Annual Technical Report 2013 on Trademark Information Activities submitted by Israel (CWS/ATR/TM/2013/IL)
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.
I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN TRADEMARK INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of trademark information activities and expected time frames for their realization
As of 2000 it has been possible to file national trademark applications by electronic means. Israel seeks to implement a new e-filing system at the beginning of 2015, which would upgrade the existing system and will enable electronic submission of different kind of procedures before the office (changes in ownership, renewals, responses to provisional refusal letters, etc.).
Furthermore, to increase transparency and availability of information to the public, a new interactive guide will be launch at the beginning of 2014 containing detailed information on applications for national and international applications, illustrating how to fill out forms and present general information. All the information is presented in Hebrew and English.
Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and registrations with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes
The statistics showed an increase in the number of trademark applications with respect to previous years. In addition, there has been an increase in the number of registered trademarks.
In 2012 - 8,733 applications were filed in 16,884 classes (4,226 International applications and 4,507 National applications) and 4,937 applications were registered.
In 2013 – 9,580 applications were filed in 18,409 classes (4,930 International applications and 4,650 National applications) and 6,205 applications were registered.
Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
Statistics related to trademark is available in the Israel Patent Office Annual Report: http://index.justice.gov.il/En/Units/ILPO/About/Pages/Annualreport.aspx
II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO TRADEMARK INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Information and support provided by the Office to applicants regarding filing on paper and/or e-filing (instructions, seminars, etc.) – URLs
Information and instructions concerning filing on paper of national applications is available at the following link:
http://index.justice.gov.il/En/Units/ILPO/Departments/Trademarks/Pages/Guides.aspx
Information and instructions concerning e-filing of national applications (in Hebrew) is available at the following link:
http://147.237.72.224/TradeMarksWebSiteUI/Instructions/Manual/manual%20for%20trademarks%20site.pdf
Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
Available upon request. The application dossier is sent by email following paying a fee of 48 NIS.
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
Israel is a member of the Nice Agreement and therefore classifies the goods and services according to the Nice classification. There is no obligation for applicants to use pre-defined terms of the classification. We use WIPO's Madrid Goods and Services (MGS) Manager to check the classification and also advise the applicants to use this tool. The MGS is available in Hebrew in addition to English.
In addition we classify figurative elements according to Vienna classification (though Israel is not a member of the Vienna Agreement).
Regarding Electronic classification System - as mention above, we recommend using pre-defined terms from the MGS manager.
Matters concerning processing of different types of non-traditional marks (e.g., three-dimensional, motion, hologram, color mark, etc.)
The following non-traditional marks can be registered in Israel: three dimensional, sounds and color marks.
III. SOURCES OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE
Main types of publications in the field of trademark information, outline of the content and medium (on paper, on CDs, online – URLs)
The main source of trademark information is available at our website:
http://index.justice.gov.il/En/Units/ILPO/Departments/Trademarks/Pages/default.aspx
The trademark database search engine is available at the following address:
http://www.trademarks.justice.gov.il/TradeMarksWebSiteUI/TrademarksSearch/TrademarksSearch.aspx?From=TopMenu
Information concerning trademark applications and registrations for research purposes is available at the following address:
http://www.data.gov.il/dataset/240
Circulars and regulations issued by the Registrar are published in the Israel patent office website:
http://index.justice.gov.il/Units/RashamHaptentim/Pages/default.aspx
Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online, URL), etc.
The official Gazette is published electronically once a month.
The journal includes information about trademark applications accepted for registration, as well as changes in registered trademark details.
http://www.trademarks.justice.gov.il/TradeMarksWebSiteUI/History/PublicationList.aspx
Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external documentation and databases
Information products that are available to our examiners are databases from other countries and the Internet.
Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) and services available to external users; conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)
The Israeli trademark database search engine is free of charge and available at the following address:
http://www.trademarks.justice.gov.il/TradeMarksWebSiteUI/TrademarksSearch/TrademarksSearch.aspx?From=TopMenu
Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)
Legal information concerning the status of application or registration is available at the Israeli trademark database:
http://www.trademarks.justice.gov.il/TradeMarksWebSiteUI/TrademarksSearch/TrademarksSearch.aspx?From=TopMenu
IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO TRADEMARK INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
The Israeli trademark office use a Web based software application system.
The system is used for all the workflow of the trademark department including the export and import of data to and from the IB.
In order to conduct morphological searches the system uses an external XRS tool.
The system was written in NET 4 language. For data storage we use 2005 SQL server and for the save of documents and images we use Documentum.
The system is installed on IIS using 8 Windows server.
V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION
With regard to Nice classification – our office continues to transfer translations of new concepts in the MGS manager.
Additional to the above we recommend the use of Wipo's Global Brand Database. The data concerning Israel trademark applications and registrations is updated once a week.
VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION
As mentioned above our office forward information once a week to Wipo's Global Brand Database.
All communications between the IB and the Israeli office regarding International registration are fully electronic.
VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS