Austrian Patent Office

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AustriaAustria  Austrian Patent Office
Austrian Authority
Oesterreichisches Patentamt.svg
State level Federation
Position of the authority subordinate agency
At sight Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology
founding January 1, 1899
Headquarters Dresdner Strasse 87, 1200 Vienna
Authority management Mariana Karepova
Website www.patentamt.at
Austrian Patent Office

The Austrian Patent Office is the central authority for industrial property protection in Austria , based in Vienna . It is responsible for patents , utility models , trademarks , samples (designs), semiconductor topography and applications for protection certificates . The patent office also offers the public information on industrial property rights and training courses.

history

The Austrian Patent Office commenced its activities on January 1, 1899, when the Austrian Patent Act came into force. In 1908 Austria joined the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property and the Madrid Agreement on the International Registration of Trademarks, which relates to the international registration of factory and trade marks .

On July 1, 1938, the Austrian Patent Office was incorporated into the Reich Patent Office as the “Austrian Branch” . Patent applications submitted to the German Reich Patent Office had the same effect for Austria as for the German Reich. In 1940 the German patent law for Austria came into force. The republication of the Austrian legal provisions, the patent protection transition law in 1947 and the creation of numerous transitional provisions re-established the legal basis for the office's independent activity. In 1950 - after the Office's documentation was available - the novelty test was fully resumed.

In 1979, these are the European Patent Convention (EPC) and the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT or ZV - Patent Cooperation Treaty) entered into force for Austria. Since then, the Austrian Patent Office has acted as the international search authority and as the authority charged with international preliminary examination within the framework of the cooperation agreement.

Since May 2009, the Austrian Patent Office has reached agreements with numerous partner offices within the framework of the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) for the mutual acceleration of patent application procedures and joined the Global PPH on November 1, 2014.

Until the end of 2013, responsibility for appeals against the decisions of the legal and technical departments was also given. The court of appeal against the final decisions of the nullity senate of the Austrian Patent Office was the Supreme Patent and Trademark Senate (OPM), which replaced the Patent Court between 1950 and 2014 . From 2005 to 2013, the OPM was also the complaints authority against the final decisions of the appeals department.

The Austrian Patent Office was granted legal personality in 1992 for the provision of services and information in the field of industrial property protection ( partial legal capacity with the power to acquire assets and rights). The area later referred to as "serv.ip" (standing for Service of Industrial Property ) was dissolved again with the amendment of the Patent Act 2016 due to repeated criticism from the Court of Auditors (including the double function of the President as head of the patent office and managing director of the partial legal area) the staff transferred to the jurisdiction.

When the amendment to the Patent Act came into force on June 1, 2017, this double construction was ended and an organizational realignment of the patent office was initiated.

The quality management system of the Austrian Patent Office was awarded the international standard "ISO 9001: 2015" at the beginning of 2020. All core processes, such as the examination and granting of property rights, as well as the management processes and supporting processes have been certified.

structure

The President of the Patent Office (in addition to the President's office) reports directly to the Invalidity Department, the Financial Strategy and Controlling Unit and the Strategy and Data Analysis Unit. The Legal & Support Group and the Technical Group are headed by two Vice-Presidents subordinate to the President.

In addition to administrative matters, the Legal & Support group is responsible for international relations, external and internal communication and documentation, IT matters and the legal area. The legal area is divided into the patent and design , Austrian trademarks and international trademark law departments . They are responsible for enforcing the laws in their area of ​​responsibility.

The technology group consists of a staff unit (responsible for PCT matters and the patent register in addition to administrative matters ) and seven technical departments. The technical departments are responsible for the procedure for patent , utility model and protection certificate applications as well as opposition proceedings.

The Austrian Patent Office is also responsible for nullity proceedings for property rights. Since January 1, 2014 are based on management Gerichtsbarkeits amendment in 2012 that as review courts Higher Regional Court (OLG) Vienna for recourse or appeal and the Supreme Court (OGH) for Revisionsrekurs or revision responsible.

statistics

Registrations and valid property rights

In 2018, 2,207 patent , 537 utility model and 50 protection certificate applications were submitted to the Austrian Patent Office . 1,189 patents and 83 protection certificates were granted and 521 utility models were registered. A total of around 170,000 protective rights for inventions were in place (157,524 of them as EP patents , 10,070 as Austrian patents and 2,863 as utility models ).

5,931 national trademark applications were filed and 5,645 trademarks were registered, which means that 100,946 characters were protected as a national trademark in 2018. 126,904 characters were also protected as international trademarks . In 2018 there were 483 design applications at the Austrian Patent Office , 589 designs were registered and 8,844 designs were upheld.

development

2012 2014 2016 2017 2018
Protective rights: (registered / upright)
Patents 2,552 / 10,715 2,363 / 10,231 2,315 / 10,200 2.305 / 10.098 2.207 / 10.070
Utility model 711 / 3.908 748 / 3.330 679 / 3.178 595 / 2.901 537 / 2,863
Brands 6.506 / 109.384 6.105 / 107.279 5,659 / 103,090 4,513 / 100,917 5,931 / 100,946
template 1.051 / 12.291 881 / 10.383 593 / 9.680 781 / 9.490 483 / 8,844
EP patents 148.494 / 100.313 151.981 / 108.263 159.353 / 132.676 101.120 / 136.782 174.317 / 157.524
International brands 13.053 / 181.729 12,634 / 158,000 10.848 / 163.318 10,551 / 131,722 10.880 / 126.904

Staff and budget

In April 2017, the office had 122 female and 124 male employees. According to the 2017 federal budget, the Austrian Patent Office received around 37.5 million euros in fees in 2015 and recorded expenses of around 19.5 million euros (including around 13.3 million euros in personnel costs). The only effective target specified in the federal budget within the scope of the global budget of the Austrian Patent Office is noteworthy , according to which an increase in the proportion of women who use the system of industrial property protection, in particular patents, trademarks and designs , is to be achieved.

literature

  • Austrian Patent Office (Ed.): 100 Years of the Austrian Patent Office . 1899-1999 commemorative publication. 1st edition. Austrian Patent Office, Vienna 1999.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stöger appoints new President of the Patent Office - press release OTS0172, September 22, 2015. Accessed on September 24, 2015 .
  2. ↑ The Austrian Patent Office opens doors in Japan ( Memento from December 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ Patent Prosecution Highway Portal Site. Retrieved September 6, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Annual Report 2014 (PDF; 3.2 MB) PPH and Global PPH. In: Website of the ÖPA. Pp. 8–9 , accessed March 15, 2017 .
  5. ↑ § 58a Patent Act 1970, version dated December 5, 1992. Accessed on July 13, 2017 .
  6. ↑ Report of the Court of Auditors on the Patent Office 2012, page 515. Retrieved on May 15, 2018 .
  7. ↑ 71. Federal law amending the Patent Act 1970, the Utility Model Act, the Trademark Protection Act 1970, the Design Protection Act 1990 and the Patent Office Fees Act (Federal Law Gazette 71/2016), issued on August 1, 2016. Accessed on September 6, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Distribution of responsibilities and personnel allocation in accordance with §§ 60, Paragraphs 2 and 61, Paragraphs 2 and 3 of the 1970 Patent Act, as of 1.1.2017 (PDF; 0.68 MB) as an attachment in Patent Bulletin No. 1 of January 15, 2017 Part I. In: Website of the ÖPA. Pp. 7–62 , accessed March 15, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Österreichisches Patentblatt 2019, No. 5 (May). (PDF; 0.24 MB) In: ÖPA website. P. 7ff , accessed on October 29, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Annual report 2017, infographic. (jpg; 0.17 MB) In: ÖPA website. Retrieved May 15, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Federal budget 2017, sub-booklet subdivision 41: Transport, innovation and technology. (PDF; 0.96 MB) In: BMF website . Pp. 23–30 , accessed on May 11, 2017 .

Coordinates: 48 ° 13 ′ 56.8 ″  N , 16 ° 23 ′ 13.9 ″  E