Official Gazettes
The Estonian Trade Mark Gazette and the Estonian Industrial Design Gazette are published on the first working day of each month and the Estonian Patent Gazette and the Estonian Utility Model Gazette are published on the 15th day (or on the following working day) of each month.
In its official gazettes the Estonian Patent Office publishes the decisions on the registration of industrial property objects (trade marks, inventions, industrial designs, layout designs of integrated circuits, geographical indications) and amendments to 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), and all legal acts on industrial property protection, including the original texts and translations of acts and international agreements.
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.
Publications
The Estonian Patent Office continued with the policies that most of the materials will be published electronically and will be accessible and downloadable on our web page. In 2022, brochures were published on copyright and the classification of goods and services in the protection of a trade mark.
In order to help new companies to understand the specifics of intellectual property, the Estonian Patent Office improved our simple tool to help determine which type of industrial property the company may have and how to protect it. The IP-sorter determines whether a company has intellectual property, including industrial property, and, if so, whether it is a right that should be registered. It is aimed primarily at new companies, but everyone is welcome to try. The test provides a general recommendation on the type of industrial property, and if there is a more specific interest in protecting it, you can contact the Estonian Patent Office or consult with a patent attorney.
Our cooperation with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) continued: Newsletters No 1–4 of the European Trade Marks and Industrial Designs 2022 were published.
A survey of intellectual property in small and medium-sized enterprises
For the first time, we cooperated with Turu-uuringute AS to conduct a survey on Estonian business owners’ knowledge of and ability for using intellectual property. Both registered and unregistered industrial property were included in the survey.
About 50% of people polled, according to the survey, are aware that intellectual property is a component of business-related activities and can, if necessary, be used to support business activities. Only 24% of participants protect the industrial property connected to the good or service they have created, despite the fact that Estonian businesses are innovative and actively launch new services and goods to the market (49% of participants do so at least once a year). Most business owners are still unaware of the significance of intellectual property protection. The findings indicate that 27% of the participants experienced an IP violation throughout the course of their business operations. The most frequent are trade mark violations. As a result of the company’s intellectual property not being protected, a third of the participants who had experienced a breach did nothing to stop it.
According to the survey, the Office is already doing a good job of advising business owners. As many as 92% of participants were aware of the Office and knows how to contact us if they required information on the IP. The Office is the main intellectual property institution that businesses go to for guidance, according to the survey. They are also well-aware of the EAS’s funding and policies relating to intellectual property. There are also patent attorneys that are able to advise business owners on the matter.
The survey showed that SMEs are actively developing IP-based goods and services, which frequently call for protection in the form of registered industrial property and can bring value to the business. Yet, given that there should be considerably greater knowledge, it is essential to actively continue educating business owners about the advantages of industrial property registration.
On the occasion of World Intellectual Property Day, we organized a quiz for those interested to test their knowledge of intellectual property protection. To our delight, it turned out that awareness of intellectual property is quite high. For example, it is known that a good trade mark does not describe a good or service and that it should be registered as soon as created. Nonetheless, there is a tendency to fall short of some fundamental truths that are essential for business owners.
Trade mark of the month initiative
The Estonian Patent Office began choosing the trade mark of the month last year. One of the registered trade marks in Estonia was chosen each month by the internal workgroup. The decision-making process was democratic. The candidates for the trade mark of the month were particularly playful in their use of language, creative and beautiful to listen to, or in some other way memorable in both text and visual. The selected trade marks were featured on social media and the blog of the Estonian Patent Office, and they frequently reached the media. The choice of the best trade mark of 2022 marked the end of the project, which was a great success. The trade mark of the year title was awarded to the South Estonian company Villatoode OÜ for the trade mark MÄÄ. The winner was decided by public vote. Under this cheery name, innovative, eco-friendly fertilizer pellets are made from sheep’s wool. Institute of the Estonian Language, the Chamber of Estonian Patent Attorneys, and The Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry also gave out special awards to their favorites. The Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Institute of the Estonian Language rated the trade mark VAGA (acoustic design panels from recycled sea plastic) as the most outstanding in 2022. The figurative mark of the Estonian Open Air Museum received the special prize from the Chamber of Estonian Patent Attorneys.
Web page of the Estonian Patent Office and social media
The Office website was updated to a new platform in 2022, and as a result, it now complies with the standards set forth in the style guide for the visual identity of state government agencies. In this regard, we revised, updated, and reorganized all of the content on the website, taking into account suggestions from the satisfaction survey conducted by the Havas research company. Information for registering patents, utility models, industrial designs, trademarks, and geographical indications is available on the website in Estonian, English, and Russian.
Additionally, there are classifications, laws, and translations of those laws, as well as legislation and materials relating to the legal protection of industrial property, necessary links, up-to-date news, frequently asked questions, and links to open databases and web portals of industrial property objects maintained by the Office, EPO, WIPO, and EUIPO.
The Estonian Patent Office can be found in social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, blog (available only in Estonian) and YouTube.
Web page statistics
In 2022, the website of the Patent Office had 89 776 visits and 267 422 page views. Attendance dropped as compared to 2021. (2021 – 121,063 and 380,666 respectively).
The largest number of visitors were from Estonia (47%), followed by the USA (27%), the United Kingdom (9%), Russia (4%), Finland, Germany, China, India and others.
The most popular pages
- Home page (54 859 views)
- Trade marks databases (32 601)
- Inventions databases (9529)
- What is a trade mark? (8943)
- Search (4627)
- Contacts (5411)
- Classification of goods and services / list by class (5155)
The most popular pages in English
- Home page
- Trade marks databases
- Inventions databases
- The Estonian Trade Mark Gazette
- Search
- The Estonian Patent Gazette
- Patent fees
- Managing applications or registrations
The most popular pages in Russian
- Home page
- Базы данных товарных знаков
- Что такое товарный знак?
- Что такое авторское право?
- Патентные поверенные
- Виды товарных знаков
The majority of the users (80,3%) viewed the website on a desktop or a laptop. 12,6% used a mobile phone, 0,6% a tablet and one person used a TV. Compared to 2021, the percentage of users viewing the website with mobile phones and tablets has decreased.
How did people get to the Office’s website? The website was found mainly (49%) by writing the web page address directly into the browser or chose it from a bookmark. 45% of users reached the page via a search engine (mainly Google, followed by Bing, Neti, Yandex, Baidu). 4% of the traffic came from referring websites (emtak.rik.ee, andmebaas.epa.ee, wipo.int, eesti.ee, just.ee, moodle.ut.ee). The share of social media has decreased a bit compared to last year (2.0% vs 2.8%). 1410 visits came from Facebook and 571 from Twitter, last year the numbers were 1410 and 1461, respectively.
User statistics of public databases of the Estonian Patent Office
Period: January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022
| Database | Queries |
|---|---|
| Database of national patent applications and patents | 11,041 |
| Database of European patents validated in Estonia | 45,473 |
| Database of utility models | 6606 |
| Supplementary protection certificates for medicinal products and plant protection products valid in Estonia (SPC-s) |
4608 |
| Trade marks database | 1,643,216 |
| Industrial design database | 6803 |
| Database of geographical indications | 334 |
