Official Gazettes
The Estonian Trade Mark Gazette and the Estonian Industrial Design Gazette were 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
Most of the materials will be published electronically and will be accessible and downloadable on our web page. In 2023, the brochures on the classification of goods and services on copyright were translated into English and Russian and an information booklet IP ABC for Students was published.
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 simple 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 new solution. 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 Intellectual Property 2023 were published.
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. Choosing the best trade mark of the year 2023 will mark the end of the project, which was a great success. We will organise a public vote for that, and the trade mark of the year will be announced on the 105th Anniversary of the Estonian Patent Office. Esterprise Estonia, the Institute of Estonian Language and the Chamber of Patent Attorneys also present special awards to their own favourites.
Competition for the new word
In Estonian, the word intellektuaalomand ("intellectual property") is used to summarize industrial property and copyright. In recent times, more and more attention has been paid to enriching the Estonian language and word creation, so the Patent Office decided to contribute, and we organised a public word competition where we sought a better substitution to the word intellektuaalomand. Everyone was able to send us proposals. A total of 273 responses were submitted in the competition and 196 unique word proposals were received. The beautiful Estonian word loomevara ("creative asset“) was chosen favourite with a large majority of votes.
Why loomevara? Perhaps the best answer is given by the explanations left by the respondents at the proposed word.
- "It seems that the word loomevara sounds better in Estonian – the word loome assumes intelligence and every person has the right to the protection of creation in a similar way to the protection of property – there is no need to justify the change of wording in this context."
- "Simple and transparent."
- Characteristics "simple and transparent" and "needless to justify" could be the most important keywords when explaining the popularity of loomevara. Conceptual proximity to the original will hopefully help the new word settle in the language a little more smoothly.
The introduction of the new word does not mean that the word intellektuaalomand („intellectual property“) will be replaced at once. We initially propose the word as an alternative, e.g. using the double wording „intellektuaalomand, i.e. loomevara“ in texts. Assimilation of new words in the language is an alive and dynamic process, so time will give clarity on whether or not the new word will be adapted. In the annual report you're reading right now, we use loomevara more than intellektuaalomand.
Trade mark guessing game
On the occasion of the World Intellectual Property Day on 26 April, we organised an interactive Estonian trade mark guessing game on our web site. In the game we asked to guess the names of 12 well-known domestic brands. In addition to offering the pleasure of playing, we wanted to stress how much impact a trade mark has on the development of the company's reputation and that the protection of your trade mark rights makes a great difference. All trade marks involved in the game had also been registered in the Patent Office. The game turned out to be a success. There were a lot of participants and we drew lots to gave out prizes – in addition to the Patent Office they were put out by Orkla, Premia, Apollo, Tallink and Eesti Pagar.
Web page of the Estonian Patent Office and social media
Information for registering patents, utility models, industrial designs, trademarks, and geographical indications is available on the web site 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 web page also functions as a gate to social media. The Estonian Patent Office can be found in social media channels such as Facebook, X ie. Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, blog (available only in Estonian) and YouTube.
Web page statistics
In 2023, the web site of the Patent Office had 85,655 visits and 214,488 page views. Attendance dropped compared to 2022 (in 2022 – 89,776 and 267,422 respectively).
The average number of visits per month was 7,138 (7,481 in 2022). The highest number of visits was on 2 October – 847. This day's high attendance could be explained by high interest in the copyright seminar. An average of 3.2 activities were carried out during one visit (3.7 in 2022). The duration of the visit was on average 3 minutes and 36 seconds (in 222, 3 minutes and 51 seconds). The percentage of people who left the page without making a click (bounce rate) was 37%. Compared to 2022 (34.9%) it has risen a bit.
The largest number of visitors were from Estonia (75%), followed by USA (5%), Germany (4%), Russia (1.3%), China (1.2%), India (1.2%), Finland (1.1%) and others.
The most popular pages
- Home page (49,890 views)
- Trade marks databases (26,416)
- Inventions databases (8,033)
- Search (7,474)
- What is a trade mark? (3,061)
- Finding goods and services in the classification (2,636)
- Managing trade mark applications or registrations (2,549)
- List by classes (2,397)
- Contacts (2,262)
The most popular pages in English
- Home page
- Trade marks databases
- Inventions databases
- The Estonian Trade Mark Gazette
- Search
- Managing applications or registrations
- Patent fees
The most popular pages in Russian
- Home page
- Базы данных товарных знаков
- Виды товарных знаков
- Что такое авторское право?
- Бланки
- Что такое товарный знак?
The majority of users (82.5%) viewed the web site on a desktop or a laptop. 15.8% used a mobile phone, 1.1% a phablet and 0.5% a tablet. Compared to 2022, the percentage of users viewing the web site with mobile phones has increased by 3%.
How did people get to the Office’s web site? The web site was found mainly (54%) by writing the web page address directly into the browser or choosing it from a bookmark. 36% of users reached the page via a search engine (mainly Google, followed by Bing, Yandex, Neti, Baidu etc). 6% of the traffic came from referring websites (eesti.ee, emtak.rik.ee, wipo.int, et.wikipedia.org, just.ee, moodle.ut.ee). The share of social media has increased a bit compared to last year (3.0% vs 2.0%). 2,499 visits came from Facebook and 201 from Twitter, last year the numbers were 1,410 and 571, respectively.
User statistics of public databases of the Estonian Patent Office
| Database | Queries 2022 | Queries 2023 |
| Database of national patent applications and patents | 11,041 | 20,546 |
| Database of European patents validated in Estonia | 45,473 | 49,977 |
| Database of utility models | 6,606 | 6,555 |
| Supplementary protection certificates for medicinal products and plant protection products valid in Estonia (SPC-s) |
4,608 | 2,127 |
| Trade marks database | 1,643,216 | 3,860,512 |
| Industrial design database | 6,803 | 6,927 |
| Database of geographical indications | 334 | 290 |
