Bilateral Co-Operation Plan

Bilateral Co-operation Plan

between theIndustrial Property Office
of the Czech Republic

and the European Patent Office

1January 2017 –31 December 2019

Published:December 2016
Table of contents

Table of contents

I.NPO profile

A.Official name

B.Strategy

C.Organisation and mandate

D.Systems and tools in use

E.Participation in ongoing initiatives and co-operation activities

F.Patent professionals and patent information structures

II.NPO objectives

III.Projects and activities

A.Training

1.P02 EPN training

2.P07 Discussion platform for exchanges on patenting procedures

3.P16 Support to the preparation of the EQE

B.Patent-related IT services and tools

1.P23 Data Acquisition based on Quality at Source

2.P27 Espacenet new

C.Patent information and awareness

1.P03 Awareness of the European patent system

D.Strengthening of the EPN

1.P01 EPN events

2.P26 Cooperative Patent Classification at National Offices

IV.BCP overall budget

V.General remarks

1
NPO profile

I.NPO profile

A.Official name

In national language: ÚřadprůmyslovéhovlastnictvíČeskérepubliky

In English: Industrial Property Office of the Czech Republic

B.Strategy

☒Office strategy

☒National IP strategy

C.Organisation and mandate

Legal status: IPO CZ is a central governmental body operating in the field of industrial property protection.

Supervisory authority: The president of the IPO CZ is nominated by the Czech government.

Financial status:

☐Financially autonomous

☒Fully financed by the state

☐Partially financed by the state

☐Self-financed

Role in the innovation system:

☒IP policy formulation

☒IP policy implementation

☒Co-ordinating role in strengthening IP protection

☐Advisory body for innovation policy setting

☐Other:

Function in the patent area:

☒Prior-art searches

☒Substantive examination

☒Filing & registration office

☒PCT authority (ISA and IPEA agreements)

☐Other:

National searches performed by the EPO:

☐Yes

☒No

IPRs available:

☒Patents

☒Trade marks

☒Industrial design

☐Copyright

☒Utility models

☒Supplementary protection certificates

☐Plant variety

☒Topographies of integrated circuits

☒Geographical indications

☐Personal names

☐Other:

Quality management system

☒Yes

☒ISO 9001:2008 certified for: Quality Management System

☐ISO 9001:2015 certified for:

☒Other: ISO/IEC: 27001:2013 Information Security Management System

ISO 14001:2004 Environmental Management System

BS OHSAS 18001:2007 Occupational Health and Safety Management System

☐No

Personnel:

Total NPO staff:229

Staff dedicated to patents: 42

Patent examiners: 34

Staff dedicated to information technology (IT): 9

Staff proficient in:

English: 77

French: 18

German: 12

NPO Training department:

☒Yes

☐No

D.Systems and tools in use

Classification system in use:

☒CPC

☒IPC

Patent tools and services in use at the NPO (provided by the EPO):

☒Epoque

Online filing

☐EP

☐PCT

☐National

☐Other (National SFD, PCT SFD, PCT Demand)

☐Espacenet

☒Publication server

☒Federated patent register service

☒- Deep-linking

☒- Federated retrieval

☐Other (please specify):

Patent tools and services in use at the NPO (not provided by the EPO):

☒National online filing

☒National electronic register

☒Other:National IP databases

E.Participation in ongoing initiatives and co-operation activities

Participation in:

European Patent with unitary effect (UIP)

☒Yes

☐No

Reclassification of documents on behalf of the EPO

☐Yes

☒No

Working agreement with the EPO on national searches

☐Yes

☒No

PPH agreements: 3 (FI, US, JP)

Other co-operation agreements: 6 (AT, ES, HU, PL, SK, HR)

F.Patent professionals and patent information structures

Patent attorneysabout 246

Professional representatives before the EPOabout 91

EPO grandfathersabout 111

Participation in the EQE candidate support project

☒Yes

☐No

PatLib centres:

☒Yes

☐No

Number of centres:10

TTOs:

☒Yes

☐No

Number of offices:30 (estimation, no official statistics available)

1
NPO objectives

II.NPO objectives

The mission and strategic goals of the Industrial Property Office of the Czech Republic (IPO) are stipulated in the document "Policy of integrated IPO governance” (since 2011). In light of this strategy document, IPO's main mission is to increase the competitiveness of the national economy by means of granting and registering the industrial property rights, as well as by advocating the interests of the Czech Republic in the relevant international organizations and other forms of international cooperation in the field of intellectual property.

To complete its mission, IPO's focus is on the following overall objectives and guiding principles:

to contribute to the improvement and harmonisation of the patent system in Europe;
to ensure high-quality, unbiased, consistent, timely and foreseeable decision-making in the Office;
to provide high-quality professional service and minimize administrative burdens;
to accelerate procedures and make them transparent;
to enhance the quality and effectiveness of key processes inside the Office;
to cooperate with all the stakeholders in the field of intellectual property and IPR enforcement.

1
Projects and activities

III.Projects and activities

A.Training

1.P02 EPN training

a.Justification

Training is one of the key areas outlined in the co-operation roadmap CA/85/11, updated by CA/24/14, and sets focus on harmonization of the working procedures of national offices of the Member States with the EPN and international standards.

The European Patent Academy aims to strengthen knowledge transfer on procedures, processes, tools and services for various training target groups.

IPO CZ aims to maintain and enhance the competences, skills and knowledge of its staff in different areas of expertise.

b.Description

The project includes participation in the training offered by European Patent Academy and outlined in the Academy’s annual training plan. IPO CZ’s particular interest is in basic as well as advanced and expert level examiners training.

An indicative estimate of participation can be found in the table in Section e. below.

c.Roles and responsibilities

Project co-coordinators on both sides shall exchange information necessary to ensure further planning and successful implementation of the training activities.

d.Contact persons

Organisation / Role / Name, function / Contact details
NPO / BCP
co-ordinator / Ms Anna Arellanesová / E-mail:
Phone: +420 220383229
Project
co-ordinator / Ms Anna Arellanesová
Ms ZanetaHanzalová / E-mail:
Phone: +420 220383229
EPO / BCP
co-ordinator / Patrizia Biani / E-mail:
Phone: +49 89 2399 5202
1

e.Activities and budget overview (P02 EPN training)

Projects and activities

2.P07 Discussion platform for exchanges on patenting procedures

a.Justification

The exchange of information and the collection of knowledge on the latest developments in the patenting practices and procedures are essential for the IPO CZ examiners. As there is only a small number of examiners per technical field in IPO CZ, topics of more general interest should be addressed during the discussion platform. Aspects of main interest are inventive step, the CPC classification and how to write a written opinion. The discussion platform events to be organised will improve the mutual understanding of standard working procedures and their harmonisation.

In addition to the exchange between the IPO CZ and EPO interested circles from industry, relevant professional associations, shall be given the opportunity to receive first hand information from the EPO experts.

b.Description

The project is composed of two activities, namely:

the organisation of a discussion platform event for the IPO CZ and EPO examiners in a selected technical field (to be defined closer to the time of implementation) ;
a public national event with the involvement of the EPO experts for a specific target group (patent attorneys, entrepreneurs, IPO experts) aiming to raise awareness of the European patent practices and procedures in the specific field addressed during the discussion platform event.

It is planned to organise one two day event in 2019.

The implementation of all events will depend on the resources available.

c.Roles and responsibilities

IPO CZ:

Proposal of relevant fields for the discussion platform;
Nomination of IPO CZ experts;
Co-ordination of the two day event at national level, including invitation of participants;
Provision of local infrastructure and logistics.

EPO:

Identification and provision of suitable experts;
Co-ordination of the two day event – the EPO internally and with the IPO CZ.

d.Contact persons

Organisation / Role / Name, function / Contact details
NPO / BCP
co-ordinator / Ms Anna Arellanesová / E-mail:
Phone: 00420 220383 229
Project
co-ordinator / Ms ŽanetaHanzalová / E-mail:
Phone: 00420 220383 110
EPO / BCP
co-ordinator / Patrizia Biani / E-mail:
Phone: +49 89 2399 5202
1

e.Activities and budget overview (P07 Discussion platform for exchanges on patenting procedures)

* The mission cost and preparatory cost for the EPO experts are 100% covered by the EPO.

Projects and activities

3.P16 Support to the preparation of the EQE

a.Justification

In the Czech Republic, almost all of the European patent attorneys received their recognition on the basis of the so-called "grandfather" clause as most of the Member States joined in EPC in the past decade. Before the Candidate Support Project (CSP) started there were only 2 Professional Representatives who had passed the EQE. When compared to the population and the economic potential of the Czech Republic, the number was clearly too low. Therefore, the Czech Republic joined the CSP in order to achieve a higher number of EQE-qualified Professional Representatives and to promote the European Patent Attorney profession in general.

b.Description

The first participant from Czech Republic was accepted for the EQE CSP in 2013. Six more students were selected for participation in the years 2014-2016. In the meantime, thanks to the project and other spill-over factors, the threshold number of 5 EQE qualified patent attorneys has been successfully reached in Czech Republic.

For this reason no new candidates will be admitted in the CSP while those in the process will continue to receive support until completion (according to the project conditions). Further interested candidates can benefit instead from the Extended Support programme under the terms and conditions of the Extended Support.

These benefits include obtaining basic materials, including:

the European Patent Convention;
annotated EPC, by Dirk Visser;
the Cross-Referenced PCT, by Cees Mulder;
for those candidates registered for the EQE Pre-examination 2016, the EPO may provide free access to its EQE-online service (normal price € 350).

IPO CZ may nominate up to 10 candidates a year to benefit from extended support which is awarded each year in August / September and is valid for the EQE academic period (i.e. September – until examinations.

Extended Support is provided on a case-by-case basis and interested candidates should apply to IPO CZ, via e-mail, requesting this extended support and completing the required applications forms.

c.Roles and responsibilities

PO CZ:

Co-ordination of the project at national level;
Active promotion of the project through information and encouragement of potential candidates, in collaboration with the PIRP;
Providing training logistics and/or premises at which the training can take place.

CZ patent attorney association:

Professional support to the candidates throughout the training process;
Ensuring the support of the existing professional representatives, for example as supervisors for the candidates.

EPO:

Co-ordination of the project at EPN level;
Providing the specific training programme;

Providing financial support according to the provisions of the project (bursary, cost of training, internship and class meetings).

Responsibilities of the candidates, as stated in the agreements signed by and between the EPO and the candidates, are:

Until having passed the EQE:

to perform satisfactorily;
to follow the training programme as requested.
After having passed the EQE:
to work for at least three years as a professional representative in the Czech Republic;
to prepare and supervise at least one other potential candidate from Czech Republic forthe EQE.

d.Contact persons

e.Activities and budget overview (P16 Support to the preparation of the EQE)

Projects and activities

B.Patent-related IT services and tools

1.P23 Data Acquisition based on Quality at Source

a.Justification

The objective of the project is to establish a front-file delivery of patent data in the EPO defined format based on the concept of Quality at Source (QaS) and to collect all national patent documents (bibliographic data, image, full-text) from all EPO member states from 1973 to date in digital full text format.

The intended use of the collected data is as follows:

be searchable in EPOQUE/EpoqueNet by EPO and NPO examiners;
be provided to the public through Espacenet;
used for quality enhancement of Machine Translation, etc.

b.Description

The project will be executed in three stages:

The first stage will be a detailed analysis, jointly performed by the NPO and the EPO, of the current situation of the data delivery process in terms of the three aspects of quality: completeness, correctness and timeliness. The completeness analysis will define for each Member State which documents needs to be collected. The correctness and the timeliness will define how the front-file patent data collection should be established in order to ensure undisrupted and efficient delivery of quality data from the NPO to EPO.

The second stage will deal with the implementation of the front-file delivery flow with Quality at Source according to the EPO quality requirements and data formats.

The third stage will be implemented after the front-file data delivery is well established. This part of the project covers the one-off back-file scanning and OCRing of all missing national patent documents from 1973 to date. The organisation of the tender procedure to select a local provider, as well as the quality review and acceptance is the responsibility of the NPO. Subsequently the EPO will finance 100% the costs of this activity.

The IPO CZ joined the project in 2016 with A01 – Replacement of Patnet equipment and will continue in 2017.

c.Roles and responsibilities

ThisprojectincludesactivitieswhichaimatsupportingtheNationalOfficesestablish a front-filedeliveryof patent data (bibliographic data, image, full-text) based on theconceptofqualityat source and according to thespecificationsofthe EPO. Theresponsibilityforestablishing a front-filedeliveryof patent data iswiththe NPO.

Furthermore, the EPO willfully finance theback-filescanning and OCR-ingofallmissing patent documentsfrom 1973 to today.

d.Contact persons

Organisation / Role / Name, function / Contact details
NPO / BCP
co-ordinator / Ms Anna Arellanesová / E-mail:
Phone: 00420 220383 229
Project
co-ordinator / Mr Michal Verner / E-mail:
Phone: 00420 220383 149
EPO / BCP
co-ordinator / Patrizia Biani
Nikolaos Chardalias / E-mail:
Phone: +49 89 2399 5202
1

e.Activities and budget overview (P23 Data Acquisition based on Quality at Source)

Please note that working hours of NPO staff or external consultants are not activities eligible for EPO financial support.

Projects and activities

2.P27 Espacenet new

a.Justification

The objective of this project is to facilitate the access to European patent data by providing a harmonised patent search and retrieval service to the users. The project aims at reducing the administrative and maintenance costs of the existing Level 1 – Level 2 Espacenet architecture, provide better data quality and content in Espacenet, and increase user friendliness and other user benefits. The potential results of this project will be maximised by a regular delivery of national patent data to the EPO, including full text, under the Quality at Source project.

Via the Quality at Source project, the EPO will progressively integrate the national documents of its member states into the future Espacenet service with the aim of offering access to all European patent documents, irrespective of their origin. These documents will be translatable via the machine translation facilities integrated in Espacenet

b.Description

This co-operation project focuses on the needs of the user seeking information in Espacenet who will be offered better Patent Information services.

The current Espacenet service will be re-oriented and enhanced, so as to allow users to use more functionality (e.g. full text search in all languages, localised interfaces in the languages of the EPO member states) and to get access to a much higher number of documents.

The project will be implemented in 2 phases:

Phase 1

Development of national language interfaces including:

minimum customisation – NPO logo
contact details for user support

Introducing a full-text search functionality, including:

Search not only in bibliographic data but also in full-text data;
Search in the national collection starting from the national interface;
Search in the global collection from the central EPO interface (in DE/EN/FR as well as non-official EPO languages via a bulk translation).

Phase 2

Implementation of further search enhancements

Implementation of UI changes

c.Roles and responsibilities

IPO CZ:

Co-ordinate the project at national level;
Take ownership and full responsibility for the quality and the completeness of the documents and data;
Translate, review and provide final acceptance of the national language interfaces of the future Espacenet service;
Ensure first level user support in non-EPO languages;
Promote the service;
Develop and maintain documentation, including relevant updates.

EPO:

Co-ordinate the project at EPN level;
Cover the costs of the project.

d.Activities and budget overview

All costs are central costs, therefore 100% covered by the EPO.

e.Contact persons

C.Patent information and awareness

1.P03 Awareness of the European patent system

a.Justification

The objective of this project under the Co-operation roadmap is to raise the awareness about the European patent system and the use of patent information, including also relevant tools available to the public.

b.Description

This project includes activities which aim to promote the European patent system and are of common benefit. The focus is on patent-related awareness activities. Generally, for implementing mixed IP-related activities, NPOs are encouraged to seek EUIPO's support as well.

Following the principles of subsidiarity and complementarity, national awareness raising activities with a predominant focus on the national system, held in a national language, will not be co-funded by the EPO. However, where appropriate and mutually agreed, EPO experts could be involved.

In the period covered by this BCP there will be two major European patent system promotion events in the Czech Republic: