Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of trademark information activities and expected time frames for their realization
The main policies and plans of the Croatian State Intellectual Property Office given in the Annual Work Plan for 2014 were focused on: evaluation of end-users needs with regard to the trademark information; ensuring the transparent information and updated guidelines with regard to the Office practice in proceedings related to the registration and maintenance of trademarks rights; alignment with other EU national offices with the aim of harmonizing practices concerning certain aspects of trademark examination; upgrade of the Office's trademark database with the data on Community trademarks (CTMs) claiming seniority of previously registered trademarks on the territory of Republic of Croatia; the improvement of e-filing electronic services; the development of internal tools to measure the duration of the proceedings phases related to the registration and maintenance of trademark rights.The Office has begun a major project of migrating data and functionality from the existing system to a new, open-source platform which will improve a number of services of the Office.
New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies and plans mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks
The Office participated in convergence programmes concerning the practice of national offices and OHIM in 2013 and 2014 in certain areas of trademark registration within the activities of the European Trademark and Design Network. The programmes resulted in 2014 with the publication of the Joint Communications of national intellectual property offices of the EU member states and OHIM on the harmonized procedural principals regarding the examination of lists of goods and services and the interpretation of the acceptability of general designations of titles of goods and services of the Nice Classification of Goods and Services, regarding the examination of registration requirements for figurative marks during the substantive examination, and regarding the application of the criterion concerning the likelihood of confusion in relation to week trademarks in opposition proceedings. The mentioned Joint Communications were published by the Office on its website and they are applied by the Office in trademark registration proceedings. Furthermore the Trademark Examination Guidelines of the Office was amended and updated by the examiners during the year. The updated version encompasses necessary adjustments to the change of the relevant national legislation rules and to the change of the Office’s practice following accepted harmonized practices of the EU national offices and OHIM.
Main areas of trademark information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year
The Office participated in the joint platform activities of the EU national offices and OHIM for the entry of proposals and changes within the Harmonised Database of goods and services (HDB). In November 2014, the HDB was fully integrated to the trademark registration system of the Office, through amendments in the e-Filing electronic service of the Office. Namely, the list of goods and services one wishes to protect by a trademark can be created using the e-Filing electronic service and the HDB thus accelerating the trademark registration process.
In the joint project with the OHIM implemented during 2014, the Office’s trademark database was complemented with the data on the Community trademarks claiming seniority of previously registered trademarks which were granted protection on the territory of Croatia. Following the implementation of the Seniority project in November 2014, the users, by searching databases of trademarks registered on the territory of Croatia, can review the data about the Community trademarks having HR seniority, thus retaining the rights from the identical earlier nationally registered trademark.
From October 2014, the survey with which the Office evaluates the satisfaction of users with the quality of services provided by the Office can be electronically completed as result of the joint tool implemented in cooperation between OHIM and national offices which enables the creation of various questionnaires and surveys.
In August 2014, a project concerning common quality standards was implemented. On the European Trademark and Design Network’s website, the Office, along with other offices participating in the project and the OHIM, publishes standardized maps of processes concerning the selected quality standards and submits data on selected work quality standards in the Office. The project data are used in the development of internal tools to measure the average duration of the proceedings phases related to the registration and maintenance of trademark rights.
Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and registrations with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes
Year | 2013 | 2014 |
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National Applications | 1926 | 1731 |
National Registrations | 1957 | 1668 |
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International Applications (designation HR) | 4630 | 1993 |
International Registrations (designation HR) | 4720 | 4543 |
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International Registrations (office of origin HR) | 125 | 127 |
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Total number of active national registrations: 28643
(Residents: 13087, Non/Residents:15556)
Total number of active international registrations: 102821
The number of trademark applications filed by national route shows the decrease of 10.1% in comparison with the previous year. The number of trademarks applicants that renounced the application in the final phase of payment for the maintenance for the first ten years and for the publication of the trademark registration was at 13% against the total number of applications in 2014. The legal institute of reinstatements of rights as a relief measure was used by 19% of those applicants who missed the time limits for the payments of maintenance fees.
In 2014 the majority of national applications were filed in class 35 and 41 followed by the classes 09, 16 and 05.
The number of national registrations decreased for 14.7% in comparison with the previous year partly as the total number of applications for the examination decreased.
The number of international applications (designations HR) and the number of international registrations (designations HR) continues to fall as a consequence of the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union. In comparison to the previous year the number of international applications decreased 43% while the number of international registration decreased 4%
The number of international registrations (office of origin HR) in 2014 was almost at the same level in comparison with the previous year.
Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
Annual report:
http://www.dziv.hr/hr/o-zavodu/godisnje-izvjesce/arhiva-g-i (HR)
http://www.dziv.hr/en/about-sipo/annual-report/archive (EN)
Statistics:
http://www.dziv.hr/hr/o-zavodu/statistika-ind-vlasnistva (HR)
http://www.dziv.hr/en/about-sipo/ip-statistics (EN)
Official gazette:
http://www.dziv.hr/hr/glasnik-hgiv (HR)
http://www.dziv.hr/en/the-croatian-intellectual-property-gazette (EN)
News:
http://www.dziv.hr/hr/novosti (HR)
http://www.dziv.hr/en/news (EN)
Information and support provided by the Office to applicants regarding filing on paper and/or e-filing (instructions, seminars, etc.) - URLs
Filing on paper (instructions, Trademark Examination Guidelines):
http://www.dziv.hr/files/File/obrasci/zig/Uputa_zig.pdf
http://www.dziv.hr/files/File/eng/Pat_pub/Trademark/guidelines-mrk-en.pdf
E-filing :
http://www.dziv.hr/hr/e-usluge/e-prijava/
Clasification – list of goods and services (instructions and proprietary application):
Trademark Examination Guidelines:
http://www.dziv.hr/hr/prirucnik-za-ispitivanje-zigova/
Instrucutions for registration of trademark:
http://www.dziv.hr/files/File/obrasci/zig/Uputa_zig.pdf
Frequently asked questions:
http://www.dziv.hr/hr/intelektualno-vlasnistvo/zigovi/najcesca-pitanja/
Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
Official Gazette:
http://www.dziv.hr/en/the-croatian-intellectual-property-gazette/
Trademark search:
http://www.dziv.hr/hr/e-usluge/pretrazivanje-baza-podataka/zig/ (HR) http://www.dziv.hr/en/e-services/on-line-database-search/trademarks/ (EN)
The information regarding published trademark applications and registrations is also available in the Office database containing public data from the Trademarks register, accessible through the Office website, free of charge. A range of search options is available including: Application Date, Registration Data, Proprietor, Attorney, Mark, Nice Class, Vienna class, Appearance, Register number.
The Office maintains a complete history of its trademark files in paper form (except files that are filed electronically/through e-filling) and all information for trademarks applied from the year 2000 to date in electronic form.
With the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union the same trade mark information is available in the TMview database (common search tool for trademarks of participating trade mark offices, at national, international and EU level).
Matters concerning classifying
(i) Classification and reclassification activities; classification systems used, e.g., International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (Nice Classification), International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks (Vienna Classification), other classification
(ii) Use of electronic classification systems and pre-defined terms of the classification applied
i. The Nice Classification Systems of Goods and Services 10th edition, is used for the registration of marks. Harmonised Database (HDB) as a common tool of the Office for Harmonization at the Internal Market of the European Union and the participating national offices containing pre-defined terms of the classification is at the disposal that helps applicants with the classification of goods and services. For figurative marks Vienna classification (7th edition) is applied. The mark is classified in Vienna classification by the Office as a part of formality examination of the application.
ii. The Nice Classification Systems of Goods and Services 10th edition, is used for the registration of marks. Harmonised Database (HDB) as a common tool of the Office for Harmonization at the Internal Market of the European Union and the participating national offices containing pre-defined terms of the classification is at the disposal that helps applicants with the classification of goods and services. The Office is supplying data to HDB among other participating Offices. The database of pre-defined terms is available in Croatian language. The Office developed proprietary database assisting applicants to generate list of goods and services from the HDB in the proper format: http://www.dziv.hr/hr/intelektualno-vlasnistvo/zigovi/medjunarodna-klasifikacija-proizvoda-i-usluga/
In November 2014, the HDB was fully integrated to the trademark registration system of the Office, through amendments in the e-Filing electronic service of the Office.
The classification specialist of the Office checks if the correct classification and wording is used in line with the common set of principles of the HDB.
Matters concerning processing of different types of non-traditional marks (e.g., three-dimensional, motion, hologram, color mark, etc.)
For the three-dimensional marks a photograph or a drawing of a representation of a sign is required; the application may be accompanied by not more than six different views of a representation of a sign from different perspectives, the representations being of the same sign
For the color marks the colors shall be listed and described in the application along with the relevant color mark from the internationally recognized system of color identification.
For the sound marks a representation of musical notation is required. Applications for sound marks submitted via e-filing may be accompanied by a corresponding sound file.
Other activities
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Main types of publications in the field of trademark information, outline of the content and medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URLs)
Trademarks registers search:
http://www.dziv.hr/hr/e-usluge/pretrazivanje-baza-podataka/zig/ (HR) http://www.dziv.hr/en/e-services/on-line-database-search/trademarks/ (EN),
Official Gazette :
http://www.dziv.hr/en/the-croatian-intellectual-property-gazette/
Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online, URL), etc.
Since 2006 Official Gazette of the SIPO was published monthly, and starting with the issue No. 05/2009 of May 2009 the Office discontinued publishing the Gazette in printed version and publishes it since only as an electronic publication. From October 2013 the frequency of Gazette’s publication has increased to every two weeks publication. The Gazette is fully available free of charge in the PDF-format at the official Office's web site http://www.dziv.hr/en/the-croatian-intellectual-property-gazette/, including the archive of the earlier editions (since the beginning of the electronic publication only). The gazette is also published on CD-ROM as an annual collection or individual publication at the request of a user (against the payment).The Official Gazette contains the published data on trademarks: Publication of Trademark Applications, Trademark application Indexes by Numbers, Classification Symbols and Applicants, Publication of Record of Changes to the Register of Trademark Applications, Publication of Information on International Registration of Marks for which Protection has been requested in the Republic of Croatia, Publication of Trademarks, Trademark Indexes by Numbers, Classification Symbols and Owners, Publication of Changes Entered into the Trademark Register, Publication of Trademark Extensions and Publication of Trademarks Expirations.
Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external documentation and databases
The application “Trademarks Register” is used for filing all bibliographic data concerning the particular trademark. All trademark changes (change of ownership, change of name, address, licence, etc.) are recorded and are maintained by Trademark Register user interface.Since year 2000 the Office has developed its own document management system in electronic form, which covers office needs (all incoming and outgoing documents have been scanned in Adobe Acrobat).International trademark data in XML format are weekly downloaded from the WIPO’s ftp site. After processing data are available through the application “MECA”. Those data are used for examination and publication purposes and serve as a basis for the proprietary web application for substantive examination of the international trademarks.
Published trademark data (applications/grants) can be searched at the Office’s web site http://www.dziv.hr/en/e-services/on-line-database-search/trademarks/
Access to the following databases from the relevant web pages are also available and also used for information services: ROMARIN, TMclass, TMview, International Non-proprietary Names (INNs) for Pharmaceutical Substances, Geographical Indications protected in the EU, Geographical Indications protected in Croatia.
Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) and services available to external users; conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)
Trademark Examination Guidelines:
http://www.dziv.hr/hr/prirucnik-za-ispitivanje-zigova/
General information on trademarks and trademark registration procedures is provided free of charge. It can be obtained face-to-face at the Office’s Information Centre (acronym INCENTIV, http://www.dziv.hr/hr/informacije-usluge/incentiv/ & http://www.dziv.hr/en/sipo-information-services/information-centre/), by phone, via fax, e-mail or posted letter, and is also available at the Office’s web site (http://www.dziv.hr/hr/intelektualno-vlasnistvo/zigovi/ & http://www.dziv.hr/en/intellectual-property-protection/trademarks/the-registration-process/).
Trademark’s databases professional search services and registry extracts are available upon user’s request and payment. Standard trademark search services include similarity search, search by owner and listing of bibliographic data. Trademark monitoring and competition watch services are also offered to the users as well as tailor–made search services. The Office is partner in the CETMOS service which offers, upon single request and at favourable fees, trademark search services in the national and international registers of nine Central European Countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia). Several hundred of trademark’s databases searches are performed every year.
On-line search services (e-services) of national register are available to users at http://www.dziv.hr/hr/e-usluge/pretrazivanje-baza-podataka/zig/ & http://www.dziv.hr/en/e-services/on-line-database-search/trademarks/ and http://www.dziv.hr/hr/e-usluge/pretrazivanje-baza-podataka/medjunarodni-zig/ & http://www.dziv.hr/en/e-services/on-line-database-search/international-trademarks-hr/ as well as links to the e-search-services of other institutions at http://www.dziv.hr/hr/informacije-usluge/usluge-pretrazivanja/bp-iv-bez-naknade/ & http://www.dziv.hr/en/sipo-information-services/non-commercial-ip-db.
Public computers in the INCENTIV premises are available to users free-of-charge for on-line database searches and web browsing.
Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)
Detailed legal status information are available in the Trademarks Register, accessible only to the Office staff, while the basic information on the legal status are available for public on the Office's web site : http://www.dziv.hr/en/e-services/on-line-database-search/trademarks/
Other sources
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Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements
A wide set of software tools has been developed in-house to support business procedures of the Office, providing a range of tools for efficient processing of the applications and other documents.
Office's software system is in the process of migration to a new (open-source) platform.
Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office
- 20Mbit/s leased line used for Internet connection,
- CISCO Network Equipment (LAN based on Fast Ethernet - 1000/100/10 Mbit/s).
SERVERS:
All servers are virtualized under VMware (except mail server)
- VMware vSphere 5.5 Essentials Plus Kit for 3 hosts, 192 GB RAM
- Physical Servers:
- Dell PowerEdge R610 64GRAM; 12 x CPU Intel Xeon E5645
- Dell PowerEdge R620 64GRAM; 8 x CPU Intel Xeon E5645
- Dell PowerEdge R620 64GRAM; 8 x CPU Intel Xeon E5645
Virtualized servers are on the following operating systems:
- Win SERVER 2008 R2 Enterprise
- Win SERVER 2003 St. Ed.
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
- SUSE Linux Enterprise 10
- Debian GNU/Linux 6
Mail Server:
- MS Exchange 2010 Server Enterprise,
- Physical Server: Fujitsu RX300 S5
- OS Win SERVER 2008 R2 Enterprise
Workstations:
- Desktop - PC Pentium IV with WIN XP PROF or WIN 7
- Notebooks - OS - MS WIN 7 or WIN 8
Storage
- NAS:
- NetApp DATA ONTAP Release 8.0.2P4
- IBM N3400, 12x600GB SAS, 24x 1TB SATA disks
Backup software
- SYMC BACKUP EXEC 2012 Server Win Per Server Bndl
- SYMC BACKUP EXEC 2012 Option Ndmp Win Per Server
Backup tape device
- Dell PowerVault TL2000
Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
The bibliographic data are stored in trademark database and trademark images are stored in a network file directory. They are interlinked by different software tools. Data coverage is a complete set of trademark data since year 2000 and partial data since 1991 (when the office was established).
Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file
The Office does not carry out examination of the relative grounds as a part of the granting procedure so no search file is built in the processing of application. Published trademark data (applications/grants) can be searched at the Office's web site through the web-server application (MS Windows 2003 server and mySQL database).
Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)
From September 2014 SIPO’s used an open source database postgreSQL (before that an ingres database was used). An Electronic Trademark register is used for filing all bibliographic data concerning the particular trademark. All trademark changes (change of ownership, change of name, address, licence, etc.) are recorded and are maintained by Trademark Register user interface.
Since year 2000 SIPO has developed its own document management system in electronic form that covers office needs (all incoming and outgoing documents have been scanned in Adobe Acrobat).
International trademark data in XML format are weekly loaded from the WIPO’s ftp site. After processing data are available through the application “MECA”. Those data are used for examination and publication purposes.
The Office proprietary web application assists applicants to generate in the proper format a list of goods and services from the TMclass pre-defined classification terms database, and helps examiners to check the regularity of the list of goods and services submitted by applicants:http://www.dziv.hr/hr/intelektualno-vlasnistvo/zigovi/medjunarodna-klasifikacija-proizvoda-i-usluga/.
The Office proprietary web application for substantial examination of the international trademark registrations (designations HR) using data from MECA (Madrid Electronic Communications System) and enables rendering XML and PDF files that are uploaded to the WIPO ftp site through the MECA input system. Also, the same system enables rendering and uploading Grant of Protection data in XML format.
MS Word is used for automatic generation of output documents. MS Excel is used for (automatic) generation of specific reports, which are used, for annual SIPO’s report, WIPO statistics and for other purposes (improving trademark processes).
Published trademark data (applications/grants) can be searched at the SIPO’s Internet site
http://www.dziv.hr/en/e-services/on-line-database-search/trademarks/ through the SIPO's web-server application (MS Windows 2003 server and mySQL database).
Other matters
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Office's library (if deals with trademark information): equipment, collection management, network of libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign libraries
The Office's Library (http://www.dziv.hr/hr/informacije-usluge/knjiznica & http://www.dziv.hr/en/sipo-information-services/library/) operates within the Office's Information Centre (acronym INCENTIV, http://www.dziv.hr/hr/informacije-usluge/incentiv/ & http://www.dziv.hr/en/sipo-information-services/information-centre/). Library public services include access to the collections and the reading room, available to public during the working hours of INCENTIV. Library collections are available at the Library premises and on-line at the Office's web page (http://knjiznica.dziv.hr/). User inquiries and reservation requests could also be made via e-mail (knjiznica@dziv.hr). The collections contain numerous books and periodicals, primarily in the field of IP or related fields, and are catalogued in the regularly maintained database.
Publications related to different business procedures and trademark information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.
Trademark leaflets and publications:
http://www.dziv.hr/files/File/pristojbe/zahtjev_oslob_plac_up.pdf
http://www.dziv.hr/files/File/pristojbe/Letak_uplatnica_1.pdf
http://www.dziv.hr/files/File/pristojbe/Letak_uplatnica_2.pdf
http://it-app.dziv.hr/Uplatnice/
http://www.dziv.hr/files/File/pristojbe/zigovi.pdf
http://www.dziv.hr/files/File/pristojbe/prist_trosk_pregled_ZIG.htm
http://www.dziv.hr/files/File/obrasci/zig/brosura_zig.pdf
http://www.dziv.hr/files/File/obrasci/zig/Letak_ZIG_web.pdf
http://www.dziv.hr/files/File/obrasci/zig/Letak_CETMOS.pdf
http://www.dziv.hr/files/File/eng/Pat_pub/Trademark/Letak_zig_EN.pdf (trademark search services)
The Office's Library:
http://www.dziv.hr/hr/informacije-usluge/knjiznica & http://www.dziv.hr/en/sipo-information-services/library/
Trademark Examination Guidelines:
http://www.dziv.hr/hr/prirucnik-za-ispitivanje-zigova/
Cooperation with universities, technology and innovation support centers, etc.
The Office has a developed cooperation with a range of partners, including universities, technology and innovation support centers, development agencies etc.
Education and training: training courses, e-learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.
Seminars, Workshops and Lectures on Intellectual Property for Academic Community in 2014
Lectures for Entrepreneurs and Small and Medium Enterprises in 2014
Seminars and workshops for the representatives of state institutions and judicial bodies in 2014
Public Seminars and Distance Learning Courses organized in 2014:
Public Events in which the Office Participated in 2014
Professional and Promotional Events in which the Office Participated
Professional and Promotional Events in the Co/organization of the Office
Other activities
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International exchange of trademark information in machine-readable form (e.g., Official Gazettes)
In the framework of Croatia’s accession to the European Union, in 2013 the Office commenced exchange of the trademark information in machine-readable form with the EU Office for Harmonization on the Internal Market (OHIM), supplying the data to the common public database TMview that includes trademark data from the OHIM, national offices of EU member states and other participating offices.
Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to trademark information
The Office participates in Convergence programs, Cooperation Fund projects and Liaison meetings with other national trademark offices of the European Union member states and the Office for the Harmonization in the Internal Market of the European Union (OHIM).
In 2014, the cooperation on convergence programmes resulted in harmonized procedural principles for examination correctness of lists of goods and services and the interpretation of the acceptability of general designations of titles of goods and services of the Nice Classification of Goods and Services, for the examination of registration requirements for figurative marks during the substantive examination, and for the application of the criterion concerning the likelihood of confusion in relation to week trademarks in opposition proceedings.
Within the framework of the mentioned cooperation projects related to the improvement of quality and standards of work of national offices, in 2014 a database on the seniority of national trademarks in relation to Community trademarks was established, through which external users searching the Office's database on trademarks registered via the national route can view data on Community trademarks for which seniority is recognized to the holders of such trademarks, i.e. the rights from the identical trademark which was registered earlier via national route.
Assistance to developing countries
Study visits organized in SIPO
Date of visit | State | Delegation |
30.June-4.July | The Republic of Macedonia | State office of industrial property |
Other activities
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