Foreword
Dear Readers,
“Challenges and obstacles always arise.
What is important is to overcome them and turn them into opportunities.”
2021 was about challenges, as well, as it was marked by the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This pandemic put us to test and pushed us to quickly adapt when it came to our way of working and the activities we carry on.
As Director General of the State Office for Inventions and Trademarks, it is with great honour that I now bring to your attention a summary of the most significant activities performed by OSIM in 2021.
We relentlessly strive to fulfill the mission of the State Office for Inventions and Trademarks (OSIM), while paying close attention to the optimization and modernization of the e-governing services for the citizens, the business environment as well as for other actors in Romania’s economy. These concerns gradually escalated in 2021 given the need of accelerating the digitalization of the activity and on-line services offered by OSIM.
In 2021, the data of OSIM information system were integrated in the national and international information structures on the protection of the industrial property rights.
Throughout this last year, the OSIM specialists together with our external partners have developed and modernized our organization’s web page, bringing elements of complete novelty. In addition to a modern aspect and an enhanced structure, the internet webpage has integrated many other components:
- - An online portal that allows the applicants to have secure access, by authentication, to their own portfolio of industrial property objects;
- - A chatbot that, upon request, automatically and interactively offers information to the visitors accessing the OSIM webpage. Thus, assistance and support are offered by defining a flow of frequently asked questions and answers specific to the industrial property field: inventions, trademarks, designs. The chatbot also includes a knowledge base the content of which is created and permanently updated by OSIM. If the answer is not available in the mentioned knowledge base, the user is transferred to a human operator;
- - The virtual museum represents a new functionality of the OSIM webpage, where the visitors can see well-known trademarks recorded in the OSIM Registers as early as the inter-war period, as well as the historical Romanian patents, as if they were walking through the rooms of a museum. While remaining in the realm of digitalization of activities and services, I would like to mention a new module dedicated to processing the files related to trademarks and designs pending in courts, in which OSIM is a party.
In 2021, the results of OSIM specialists’ efforts are also reflected by the increased number of applications for registration analyzed and the property tiltles granted. 20602 applications for industrial property protection titles were filed with OSIM and 18085 industrial property protection titles were issued last year.
Equally in 2021, OSIM was committed to establish, observe and maintain at the highest level the integrated system which meets the requirements of the Order of the Secretary General of the Government no. 600/2018. Following external audits, the certification body confirmed that the integrated management system of OSIM fulfills the standard requirements and recommended the granting of the certificate according to ISO 27001:2013 – Information technology – Security techniques – Information security management systems and the recertification according to ISO 9001:2015 – Quality management systems.
Although the context created by the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions was not favourable to the actions for promoting the industrial property protection, the OSIM specialists were involved, in 2021 as well, in actions of dissemination of information by participation in seminars, conferences, fairs and exhibitions in the field.
OSIM values the cooperation with the international intellectual property organizations, while having an active involvement, all throughout 2021, in all the meetings held at the European Patent Office (EPO), the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). In 2021 the activity of training for the specialists of the national offices continued through courses and seminars organized by the European Patent Office (EPO), as part of the cooperation between the two organizations. OSIM, as partner of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), supported and promoted the SME Fund, “Ideas Powered for Business - SME Fund”, meant for enterprises wishing to develop their intellectual property strategies and to protect, both nationally and internationally, the rights resulting therefrom.
I hope that within this Report you will find information in the industrial property field to stir-up your interest, as this is the result of the efforts made by us daily.
I wish to express my gratitude and to thank all our partners and collaborators and, last but not least, OSIM staff for the involvement, enthusiasm and professionalism proven in all the activities and actions in the industrial property field.