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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.
Changes experienced in terms of application filings and grants (registrations) with respect to the previous year:
Applications filed:
in 2002 – 1806, in 2003 – 2310, i.e. 28% more with respect to the previous year.
Patents granted:
in 2002 – 1267, in 2002 – 1474; 16 % increase.
Trends and areas experiencing rapid changes with respect to the previous year:
the highest percentage of applications were filed for stationery and office equipment (class 19) – 24%, packages and containers for the transport or handling of goods (class 09) – 20%, building units and construction elements (class 25) – 7%.
Main publications of the State Department of Intellectual Property (hereinafter referred to as the State Department) on industrial designs: normative documents, the official gazette “Promyslova Vlasnist” (“Industrial Property”), in which information about the registered patents for industrial designs (bibliographic data, graphic images) is published.
In every issue of the “Promyslova Vlasnist” gazette the current systematic and numerical indexes of industrial design patents are published. The Annual Index to the gazette includes, besides the above-mentioned, the numerical index of applications for industrial designs and the name index of the owners of patents for industrial designs.
In the year 2003 work on the development of the electronic official bulletin “Promyslova Vlasnist” on CD-ROM was carried out.
During 2003 the official gazette “Promyslova Vlasnist” was delivered free of charge to the State Scientific and Technical Library, the Ukrainian Institute of Scientific, Technical and Economic Information and 22 Scientific, Technical and Economic Information Centres in different regions of Ukraine. This edition was also disseminated by means of subscription.
In the year 2003 the publication of the scientific and practical periodical “Intelektualna Vlasnist”(“Intellectual Property”) continued. Therein theoretical and practical issues on the legal protection of intellectual property were elucidated, the official information, normative documents and comments on them, consultations of experts were placed. The periodical is published in Ukrainian, its contents and, starting with issue No.12/2003, annotations of the articles, also in Russian and English.
A notification on the sources of patent information created in Ukraine was available in the separate section “Information Resources” of the website of the State Department of Intellectual Property (www.sdip.gov.ua).
In the year 2003 the Ukrainian version of the seventh edition of the International Classification for Industrial Designs (The Locarno Classification) was used. Reclassification and indexing of the information about industrial designs were not carried out. Translation of the amendments and supplements to the seventh edition of the Locarno Classification from English into Ukrainian was performed and the consolidated text of its eighth edition was produced for the implementation in the territory of Ukraine.
The search file is composed of the retrieval means and the array of input applications included in the database of the automated system (AS) “Promyslovi Zrazky” (“Industrial Designs”). By the end of the year 2003 the database comprised the data of 10742 applications for industrial designs. During 2003 it was updated with the data of 2310 applications.
In 2003 the upgrading of the AS “Promyslovi Zrazky” was carried out according to the amendments in the legislation and with the aim of extending its functionality. In particular, software tools were developed for automated formation and printing of the corresponding parts of the master copy of the Annual Index to the official gazette “Promyslova Vlasnist” as well as for improved formation and printing of the protection documents for industrial designs; the reference and search subsystems of the AS “Promyslovi Zrazky”. The software was developed for editing and input of fees related to industrial designs of the integrated system “Payment accounting”. The “Promyslovi Zrazky” AS was transferred to the new powerful server, the users’ workstations were upgraded or replaced by more up-to-date ones.
External databases were not used.
In the Public Fund of Patent Documentation (the patent library available to the public) visitors were able to use the “Promyslova Vlasnist” official gazette, as well as the official bulletins of 40 foreign industrial property offices, which include publications on industrial designs.
Extracts from the Ukrainian State Register of Patents for Industrial Designs were issued on request.
Automated information services were not rendered to the public.
Within the framework of international exchange of patent documentation the official bulletins containing industrial design information from 35 foreign industrial property offices were received; in exchange the “Promyslova Vlasnist” official gazette was mailed out. Exchange of machine-readable information was not carried out.
One of the tasks of the State Department is the coordination of activities concerning the development, improvement and functioning of the system for training of intellectual property specialists in Ukraine. Today 12 institutions of higher education in Ukraine hold license for specialist’s and master’s degree training in the field of intellectual property with the total license capacity of 500 persons per year. The most important educational institution in the field of intellectual property is the Institute of Intellectual Property and Law (IIPL). The IIPL is the basic institution for training and raising the skill level of the professionals in the field of intellectual property and the lecturers, and also for developing curriculums, training programs and teaching and methodical literature, in particular on the subject “Intellectual property basics” for secondary education institutions.
In 2003 the State Department organized, conducted and participated in 13 conferences and seminars concerning the protection of intellectual property rights. In particular, the State Department took part in the work of the Interstate trade exhibition of industrial technologies, means of production, goods and services of the CIS countries which was held in Kyiv. At the exhibition were presented the Internet stock-exchange of intellectual property, the specialized database “Vynakhody v Ukraini” (“Inventions in Ukraine”), the information products on CD-ROM produced by the Centre of Innovatics and Patent Information Services.
The Ukrpatent specialists on patent documentation and standardization took part in the work of the task force on the amendment of the WIPO Standard ST.80 which was held under the aegis of WIPO in 2003.