing system for industrial designs, for example Class 9 “Packages and containers for the transport or handling of goods”. A detailed system of indexing industrial designs, relating to bottles, flasks, pots and similar containers according to the features of their external appearance, was devised and sent to WIPO.
On the basis of specific examples, the possibility was studied of indexing industrial designs using the proposed system and indexes for categories W, X and Y of the external appearance, as devised earlier by the WIPO Pilot Group.
Experts carry out searches in the Industrial Designs of the Russian Federation Automated System, which includes the volume of applications from 1991 and whereby data are updated weekly. The use of industrial design software continues, providing an overview of search results from the trademarks database, on the basis of pre-prepared search instructions to prevent unfair competition when using trademarks and industrial designs.
The collection of industrial designs consists of two arrays of documents:
- national and foreign special or general gazettes with sections on industrial designs on various types of carriers, grouped in accordance with ICID indexes or gazette numbers;
- a specialized collection of broad names of industrial design publications, which consists of materials containing publications from national gazettes with a translation of the name of the industrial design into Russian and other literature. This collection is grouped in accordance with ICID indexes of varying depths of the collection according to each country.
The collection is updated by including in it current documentation on Russian Federation industrial designs and documentation received from foreign partners of Rospatent as part of international exchange, and also through the acquisition of subscription literature from major foreign publishing houses.
The specialized collection of industrial designs includes:
- full descriptions for industrial designs from foreign countries;
- (artistic) design periodicals;
- advertising prospectuses and catalogs;
- thematic collections of publications from the national gazettes of a number of foreign countries;
- method-related and reference literature.
The overall volume of this Collection is 2.3 million editions, including:
- around 120,000 full descriptions of industrial designs from foreign countries;
- national and foreign journals on design and new types of production constitute more than 15,000 copies;
- thematic collections from national gazettes of a number of foreign countries constitute 2.2 million publications;
- a special collection of advertising prospectuses and catalogs linked to exhibitions, as well as advertising for new goods and other items containing 47,500 copies of publications.
The collection of official industrial design publications in the Central Patent Collection (TSPF) is provided by various countries and covers various periods.
The FIPS VPTB is equipped with a special room for work with information on industrial designs for all categories of users.
In 2010:
- the number of gazettes issued constituted more than 19,900 storage units on paper and about 1,400 on an electronic carrier;
- the number of thematic collections issued constituted 24,300 units;
- the number of design journals issued constituted about 5,200 copies;
- the number of advertising prospectuses and catalogs issued constituted more than 68,000 copies.
The in-house system used since 1991 is the Industrial Designs of the Russian Federation Automated System, which is used for conducting a search when examining industrial design applications and creating outgoing correspondence, and is a source of electronic data for the publication of information in Official Gazettes.
The system contains an array of data on applications and patents, including graphics files with illustrations of industrial designs and the International Classification of Industrial Designs Automated Subsystem.
In 2010, the information resources of FIPS examiners for the conduct of searches on industrial design applications remained as before: examiners use databases of industrial designs, freely available on the Internet, from the countries listed below:
1. Countries and organizations included in the minimum compulsory search field
Russian Federation
WIPO (Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs)
United States of America
Japan
United Kingdom
Germany
Spain
France
2. Additional information resources from other countries and organizations:
European Union (Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market), Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Moldova, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine.
Industrial design applications are registered in the TM-ADMIN system, and procedures for exporting data into the system of prosecution of applications for inventions, utility models and industrial designs - FIPS Automated Database have been devised and introduced.
The FIPS Automated Database 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 reports on Rospatent activities included in the Rospatent and WIPO Annual Reports.
The system guarantees the entry and registration of application materials and incoming letters, prepares outgoing correspondence, and monitors all processes in the lifecycle of applications, beginning from application filing up to the examination decision (grant, refusal, withdrawal), verifies the periods for consideration of correspondence and those for carrying out examinations.
The system functions in real time.
The programming language BASIC, Web-Builder, DISI, RE Screen Editor and WINNIX terminal emulator are used as production means in the Universe SU database environment.
The FIPS Automated Database System is integrated with the Industrial Designs of the Russian Federation Automated System in order to use bibliographical information on an application when preparing correspondence for an applicant. All patent documents in the database contain information on legal status, which is renewed monthly.
Automated database subsystems for determining legal status use data from official publications containing information on new registered documents providing protection or on amendments. Following publication of the ordinary Gazette, data on legal status are displayed on the Rospatent site in the Information Resources section. For industrial designs, the status of a patent has the designation "valid", "may cease to be valid", "has ceased to be valid, but may be restored" and "has ceased to be valid".
Information on the legal status of industrial designs is published in the Official Designs Official Gazettes (on CD/DVD), in paper Gazettes, and is displayed on the Rospatent site as:
- information on the grant of patents for industrial designs;
- information on the entry of amendments to entries in the State Registers of Industrial Designs of the Russian Federation (Notifications section of the Gazette).
Equipment used (industrial design search systems):
HP DL380 server – 8 units
(OM - 4GB, processors – 2, external memory – 200 GB)
HP DL580 server – 4 units
(OM - 16GB, processors – 4, external memory – 600 GB)
HP P4, Fujitsu-Siemens workstations – 130 units
Switching equipment
Solaris, Windows 2000 server, Windows XP and Windows 2003 server operating systems.
Carriers used
SDLT and Ultrium magnetic tapes
In 2010 users were provided with the Industrial Designs Official Gazette on subscription on CD/DVD with a frequency of 12 issues per year. Alongside the Official Gazette on disks, the paper Gazette was published.
For new subscribers, and also for the purposes of keeping patent collections up to date, the series of the Industrial Designs Official Gazette issued in previous years (2007-2009) were offered on CD/DVD.
In addition, users were provided with sets of information on industrial designs for 2005-2009, each on one DVD, together with a retrospective set of an array of information on industrial designs for 1993 to 2004 on one DVD.
All CDs and DVDs are distributed together with the MIMOSA software, which provides a search of bibliographical data, ICID indexes, a list of essential features, and also combinations thereof.
Users are also offered the publication International Classification of Industrial Designs (Ninth Edition) on CD and paper.
On the FIPS Internet site an analog of the Industrial Designs Official Gazette was published and keeping of the registers of Russian industrial designs with an indication of their legal status continued. Users are also provided with free access to information on applications for the grant of a Russian Federation industrial design patent, with a date of receipt after January, 1, 2007.
The web page addresses on Office sites, which provide information relating to the filing of applications, are:
• Administrative Regulations for the performance by the Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks of State functions relating to the organization of the receipt of applications for industrial designs, the consideration and examination thereof, and the grant in accordance with established procedure of Russian Federation industrial design patents
http://www.rupto.ru/norm_doc/sod/prikaz/minobrnauka/325/Pritm_zajavok_na_promobr.html#1;
• Models for declarations and requests heading in the Industrial Designs section
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/industrial_designs/obr_zh;
• Fees section
http://www.rupto.ru/poshl/poshl.htm;
Acts relating to industrial design patents
http://www.rupto.ru/norm_doc/sod/post_prav/pril_pol_poshl_941.html#1.
The Internet publications of the FIPS VPTB Division are found on the FIPS site in the State Patent Collection and VPTB Information Products sections:
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/fonds/.
On the Rospatent site, in the Rospatent and Regions section, the following Internet publications are available:
• method-related materials and reviews of protection and enforcement of results of intellectual activities for the benefit of small and medium-sized enterprises:
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/regions/mp;
• Recommendations on a list of essential method-related, legal and patent literature and documentation for the provision of documents for patent subdivisions and services of the State science and education sector and organizations forming the national nanotechnology network:
http://www.rupto.ru/rosp_reg/sod/Pat_podrazd_i_sluzhbam/links/Rekomendacii/Rekomendacii.
html:
For the purposes of methodical examination of industrial designs, the FIPS site contains the following recommendations:
• Recommendations for the examination of industrial design applications, approved by Rospatent Decree No. 48 of March 31, 2009: http://www.fips.ru/sitedocs/rec_po.pdf.
In the Information Resources section information is provided on registrations with an indication of the legal status or state of prosecution for applications:
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/inform_resources/;
• Open registers: http://www1.fips.ru/wps/portal/Registers/.
National patent gazettes and gazettes from foreign countries and international organizations, both in the form of special gazettes and also general industrial property gazettes with sections devoted to industrial designs are received by the Collection as part of international exchange or data are downloaded from Office sites.
The webpage addresses on the Office site, which provide information on information products and services supplied by the Office, are:
• information on subscription to patent-information products – in the Patent-Information Products: Prospectus of Publications and Databases section
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/publishing_activities/;
Procedure for acquiring publications and databases subsection
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/publishing_activities/porayad_pr/;
• Conducting a search – in the Information Resources section
Services http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/inform_resources/article_6/;
Information-Search System: Databases subsection
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/inform_resources/inform_retrieval_system/article_2/;
Open Registers
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/portal/Registers/ subsections;
Industrial Designs in the Electronic Gazettes section
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/inform_resources/electron_bulletins/industrial_designs/;
• patent databases – Databases subsection in the Information-Search System section
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/inform_resources/inform_retrieval_system/article_2/;
• information on access to resources and their use – in the Information-Search System section
Support
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/inform_resources/inform_retrieval_system/article_4/;
Instructions
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/inform_resources/inform_retrieval_system/article_1a/ subsections.
As part of international exchange in 2010, 53 annual sets of the Rospatent Industrial Designs Official Gazette on optical disks were sent to 48 countries and two organizations.
In 2010, 1,603 copies of industrial designs gazettes were received on all forms of carrier from 49 countries and three international organizations, including on paper – 137 copies (individual gazettes – 16; sections – 121); individually published specialized gazettes – 202 copies on optical disks and 394 copies downloaded from the Internet; and general gazettes with sections on industrial designs – 485 copies on optical disks and 385 copies downloaded from the Internet.
In 2010 more than 350 optical disks with national industrial designs were sent to different higher education institutions in the Russian Federation free of charge.
In 2010, the subjects of conferences and seminars held in the different regions of Russia, and also a number of international exhibitions, were devoted to the problems of protecting industrial designs.
Information on the main important events held in 2010 is given below:
From March 30 to April 2, 2010, the Thirteenth Moscow International Exhibition of Inventions and Innovation Technologies, "Archimedes", was held in Moscow.
On March 31, 2010, as part of the Exhibition, a scientific and practical conference and roundtable entitled "Legal protection of intellectual property subject matter in the context of the entry into force of Part Four of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and Administrative Regulations" were organized and held by Rospatent and FIPS. The competition program of the Thirteenth Moscow International Exhibition of Inventions and Innovation Technologies, "Archimedes", was presented, including for the nomination of "Best industrial design".
July 6. Meeting of the heads and specialists of Rospatent with patent attorneys (roundtable). The meeting was held in relation to the subject "Discussion of the proposals by Rospatent to optimize administrative procedures".
From September 7 to 10, 2010, the Tenth Moscow International Exhibition of Innovations and Investments was held - the largest annual exhibition event in the Russian Federation, which is of enormous significance for the successful integration of Russian innovation potential into the national economy.
October 14-15. The Fourteenth Traditional Scientific and Practical Conference of Rospatent entitled "Development of legal protection for intellectual property subject matter and information technologies in this sphere", devoted to the 50th anniversary of VNIIGPE-FIPS.
The modern possibilities offered by automated information technologies, accessible to all categories of users, place before information centers throughout the world new tasks - not simply to provide a user with primary initial information, but also beforehand to carry out particular comprehensive processing of this information and, consequently, to provide a more "intellectual" service for users.
This idea was discussed not for the first time at the annually organized PATLIB international conference, and has already been implemented in practice in the majority of the sufficiently large information centers that possess patent collections.
Since 2008, representatives of FIPS VPTB have participated in the work of PATLIB, and have synchronized their capabilities to provide "intellectual services" for different categories of users with experience from foreign colleagues.
On November 30 and December 1, 2010 at Rospatent headquarters an Interregional WIPO Symposium was held on the problems of access to patent information and strategy for its use in order to promote innovations, at which issues relating to "intellectual services" were the subject of significant attention. Officials from Rospatent and FIPS participated in the organization and work of that forum.
Rospatent does not have any special assistance programs for developing countries. Assistance is provided according to individual requests from the Offices of such countries.
The following web page addresses on Office sites contain:
• information on industrial design legislation - Inventions, utility models and industrial designs heading in the Normative Documents section
http://www.rupto.ru/norm_doc/sod/norm_doc/iz_pm_po.html;
• statistical information - Rospatent Annual Reports section
http://www.rupto.ru/about/sod/otchety.html;
Statistical information on the use of intellectual property heading:
http://www.rupto.ru/rosp_reg/sod/Statistika/Stat_infa.html;
• information on open sources relating to industrial design information systems - References section
http://www.rupto.ru/ssilki.htm;
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/link_resources/;
• information communications in the Industrial Designs section
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/industrial_designs/.
• Administrative Regulations for the performance by the Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks of State functions relating to the organization of the receipt of applications for industrial designs, the consideration and examination thereof, and the grant in accordance with established procedure of Russian Federation industrial design patents
http://www.rupto.ru/norm_doc/sod/prikaz/minobrnauka/325/Pritm_zajavok_na_promobr.html#1;
• Models for declarations and requests heading in the Industrial Designs section
http://www1.fips.ru/wps/wcm/connect/content_ru/ru/industrial_designs/obr_zh;
• Fees section
http://www.rupto.ru/poshl/poshl.htm;
Acts relating to industrial design patents
http://www.rupto.ru/norm_doc/sod/post_prav/pril_pol_poshl_941.html#1.