Pergamon World Pulent Information. Vol. Ih, No. 1, pp. 66-67. 1994

Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in Great Britain

Meetings and Conferences

The editor welcomes contributions to this section

Permanent Committee on Industrial Property Information (PCIPI), Working Group on General Information, 11th Session, Geneva, 11-15 October, 1993

The PCIPI Working Group on General Information (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Working Group’) held its 11th session in Geneva from 11-15 October, 1993. The following 20 members of the Working Group were represented at the session: Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, Romania, the Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and the European Patent Office (EPO). The Patent Documentation Group (PDG) was represented by observers.

The Working Group completed the revision of WIPO Standards ST.18 (Recommendation Concerning Patent Gazettes and Other Patent Announce- ment Journals) and ST.23 (Recommen- dation for the Presentation of Nucleotide and Amino Acid Sequence Listings in Patent Applications and in Published Patent Documents) and agreed to recommend to the PCIPI Executive Coordination Committee the adoption of the amended Standards.

With regard to the revision of WIPO Standard ST.32 (Generic Coding of the Text of Patent Documents Exchanged on a Machine-Readable Carrier), the Working Group reached agreement that the revised Standard should include a Document Type Definition containing a set of tags for all logical elements required by any industrial property office. Although further progress in achieving the -final goal of the task was made, the revision was not yet completed.

The Working Group considered a draft study on the grant and publication of ‘supplementary protection certificates’ for medicinal products or equivalent industrial property rights and agreed to finalize the study at its next session.

Finally, the Working Group discussed consequences of the year 2000 on questions of industrial property infor- mation and documentation, matters relating to information on industrial designs and the feasibility of monitoring the accuracy of the representation of IPC indexing codes on patent documents, and approved a list of abbreviations used in electronic data processing in the field of industrial property information and documentation.

Permanent Committee on Industrial Property Information, Ad Hoc Working Group on Trademark Information, Third Session, Geneva, 18-22 October, 1993

The PCIPI Ad hoc Working Group on Trademark Information (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Working Group’) held its third session in Geneva from 18-22 October, 1993. The following members of the Working Group were represented at the session: Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, German , Hungary, Iran (Islamic Republic of , 3 Japan, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Ro- mania, Russia Federation, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States of America and the Benelux Trademark Office (BBM).

The Working Group completed the revision of WIPO Standard ST.60 (Rec- ommendation Concerning Bibliographic Data Related to Marks) and agreed to recommend to the PCIPI Executive Coordination Committee the adoption of the amended Standard.

The Working Group considered a draft WIPO Standard ST.63 (Recommendation for the Content and Layout of Trademark Official Gazettes) and agreed to consider the redrafted ktandarud at its next session.

The Working Group discussed a draft WIPO Standard ST.65 (Recommendation Concerning Numbering of Trademark Applications and Registrations) and agreed to ask the International Bureau to circulate questionnaires as to whether Offices preferred an annual series num- bering system or a continuous numbering system ?or trademark applications ana as to whether Offices oreferred that an application and its ‘corresponding registration have the same number or not.

Finally, the Working Group discussed quality control measures for data entry and validation and trademark search systems and examination methods.

WIPO Permanent Committee on Industrial Property Information (PCIPI), Working Group on Search Information, 12th Session, Geneva, 29 November to 3 December , 1993

The PCIPI Working Group on Search Information held its 12th session in Geneva from 29 November to 3 December. 1993. The followine. 17 States and one drganization, memb&s of the Working Group, were represented at the session: Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden, Switzer- land, United Kingdom, United States of America, European Patent Office (EPO).

At this session, the Working Group started its preparatory work for the seventh edition of the IPC, which will enter into force on 1 January, 2000.

IPC Revision Projects on the Working Program

The Working Group discussed seven IPC revision projects in the electrical field on the program for the 1992-1993 biennium. Amendments relating to four subclasses of the IPC were approved.

Other Matters

The Working Group considered introduc- tion of references in function-oriented olaces of the IPC and aereed on the brocedure for further iursuing the elaboration of this Task. The Working Group also discussed the selection of a set of patent documents that could be used for training in classifying and approved informative observations relating to three training examples.

Permanent Committee on Industrial Pronertv Information (PCIPI). Executive Cooidinition Commit‘tee, l%h Session (PCIPI/EXEC/XIII), 13-17 December, 1993

The PCIPI Executive Coordination Committee (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Committee’) held its 13th session in Geneva from 13-17 December, 1993.

The following members of the Committee were represented at the session: Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Nether- lands, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States of America, the-African Regional Industrial Prooertv Organization (ARIPO) and the’ E&ope& Patent ‘Office (EPO) (32). Chile, the Patent Documentation Group (PDG) and the publishers of the iournal World Patent Information were iepresented by observers:

The Committee noted the report of the fourth session of the Permanent Committee on Industrial Property Infor- mation, in particular the conclusions made by the said Permanent Committee.

The Committee adopted the revised versions of WIPO Standard ST.18 (Reco- mmendation Concerning Patent Gazettes and Other Patent Announcement Jour- nals), of WIPO Standard ST.23 (Recom- mendation on the Presentation of Nucleo- tide and Amino Acid Sequence Listings in Patent ADDlications and in Published Patent Doc&ents) and of WIPO Stand- ard ST.60 (Recommendation Concerning Bibliographic Data Relating to Marks).

The Committee also adopted the ‘List of Abbreviations Used in Electronic Data Processing in the Field of Industrial Property Information and Documenta- tion’, which will be published in the WIPO Handbook on Industrial Property Information and Documentation.

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Meetings and Conferences 67

The Committee agreed to include the following new tasks in the PCIPI working program for the 1994-1995 biennium:

(a) Task No. G-18 - Revision of WIPO Standards ST.9, ST.60 and ST.80, in order to solve problems in using INID codes for the renublication of data relating to industrial property rights of the former Soviet Union and of Yugoslavia.

(b) Task No. G-19 - Elaboration of a WIPO Standard providing guidance to industrial property offices for issuing, in machine-readable form, patent gazettes and other similar publications.

(c) Task No. T-13 - Elaboration of a WIPO Standard providing guidance to industrial property offices for issuing, in machine-readable form, trademark gazettes.

The Committee considered:

(a) the possible inclusion of standard abbreviations of titles of non-patent literature in the PCT Minimum Docu- mentation List; and

(b) the possible inclusion, in WIPO Standard ST. 14, of citations of references obtained as print-outs from online databases and agreed that the questions should be dealt with within the frame- work of the PCIPI working program for the 1994-1995 biennium, relating to the existing TAsk No. G-10 (Revision of WIPO Standard ST. 14).

The Committee reconsidered pending IPC revision projects under which no substantial work had been undertaken, in the lieht of the new criteria for the selectionv of IPC revision projects. As a result thereof, six IPC projects were not retained and two projects were withdrawn.

The Committee also considered the new IPC revision requests for which selection had been postponed at the last session of the Committee.

The Committee recognized, in the course of the selection, problems on how to interpret the new selection criteria in some cases. In view of this, the Committee set up an ‘Ad hoc Working Group on the Application of the Criteria for the Selection of IPC Revision Projects’, which would consider those problems.

PCIPI Ad Hoc Working Group on Industrial Property Information, (12th Session (PCIPI/MI/XII), 13-17 December 1993)

The PCIPI ad hoc Working Group on the Management of Industrial Property Information (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Working Group’) held its 12th session in Geneva.

The following members of the Committee were represented at the session: Algeria,

Argentina, Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Nether- lands, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States of America, the African Regional Industrial Property Organization (ARIPO) and the European Patent Office (EPO) (32). Chile, the Patent Documentation Group (PDG) and the publishers of the journal World Patent Information were represented by observers.

The Delegation of the EPO made a detailed presentation of the Electronic Application System (EASY project), and the International Bureau demonstrated the software for electronic filing of PCT applications.

The Delegation of the EPO made a presentation on the trilateral standards related to machine-readable data and stated that the trilateral Offices would receive the final version of the mixed- mode CD-ROM software by the end of February 1994.

The Delegation of the United States of America made a presentation on the trilateral project for the electronic exchange of priority documents.

The Working Group discussed the summary of replies to the WIPO Circular concerning definitions of ‘internal use’ of data, as well as a modified draft auestionnaire. The Working Grouo adopted the modified questiormaire and requested the International Bureau to circulate the questionnaire to permit the Working Group to consider the replies and the desirability of any further action during its next session.

PCT Committee for TechnicaI Cooperation, 17th Session, Geneva, 13-17 December, 1993

The PCT Committee for Technical Cooperation (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Committee’) held its 17th session in Geneva from 13-17 December, 1993. The following 24 members of the Committee were represented at the session: Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, China. Czech Republic, Denmark, Fin- land, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States of America and the Eurouean Patent Office. The Patent Documentation Group and the publishers of the journal World Patent Information were represented by observers.

The Committee considered the question of possible inclusion of standard abbre- viations for periodicals contained in the Minimum Documentation list according to Rule 34.l(b)(iii) of the Regulations

under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and agreed that the matter should be dealt with by the WIPO Permanent Committee on Industrial Property Information within the scope of a task to revise WIPO Standard ST. 14 (Recommendation for the Inclusion of References Cited in Patent Documents).

Further, the Committee discussed and adopted a proposal to amend the representation of data given in the inventory of patent documents forming the PCT Minimum Documentation according to Rule 34.1 of the Regulations undey the PCT.

International Patent Classification (IPC) Union, Committee of Experts, 22 Session, Geneva, 30 September-8 October 1992

The Committee of Experts of the International Patent Classification (IPC) Union held its 22 session in Geneva from 30 September to 8 October, 1993. Fifteen States, members of the Committee of Experts - Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russian Federation, Snain. Sweden. Switzerland. United Kingdom, United States of America - and the European Patent Office (EPO) were represented at the session.

At this session, which was the last one in the present five-year revision period, the Committee of Experts finalized the preparation of the sixth edition of the IPC. which will enter into force on 1 January 199.5.

The following items were dealt with:

IPC Revision Projects

The Committee of Experts adopted amendments to the IPC, submitted by the PCIPI Working Group on Search Information, affecting two classes and 88 subclasses. The new subclass C 22 K, relating to the ‘changing of the physical characteristics of allovs’. was introduced. The Committee of Experts also adopted minor changes and corrections to the fifth edition of the IPC.

In view of amendments to the IPC previously adopted by the Committee of Experts during this revision period, the Committee of Experts adopted a number of changes to references and subclass indexes throughout the IPC.

Revision of the Guide to the IPC

The Committee of Experts adopted changes to the Guide to the IPC, in particular a new text of Chapter IV, which relates to the hybrid systems. In order to better inform the users, the Committee agreed to introduce a reference to that Chapter at the beginning of each indexing scheme in the IPC.