24 November 2016Jurisdiction reportsIrmeli Nokkanen

Review of the revised design patent system

I predicted last year that this change would increase the number of design patent filings in Russia and make the process easier, cheaper and faster. Have my predictions come true?

Number of filings

The statistics given by Rospatent show that 4,929 applications were filed in Russia in 2015 and 5,184 the year before. So the number of filings decreased by 5% after the changes came into force and did not increase, as I thought.

In my opinion this decrease has more to do with the global political and economic situation than the change of law.

Easier, cheaper and faster process

Nowadays it is quicker and easier for attorneys to prepare an application for filing as the list of claimed essential features is no longer needed. Voluntary amendments to the lists after filing are not necessary either.

The number of office actions issued by Rospatent has decreased dramatically. Previously, an office action was issued for nearly every application, and the examiner requested amendments to the list of claimed essential features in view of novelty and originality. Now, office actions after substantial examination are very rare and mainly relate to multiple design patent applications in cases where the requirements are not fulfilled.

The above facts mean that the costs for applicants have clearly been reduced, by about 30 to 40%.

According to statistics provided by Rospatent, substantive examinations are now conducted a bit more quickly than previously. In 2015 the average time to perform a substantive examination was 6.7 months, while in 2014 it was seven months.

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