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The expression "industrial designs" covers industrial designs and models. Offices which issue design patents should report their design patent information activities in this series of Annual Technical Reports.
In the course of 2006, 808 applications for industrial designs were filed with the State Office of Industrial Property of the Republic of Macedonia. The total number of the filed applications for industrial designs in 2006, compared with the previous year was increased by 1.4%. In the total number of filed applications for industrial design with the Office, the number of national ones in 2006 compared to the previous year, marks an increase of 31.9%, and there was a drop with the foreign ones of 76.9%. In the total number of filed applications, 35 were filed with the Office, and 773 through the Hague Agreement for international registration of industrial design, 380 of which were new, and 393 were industrial designs for which the validity was extended for the territory of the Republic of Macedonia.
Typically for the designs, with one application for granting industrial design right, protection for several designs of products can be requested (multiple application), with all the designs on the application necessary classified in the same class of the International Classification (Locarno Classification). Given this, of the 35 applications filed with the Office, most are multiple, with a total of 91 industrial designs.
In 2006, the Office reached 42 decisions for granting industrial design right, 32 of which were national and 10 were foreign. Of that, 773 were international registrations, filed under the Hague Agreement, 380 (of the total 1756 industrial designs) were newly registered industrial designs on the territory of Republic of Macedonia, and 393 were extensions of the industrial designs validity. A total number of granted industrial designs in that year were up for 2.1%, resulting from the increased number of nationally and internationally registered industrial designs.
Granted industrial designs by origin in 2006, Switzerland has the biggest share in the total number of industrial designs valid on the territory of the Republic of Macedonia, with 220 registered industrial designs or 52.13%. Next are: Germany with 87 or 20.62%, Macedonia with 42 or 9.95%, Netherlands with 24 or 5.69%, France with 18 registered industrial designs or 4.26%, Italy with 13 or 3.08%, and the rest of the countries (Greece, Belgium, Bulgaria, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Turkey, Estonia and Hungary) participate with 4.27%.
According to the International Classification (Locarno Classification) in the State Office of Industrial Property of the Republic of Macedonia in 2006, industrial designs of the class 9 and 25 account for the biggest share of 40.6%. The industrial designs of class 9 refer to the packing and goods transportation containers, due to the increased development of the packing production, thus an increased market competition. Industrial designs of class 25 refer to the building industry and building materials, due to the rise in the construction sector in the Republic of Macedonia, and therefore an increased competition in the production of building materials. Other classes account for 18.8% of the total number of granted industrial designs (class 6 covers furniture, class 7 covers household appliances which are not covered by other classes, class 13 covers production machines, distribution and transformation of electricity, class 14 covers devices for registration, telecommunication or information processing) etc.
For the foreign filed under the Hague Agreement, the highest position be-longs to the industrial designs of class 10 (47,1%) which refers to the clocks and watches and other measuring instruments, checking and signalling instruments, followed by class 12 (11,6%) related to the means of transport or hoisting; class 11 (6,1%) articles of adornment; class 23 (5,8%) related to fluid distribution equipment, sanitary, heating, ventilation and air-conditioning equipment, solid fuel; class 9 (5,5%) related to packaging and transport containers. Other classes account for 23,9% of the total number of granted industrial designs.
State Office of Industrial Property of the Republic of Macedonia issues the official gazette “Glasnik”. The Gazette is issued four times yearly, every three months. This official gazette contains data concerning: industrial design applications, industrial design registration, renewals, change of data concerning industrial design owners, official decisions, and information regarding other activities of the Office, in the country and abroad. There are very often commentaries of actual activities in protection of the industrial property rights. The Office issues Annual Report for its activities from the previous year. In this Report there is basic data for industrial designs.
In The State Office of Industrial Property, industrial designs are classified according to the International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification, last edition).
WIPO Standard ST.80 is used for bibliographic data coding.
Industrial design files are kept in paper form in the library, and they are updated continuously.
There is industrial design data of applied and registered industrial designs, but in the lack of software, the research is done manually.
This was the third consecutive year since the implementation of the IPAS software in the Office of both Trademarks and Patents and it is planned to gradually encompass Industrial Designs too, but for Industrial Designs the IPAS software is not complete yet.
-Administrative management system:
IPAS Software
The Office library has industrial design data from the bulletins for international registration of industrial design through Hague Agreement concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs, which are supplied by WIPO, on CDrom, as well as industrial design data supplied by exchange of official gazettes with Slovenia, Poland, Serbia, Croatia, Moldavia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Romania, Estonia, Germany, etc., which are available to all interested persons.
The Office cannot provide computerized searches in the industrial database, because of having no software for this matter. Additional information (as application procedures and such) is available at the Office Web-site:
http://www.ippo.gov.mk.
The Office sends and receives gazettes in paper form. The official gazettes, as well as the Annual Report are distributed to the next countries: AR, AZ, AU, RS, HR, SI, BG, CZ, PL, DE, SE, TR, AT, AL, BA, BY, BR, BX, BE, CA, CY, RO, IT, IL, LV, LU, LT, KR, FR, HU, CH, UA, GB, GR, GE, US, JP, PT, KP, RU, SK, SM, EG, EE, ES, MD and FI. The Office is receiving gazettes and annual reports from the next countries: AT, BG, ES, EE, BA, BY, DE, MD, LT, PL, HU, UA, FI, CZ, RO, RU, SK, JP, RS, HR and SI.
During 2006, the educational and training activities of the employees of the Industrial design Department were as follows:
- WIPO Seminar/WIPO Subregional Seminar on the Use of Industrial Designs in Business and Trade and their International Registration under the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement/ Sophia/Bulgaria/February 27-28
- CARDs Seminar/ SEMINAR ON THE COMMUNITY TRADEMARK AND DESIGN /Pristina/May 27-28
On March 22, 2006, The Geneva Act enter into force in respect of The Republic of Macedonia, because on December 22, 2005, the Governement of the Republic of Macedonia deposit its instrument of accession to the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs, adopted at Geneva on July 2, 1999 (the “Geneva Act”).