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Annual Technical Report 2006 on Industrial Design Information Activities submitted by Australia (SCIT/ATR/ID/2006/AU)

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.

I. Evolution of registration activities

Changes experienced in terms of application filings and grants (registrations) with respect to the previous year

2005
Design applications filed = 5828
Design applications granted = 5843

2006
Design applications filed = 5876
Design applications granted = 7369

Trends or areas experiencing rapid changes with respect to the previous year

Applications increased by less than 1%.

Applications granted increased significantly (26.1%) becuase of work to address a backlog in processing applications experienced in 2005. During the early part of 2006, attention was given to the backlog resulting in a large number of applications progressing to registration. It should be noted that many of the applications that were registered in the 2006 year were lodged in 2005.

URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide statistics related to industrial designs

Australian Industrial design statistics are available at the following URL: http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/about/statistics.shtml

II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, and distribution of industrial design documents and of secondary sources of industrial design information, i.e., official gazettes

Publishing, including printing, copying techniques and electronic printing

The Australian Official Journal of Designs is published fortnightly. There are 25 issues per year - the Easter and Christmas weeks being excluded. The Journal is available on-line, free of charge, via the IP Australia internet site and contains both bibliographic text, and images. Hard copy journal publication has been discontinued.

Standard Notices and Letters are produced via the Designs mainframe business application as XEROX XICS output.

Examination Reports are generated in Word.

Main types of announcements of the Office in the field of industrial design information

The Official Journal contains the following announcements:
- Applications Filed
- Applications Registered or Published
- Amendments and Changes
- Applications Lapsed/Withdrawn
- Assignment, Transmittals and Transfers
- Cancellation of Entries in Register
- Renewal of Registration
- Official Notices

Mass storage media and microforms used

The Office's bibliographic data is maintained on an ADABAS Natural (zOS) mainframe. Design images (representations) are stored in a Unix file directory.

Australian registered designs are published in the Australian Official Journal of Designs and on microfiche (historical).

Bibliographic data and images for registered designs post 1985 are also available on the Australian Designs Data Search (ADDS) system on the internet.

Databases and office automation

The Canberra Office has an ethernet-based LAN providing high speed bandwidth for each user desktop connection. A frame relay-based WAN provides connections from Canberra to each State Capital. A DMZ-based, DSD approved firewall using IAN ports (Internet IEFT Assigned Numbers) provides the secure means to allow access from internal systems/users to external entities such as the Internet or public/private organisations.

Current standard desktop software includes Windows XP and Lotus Notes.

The strategic server infrastructure environment includes Sun Solaris, Oracle RDBMS, J2EE, BEA Weblogic, and Objective EDMS.

The Office's publication system is partially mainframe based. The mainframe provides the following functions using "XICS" typesetting software:
- production of camera ready copy of the Australian Official Journal of Designs;
- production of design certificates and original register entries; and
- production of notices for design applicants or their agents.

URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide access to online industrial design gazettes and other sources of industrial design information, including download of bulk industrial design data

The Australian Official Journal of Designs can be accessed at the following URL:
http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/ols/epublish/content/olsEpublications.jsp

III. Matters concerning classifying, reclassifying and indexing of industrial design information according to the classification systems applied

Classification and reclassification activities; Classification system used, e.g., International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification), other classification (please indicate whether industrial designs are classified by your Office and, if so, which classification is used)

Industrial Design applications are classified according to the current International Designs Classification [Locarno]. Active IDC classes are, in specific instances, further subdivided into internally defined subdivisions.

Bibliographic data and processing

As indicated above, bibliographic data is maintained on an ADABAS Natural (zOS) mainframe.

IV. Search file establishment and upkeep

File building

The Designs Office maintains and updates a search file system using the abovementioned IDC subdivision of current applications, previously registered designs in Australia and maintains a store of current local and international publications.

Updating

Search files are regularly updated as appropriate.

V. Activities in the field of computerized search systems for industrial designs

In-house systems (online/offline)

Designs bibliographic data and representations [images] for registrations from 1985 can be searched through a web browser application (ADDS – Australian Designs Data Searching). The Official Journal of Designs is also searchable over the Internet for data from July 2001.

External databases

Disclosures relating to other designs filings/registrations of other countries are accessed via relevant Internet databases and search facilities.

Administrative management systems (e.g., register, legal status, statistics, administrative support, etc.)

As mentioned previously, the primary business system is the ADABAS Natural mainframe application, DESADMIN, running on IBM zOS. DESADMIN interfaces to a number of satellite applications, eg Word for production of reports, XICS for publishing output and ADDS. Document management is handled via paper casefiles.

All processing relating to the life-cycle of a design (apart from financial processing) is conducted within this environment. The Designs Office, along with the Patent and Trade Mark Offices in IP Australia is in the process of transitioning our business applications from the mainframe to our strategic server infrastructure environment. This environment includes Sun Solaris, Oracle RDBMS, J2EE, BEA Weblogic, and Objective EDMS.

Equipment used (hardware, including the types of terminal and network used, and software), data carriers used

The Canberra Office has an ethernet-based LAN providing high speed bandwidth for each user desktop connection. A frame relay-based WAN provides connections from Canberra to each State Capital. A DMZ-based, DSD approved firewall using IAN ports (Internet IEFT Assigned Numbers) provides the secure means to allow access from internal systems/users to external entities such as the Internet or public/private organisations.

The current SOE includes Windows XP with Office SE 2003, IE 6.0 SP1, and Lotus Notes.

VI. Administration of industrial design information products and services available to the public (relating to facilities, e.g., for lodging applications, registering designs, assisting clients with search procedures, obtaining official publications and registry extracts)

URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide information on business procedures such as: filing, publication, examination and registration procedures related to industrial designs; opposition and appeal procedures related to industrial designs; etc.

http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/designs/index.shtml

URLs of web pages of the Office’s website that provide a description of information products and services offered by the Office (e.g., industrial design search service(s), industrial design databases, etc.), as well as information on how to access and utilize them

All journals and official notices & online services

https://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/ols/ecentre/content/olsHome.jsp

VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of industrial design documentation and information

International or regional cooperation in the exchange of industrial design information, e.g., in the form of official gazettes

Largely restricted to the Official Gazette which is available on-line.

VIII. Matters concerning education and training including technical assistance to developing countries (please indicate URLs of web pages of the Office’s website wherever appropriate)

Promotional activities (seminars, exhibitions, visits, advertising, etc.)

Education Products
Smart Start, IP Australia’s small business education product was updated, with a new web site and email newsletter launched to make information widely available. Smart Start continued to be IP Australia’s most popular public information product, and was selected as a case study for the European Commission’s Benchmarking IP Support Services for SMEs project.

The IP Toolbox publication was converted to an online resource in July 2006. It features extensive information on effective IP management as well as a range of business resources. This online resource is a key tool in educating IP owners on how to best exploit and protect their IP assets.

Home-Based Business Seminars Initiative
IP Australia supported the Home-Based Business seminar initiative of the Office of Small Business by hosting presentations on intellectual property issues for small business. The seminars were delivered in more than 70 locations across regional Australia enabling home-based businesses to learn how intellectual property affects them.

World IP Day 2006
A public relations campaign was undertaken for World IP Day, which is celebrated each year on April 26, to increase public awareness of intellectual property and its role in supporting Australian innovation. In support of this campaign, a series of events were held in capital cities in cooperation with the Australian Innovation Festival, which was officially aligned with World IP Day for the first time. The campaign was highly successful and resulted in broad media coverage and strong participation rates for World IP Day events.

New IP Media Centre web site and Journalists’ Guide
IP Australia launched a new Journalists’ Guide to Intellectual Property supported by a new IP Media centre web site to promote better understanding and reporting of intellectual property issues in the media. There was a noticeable increase in the number of media enquiries received by IP Australia since the launch of the Journalists’ Guide and IP Media Centre.

Training courses for national and foreign participants

In November 2006, IP Australia provided advanced training to 30 senior design examiners from 10 ASEAN countries. This course aimed to improve their search and examination skills and was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Assistance to developing countries (sending consultants and experts, receiving trainees from developing countries, etc.)

From 26 - 30 June 2006, IP Australia’s officials visited the National Office of Industrial Property (NOIP) in Viet Nam under the auspice of the APEC TILF Public Education and Awareness program. This project aims to provide resources and training to assist Viet Nam to undertake their own public education and awareness programs.

The Registrar and the Copyright Officer from the PNG IP Office visited IP Australia from 17 - 19 July 2006. Discussions focused on the development of public education and awareness programs, the development of supporting resources and to undertake training to support the management of web sites.

IP Australia, in conjunction with the IP Office of Singapore and the Hong Kong IP Department, delivered an APEC IPR Public Education and Awareness Platform project in 2006. The project equipped developing APEC Member Economies with the skills, tools and resources to implement public education and awareness campaigns which promote the protection and enforcement of IPR in the region. The principal activities of the project were:
• A workshop on Effective Strategies for IPR Public Education to share experiences and knowledge on IPR campaigns with developing economies – November 2006 in Hong Kong, China.
• An online communications platform of IPR public education and awareness resources, which can be tailored to meet the needs of developing economies –delivered just prior to the workshop in November 2006

Main industrial design and industrial property information magazines/journals published in the country or region of the Office