Annual Technical Report on Industrial Design Information Activities in 2015 submitted by the State Patent Bureau of Lithuania

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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. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of industrial design information activities and expected time frames for their realization

 

Cooperation fund covers work in collaboration between OHIM (present EUIPO) and national office. Main goals are : improvement of technical system, harmonization of practices, barrier removal. Such objectives create a good strategy in order to adapt to the internal European and digital market. In 2015 OHIM Convergence Programme was also being implemented. Its purpose is to harmonise and unify the practice of trademark registration, to improve national trademark registration systems, to develop common classification tools for goods and services, and to carry out the inspection of the Lithuanian terms of classification of goods and services.

New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies(plans) mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks

in 2015, most focus was on convergence projects regarding submission of graphic design (CP6) and harmonisation of design product names (CP7)

Main areas of industrial design information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year

 

Back office - the full implementation of this project is planning in the second quarter of 2015 and the State Patent Bureau is in the process of completion of the final stages of this project. The Back Office is a workflow-based system for handling trademarks and designs throughout the whole life cycle of the process from application to registration and publication.It streamlines the work process and helps users to create and monitor correspondence with applicants. It calculates fees, handles files, organizes correspondence.

Design View - a common search system for designs, based on information pooled from different sources. It is a multilingual and easy-to-use tool, and gives access to design applications and registrations provided by the participating offices through a single and unique platform. Each office owns the content it makes available and responsible for its daily update.

Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and grants (registrations) with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes

 

In 2015, the SPB was especially focused on promoting the industrial property protection, especially in the field of design protection. The general awareness of the industrial protection possibilities among business entities grew by 6 percent in 2015 and reached 74 percent.

In 2015, 1 agreement on the transfer of rights have been entered into the Design Register of the Republic of Lithuania, 4 changes in the register were made, 24 design registrations were renewed and 27 design registrations were cancelled through non-renewal.

Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.

 

Statistics are accessed at :

http://www.vpb.gov.lt/docs/20150206_1.pdf

II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN 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

 

Current SPB information and support options are:

1. Via website: http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=EN

 2. via telephone:  +370 5 278 0290, fax: +370 5 275 0723

3. via e-mail:  info@vpb.gov.lt

Availability of the application dossier in electronic form

 

A new trademark and design administration system Linra, including new TMView and DesignView versions, data filing with the international databases, uploading the data of international trademarks, appeal and opposition data, and automatic generation of design and trademark bulletin was introduced in cooperation with OHIM. All data was transferred from the former patent application administration system (Common Software).

 

Classification and reclassification activities; classification system used, e.g., International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification), other classification

 

Registrations have been classified in accordance with the ninth edition of International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Classification).

Other activities

III. SOURCES OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE

Main types of publications in the field of industrial design information, outline of the content (industrial design applications, design patents, registrations, etc.) and medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URLs)

 

In 2016, the following publications were issued:

2015 Annual Report of the Patent Office of the Republic of Lithuania

Statistics of the year 2015 on the legal protection of industrial property in the Republic of Lithuania

12 official bulletins of the SPB

Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URL), etc.

 

http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=en&n=245

12 official bulletins of the SPB have been published in 2015

Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external documentation and databases

The SPB provide database of national and international design registration on it's website free of charge (http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=en&n=263

Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) and services available to external users; conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)

 

The Design Register of the Republic of Lithuania was open to public access only in the following forms:

 

Extract from the Register (on request);

SPB Official Bulletin.

Design Database on SPB website free of charge.

Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)

 

The SPB website Designs Database has been an exact copy of the data stored in the Design Register of the Republic of Lithuania and contained data on designs registered and application filed directly with the State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania.The bibliographical data of industrial design were stored in CS software

Other sources

N/A

IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements

 

 

Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office

A new trademark and design administration system Linra, including new TMView and DesignView versions, data filing with the international databases, uploading the data of international trademarks, appeal and opposition data, and automatic generation of design and trademark bulletin was introduced in cooperation with OHIM. All data was transferred from the former patent application administration system (Common Software).

Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources

Designview database of OHIM

Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file

N/A

Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)

The State Patent Bureau of the Republic of the Republic of Lithuania (SPB) published on its website (http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=en&n=245) the Official Bulletin Inventions, Designs, Trademarks and on its website
(http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=en&n=263) Database of the Design of the Republic of Lithuania

Other sources

IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements

 

The operating system of the computer network management was upgraded (Windows Server 2012 instead of Windows Server 2003, which is no longer supported).

A new version of the document management system Avilys was installed.

Data analysis and reporting system QlickSense was installed.

Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office

 

In 2015, the use of e-services increased from 45 percent to 59 percent. 33.2 percent of applications (3 percent in 2014) and 64 percent of various requests were filed online. In 2016, the availability of SPB services is expected to be 94 percent and the intensity of use – 68 percent. In order to raise awareness of SPB e-services, forms of extracts from the registers and databases issued by SPB were approved by order No. 3R-72 of 20 November 2015. Communication with the applicants is maintained via the Electronic Applicant Service System (EPAS), where the documents to SPB are filed in electronic form only.

In 2015, SPB continued the development of information systems. The main task of the IT Division employees was to upgrade and maintain the systems and workstations and to ensure their operation.

Technical requirements for hardware and software purchased were prepared

Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources

A new trademark and design administration system Linra

Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file

State Information Resources Interoperability Platform (SIRIP) and the E-Government Gateway Portal are used for providing e-services. On 31 December 2015, after adoption of the Regulations for Online Document Filing for SPB, patent, trademark, and design applications may be filed online as of 2015 and 64 out of 70 activities performed in SPB may be done online via E-Government Gateway

Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)

Other matters

V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION

Office's library (if deals with industrial design information): equipment, collection management, network of libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign libraries

 

Lithuanian Technical Library (LTL) also offered for visitors the opportunity to get acquainted with a wide range of Lithuanian publications (SPB Official Bulletin, etc.), Official Gazettes of foreign states and intergovernmental organizations.

The visitors of LTL had been consulted on the spot as well as by phone or e-mail and had an opportunity to order trademark search.

Search for the international and Community trademarks and other services also have been provided by Patent Information Centre of LTL (http://www.tb.lt/PIC/PIC.htm).

Publications related to different business procedures and industrial design information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.

Cooperation with universities, technology and innovation support centers, etc.

in 2015 the design competition Create and Protect Your Design was organised together with OHIM. The first prize was awarded to the designer Lina Maslenskienė for the design of toy cardboard sailing boat Kurėnas. The second prize was awarded to Justė Kubilinskaitė-Tarvydienė, the representative of the creation studio INDI, who presented the line of light fixtures and furniture made of recycled paper. The third prize went to Ieva Šileikaitė for the design of table setting equipment (puzzle coaster) “Sudėliok Lietuvą”. The aim of the competition was to encourage the creation and protection of designs and introducing the Community and national design protection system and legal registration of design

Education and training: training courses, e learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.

In 2015 celebrating the World Intellectual Property Day, the designer Nauris Kalinauskas was awarded the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) medal for creative activity in industrial design. N. Kalinauskas has been designing interior elements, furniture, and series of furniture for various Lithuanian furniture manufacturers since 1996. In 2000-2015, the designer participated in many major international design exhibitions in London, Milan, New York, Singapore, Tokyo, etc. In 2007, he was the first in Lithuania to receive the prestigious Red Dot award and has been the prizewinner of the exhibition Baldai (Furniture) in Lithuania many times.

The seminar Design Protection: Are We Aware of and Use All Possibilities? Discussed the legal and practical aspects of the designer’s freedom of creation and the newest practice of the EU Court of Justice in the field of design. The information about the effect of intellectual property on the EU economy according to the study carried out by the OHIM and the European Patent Office was presented. The seminar analysed the reasons for relatively small number of registered designs and presented the projects of the European Trade Mark and Design Network in the field of design under the Cooperation Fund and Convergence Programme.

Other activities

VI.INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INFORMATION

International exchange of industrial design information in machine-readable form (e.g., Official Gazettes)

 

SPB Official Bulletin has been published in an electronic format and has been accessible on SPB website (http://www.vpb.lt/index.php?l=en&n=245).

Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to industrial design information

In 2015 the SPB  participated in the projects of the OHIM Cooperation Fund (CF)  . Part of the projects is related with development of electronic services, access to industrial property information and its simplification

Assistance to developing countries

Other activities

VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS