2002 ANNUAL REPORT

INTRODUCTION

The mission of the Lithuanian patent office, the State Patent Bureau (STB) of the Republic of Lithuania, is to validate industrial property objects in Lithuania and to ensure that Lithuanian and foreign applicants are provided favourable conditions to enjoy exclusive rights guaranteed by the state.

The State Patent Bureau has reached only the twelfth year of its existence and activities, nonetheless, that period has already been marked by a series of events having special significance to the Lithuanian system of the protection of industrial property. The SPB was founded in 1991 by a Resolution of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania. Pursuant to its Regulations, it pursues the state strategy for the legalisation of industrial property in the Republic of Lithuania; in accordance with the statutory procedure, issues patents and certificates to Lithuanian and foreign natural and legal persons enabling them to exercise the exclusive right to use industrial property entities on the territory of the Republic of Lithuania; processes patent-related documentation pertaining to the extension of European patent validity to the territory of the Republic of Lithuania; conducts actions related to international trademark registrations according to the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks; implements provisions of the Paris Convention and other international treaties in the areas of invention patenting, registrations of topographies of semiconductor products, industrial designs, trademarks and firm names; represents the Republic of Lithuania in international relations in the field of industrial property; arranges information and publishing activities pertaining to the protection of industrial property; and is charged with the responsibilities of the founder of the Lithuanian Technical Library. Starting with 2000, the SPB functions under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice.

In terms of international co-operation, legislation and integration, the year 2002 highlighted the following main events of significance to the State Patent Bureau:

• In 2002, further effort was made to move forward in improving the level of the protection of industrial property to meet the requirements of the European Union.
• In 2002, the Government of the Republic of Lithuania was efficiently represented in the sessions of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation (EPO), and World Trade Organisation (WTO). Representatives of Lithuania took part in 36 international fora.
• In 2002, Lithuania succeeded in completing a series of preparations for the membership of the European Patent Convention, and a considerable progress was achieved in the enforcement of the amendments to the Patent Law concerning granting of supplementary protection certificates.
  On 22 October 2002, a new edition of nine articles of the Trademark Law of the Republic of Lithuania entered into force.
• On 7 November 2002, the Republic of Lithuania adopted the second ever Design Law that came into effect on 1 January 2003 and is in line with the 13 October 1998 Directive 98/71EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the legal protection of designs.
• Concerning information and documentation dissemination, the year 2002 saw the installation of the database Trademarks on the SPB website and publication of the internet version of the international classification of trademarks. The 100th CD, the Golden Disk, of invention specifications in ESPACE® PRECES CD-ROM version was issued. CTM-online information system was installed.
• The fund of the Lithuanian Technical Library, which celebrated its 45th anniversary in 2002, was supplemented with more than 3.7 million patent documents, and on 1 January 2003 it contained 29.8 million patents. To expand the network of patent information centres in Lithuania, patent information co-ordinators were appointed in county branches of the library in Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai and Panevėžys.
• In 2002, the State Registers of Patents, Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Firm Names of the Republic of Lithuania contained entries of 12,507 exclusive rights to industrial property objects. 476 European patents and 4,096 international trademarks registrations came into force in the Republic of Lithuania. 148 oppositions and appeals concerning registrations of industrial property were examined. In 2002, the first supplementary protection certificate was issued, as stipulated in the EU regulations and in the Republic of Lithuania Patent Law. No new patent attorneys of the Republic of Lithuania were accredited.

All measures provided for in the strategic action plan of the SPB for 2002 were implemented.

Being sincerely grateful to the staff of the SPB for the results achieved, I would like to express my conviction that in the year 2003, the specialists of the SPB will successfully fulfil the tasks assigned to them by the Strategic Plan 2003-2005 of the State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania.

Rimvydas Naujokas

Director