Official Gazettes
The Estonian Patent Office publishes the following official gazettes:
- The Estonian Trade Mark Gazette – published since September 1993;
- The Estonian Utility Model Gazette – published since October 1994;
- The Estonian Patent Gazette – published since December 1995;
- The Estonian Industrial Design Gazette – published since August 1998.
The official gazettes of the Patent Office are published as e-gazettes on the website of the Patent Office. In 2024, an important change came into effect – the Estonian Trade Mark Gazette is now published twice a month: on the 1st and 15th day of each month. This change was made to further speed up the process of issuing trade marks.
The Estonian Industrial Design Gazette is published on the first working day of each month, and the Estonian Patent Gazette and the Estonian Utility Model Paper are published on the 15th day of each month.
In its official gazettes, the Patent Office publishes the decisions on the registration of objects of industrial property (trade marks, inventions, industrial designs, layout designs of integrated circuits, and geographical indications) and amendments to the corresponding registers (the register of trade marks and service marks, the register of utility models, the patent register, the register of industrial designs, the register of layout-designs of integrated circuits, the state register of geographical indications, and the register of European patents valid in Estonia), as well as all legal acts on industrial property protection, including the original texts and translations of acts and international agreements.
Publications
All of the materials published are primarily available electronically and accessible and downloadable on our website.
A brochure in Estonian entitled Kaubamärgi- ja disainiõiguste vaidlustamine Eestis ning Euroopa Liidus [Contestation of Trade Mark and Design Rights in Estonia and the European Union] was published with the aim of introducing the contestation process in the event of disagreement with the registration or non-registration of a trade mark or design.
A publication on out-of-court resolution of intellectual property disputes (in Estonian) was also published.
To help a starting entrepreneur understand the specifics of the intellectual property, the Patent Office has improved our tool that makes it easier to determine what type of intellectual property a business may have and whether it is a right worth registering. The tool is primarily aimed at starting entrepreneurs, but all interested parties are welcome to try it out. In cooperation with the commercial register, the Patent Office started sending notification letters to new companies with the aim of bringing them to the website of the Patent Office to take the intellectual property test. The test provides a general recommendation on the type of industrial property, and, in the event of a deeper interest in the protection of industrial property, it would be advisable to contact the Patent Office or consult with patent attorneys.
In cooperation with the World Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), Newsletters no 1–4 of the European Intellectual Property 2024 were published (in Estonian).
A printed version of the ABC of Intellectual Property (in Estonian) for children and young people and their supervisors in the student inventors’ competition was also published and we distributed it at the Great Inventors’ Festival in the PROTO Discovery Factory.
Trade mark of the month initiative
Each month, an internal working group chose one of the trade marks registered in Estonia this month. The candidates for the trade mark of the month were particularly rich in wordplay or conceptual play, melodious and inventive, or otherwise striking and memorable both linguistically and visually. The selected trade marks were highlighted on social media, in the blog of the Patent Office, and often made their way into the media from there. The highly successful project culminated in the selection of the Trade Mark of the Year, for which a public vote was held, and the results were announced at the Patent Office’s 105th anniversary event at the Tallinn Creative Hub. The Trade Mark of the Year title was awarded to Katre Arula from Põltsamaa, with the Patent Office’s award going to Katré. Special awards were given to Ajapaik, Bolt, LAMBIVÄRK and HUIK!.
Authentic Estonia 2024
At the ‘Authentic Estonia – an Estonian name for an Estonian business’ naming competition, held for the ninth time, the best Estonian-language trade marks were recognised for the first time.
The jury selected ÕLLENAUT as the best Estonian-language trade mark, which has been registered with the Patent Office since 2013. A craft beer brewery owned by the company of the same name is operating under this trade mark. The jury found it a multi-layered and attention-grabbing name, which, among other things, draws attention to the correct declension of the word ‘õlu’ (beer).
An honourable mention in the competition was given to the ULAELU trade mark, registered with the European Union Intellectual Property Office. The trade mark belongs to the company Ulaelu OÜ, which produces and distributes outdoor furniture under this name. The competition also recognised the trade mark HOOG, which is registered in the European Union and owned by Hoog Mobility OÜ. The trade mark mainly refers to electric scooter rental services provided in small towns and settlements.
Trade mark quiz
The interactive trade mark quiz ‘How well do you know Estonian trade marks?’ was available both on the website and social media, and it went live just before the World Intellectual Property Day on 26 April.
In the game, we asked the players to guess the names of 16 well-known domestic brands. In addition to the entertainment value of the game, we wished to emphasise the importance of a trade mark in shaping the reputation of a company, as well as the fact that protecting one’s trade mark rights matters.
Intellectual property campaign
The campaign, conducted in February and March, aimed to encourage Estonian entrepreneurs to register their intellectual property and to provide information on how to do so. The campaign ran on social media via the META platform, as an outdoor campaign on LED screens and illuminated advertising panels at bus shelters in Tallinn, on street posters, as well as via the Google Display Network on digital platforms such as Postimees, Delfi, Õhtuleht and others.
On META, our campaign had two parts: first, a background banner ad featuring the messages ‘Make it official!’ and ‘Shall we lock it in?’; and second, the strategic boosting of key informative posts. These were created with the specific features of Facebook and Instagram in mind – carousel posts for Instagram and single-banner posts with informative copy for Facebook.
The campaign materials were designed to be timeless and reusable in future posts, as the same content is worth revisiting and the message encouraging the protection of intellectual property never goes out of date.
Website of the Patent Office and social media
The website provides information in both Estonian and English on how to apply for the registration of patents, utility models, industrial designs, trade marks and geographical indications. The website also features classification tools and legislation along with their translations, legal acts and materials related to the legal protection of industrial property rights, useful links, current news, FAQs and links to the public databases and web portals of the Patent Office, EPO, WIPO and EUIPO concerning industrial property objects. The website also serves as a gateway to social media. The activities of the Estonian Patent Office can be followed on Facebook, Instagram, X, Linkedin, the blog and YouTube.
Website statistics
In 2024, there were 94,403 visits to the website of the Patent Office and 212,549 page views. Compared to 2023, the number of visits increased (85,655 and 214,488 in 2023, respectively).
There were an average of 7,867 visits per month (7,138 in 2023). On average, each visit included 3 actions (3.2 in 2023). The average duration of a visit was 3 minutes and 11 seconds (3.36 in 2023). The bounce rate – the percentage of visitors who left the site without clicking on anything – was 42%, which is slightly higher than in 2023 (37%).
The majority of visitors came from Estonia (74%), followed by Germany (5%), the United States (4%), Russia (3%), Finland (1.3%), India (1.1%) and others
The most popular pages were:
- Home page (49,521 views)
- Trade marks databases (26,449)
- Inventions databases (7,458)
- Search (5,297)
- What is intellectual property? (4,612)
- Help choose the best trade mark of 2023! (4,036)
- Managing applications or registrations (3,292)
- What is a trade mark? (3,287)
- Finding goods and services in the classification (3,039)
The most viewed English-language pages were:
- Home page
- Trade marks databases
- Inventions databases
- Search
- The Estonian Trade Mark Gazette
- Patent attorneys
- Managing applications or registrations
- The Estonian Patent Gazette
The majority of users (77.5%) accessed the Patent Office’s website using a desktop or laptop computer. Mobile phones were used by 20.4% of visitors, smartwatches by 1.4%, tablets by 0.6% and there were 5 visits from television devices. Compared to 2023, the proportion of users accessing the Patent Office’s website via mobile phones increased by 4.6 percentage points.
How did users arrive at the Patent Office’s website? The largest share of visitors (53%) accessed the website by typing the address directly into their browser or by selecting it from a bookmark. 36% of users reached the website through a search engine (mainly Google, followed by Yandex, Bing, Neti, Baidu and DuckDuckGo). 6% of traffic came from referring websites (eesti.ee, andmebaas.epa.ee, emtak.rik.ee, eservices.epa.ee, wipo.int and moodle.ut.ee). The share of social media has increased slightly compared to last year (5.0% compared to 3.0%). There were 4,371 visits from Facebook (2,499 in 2023), 184 from LinkedIn (94 in 2023) and 161 from Instagram (201 in 2023).
