IP PHL
03 September 2012
Office Order No. 2 0 7 Series of 2012.
IMPLEMENTATION GUIDELINES: Industrial Property Automation System (IPAS) for
Utility Models and Indust rial Designs (UMID) and Inventions
1. DEFINITION OF TERMS
1.1 IPOPHL RECEIVING OFFICER - person in charge of receiving IP-related documents in the Receiving Office of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL)
1.2 RECEIVING UNIT - the receiving unit of the Bureau of Patents (BOP) that receives the documents forwarded by the IPOPHL Receiving Officer and is responsible for mailing of office actions . These are the Records Management Unit (RMU) 1, RMU 2, RMU 3, RMU 4, RMU 5, peT Unit, and the Office of the Director of the BOP. The Administrative Unit of the Bureau of Legal Affairs (BLA) is also considered as one of the Receiving Units for the purpose of these Implementing Guidelines.
1.3 iPatentS - the system used in receiving new UMID and Invention applications and related documents and in encoding bibliographic information . The iPatentS is linked to the Statement of Account (SOA) module and Fee Management System (FMS), and is integrated into IPAS Inventions using the iRobot systems integration interface . It is also integrated into IPAS Utility Models and Industrial Designs (UMID). This module replaces the Duty Officer Module and Receiving Module used to receive patent applications and other documents. The iPatentS was also used temporarily to process patent applications after the termination of the old automation system .
1.4 IPAS UMID - the Industria l Property Automation System (IPAS) which will be used in the processing of UMID applications and records . IPAS UMID replaces the iPatentS module formerly used to process UMID applications.
1.5 IPAS Inventions - the Industrial Property Automation System (IPAS) which will be used in the processing of Invention applications and records . IPAS Inventions replaces the iPatentS module formerly used to process Invention applications.
2. RECEIVING OF DOCUMENTS
2.1 The IPAS Receiving Manager 1 designated from one of the members of the Business Group of the Integrated Intellectual Property Management System (IIPMS) Project shall be responsible for the opening and closing of the daily log for all transactions beginning on the first day of production for IPAS Inventions . The opening and closing of the logs shall continue on a daily basis until an automatic opening and closing mechanism is developed. The opening of the daily log shall be no later than 0730H for the day's transactions . The closing of the daily log for the previous day's transactions shall be no later than 0730H. All documents and communication should be properly received and encoded in the system prior to closing the log.
1 The IPAS Receiving Managers are Jefferson Acierto and Abel Ambata. Their alternate is Marvin Malaluan.
Rep ublic of the Philippines IPO PHl '125EPOG 16:13 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFICE .fD ~
n ctual Property Center, 28 Upp er Mckinley Rood, Mckinley Hill Town Center . Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City 1634 Philippines
RECEIUED BVo . OJ T: +632-2386300 • F: +632-7980 114 . www.ipoohil.oov.oh1J
2.2 The IPAS Receiving Manager should ensure that no error(s) is (are) detected or present before closing the daily log. In the event that such error(s) is (are) detected , the Receiving Manager shall submit the requested correction for approval by the IIPMS Project Manager for Business" The latter shall then endorse the requested correction to the IIPMS IT Project Manaqer' for appropriate action.
2.3 All new UMID and Invention applications must be received by the BOP Duty Officer using iPatentS. The Duty Officer shall be responsible for the correctness and accuracy of the basic bibliographic data required to be encoded upon receipt using iPatentS
2.4 All other UMID and Invention documents must be received by the IPOPHL Receiving Officer also using iPatentS . The Receiving Officer shall ensure that all documents to be received have the following basic bibliographic data: (a) Application Number, Registration Number, or Patent Number; (b) Filing Date; (c) Title; and (d) Applicant. The Receiving Officer is responsible for ensuring that the correct document type is selected from the list of documents and that the document is received for the correct application or registration .
2.5 All Invention and UMID documents received must be segregated according to the following groups for easier forwarding: (a) new applications, (b) request for renewal of term, and (c) responses and other communication .
2.6 All Invention and UMID documents received must be forwarded to the BOP Receiving Unit on or before 1000H on the following working day. In the event that the Receiving Officer tasked to regularly forward the Invention documents to the RMU of the BOP is absent , a substitute shall be assigned by the General Administrative Services Division (GASD) Supervisor or the Finance, Management, and Administrative Services (FMAS) Director to forward the received documents.
2.7 The cut-off time for receiving of documents shall be at 1700H. No documents shall be received after the cut-off, unless the documents have already been placed in the workstation of the Receiving Officer before the cut-off.
28 In the event that the communication and/or responses that require payment(s) are accepted even without the required fee(s) , the personnel-in-charge in BOP shall issue the corresponding action or communication requiring the payment of the applicable fees.
2.9 When the scanning unit has been set up, all documents or communication received should be scanned and indexed before being forwarded to the BOP Receiving Unit and/or to the IPOPHL offsite storage.
2.10 If the Invention or UMID document to be received does not have a corresponding record in the database , the following steps shall be followed: • A record verification sheet (RVS) must be filled out by the person submitting
the document.
• The document to be received and the record verification sheet (RVS) shall be collected by the IPAS Receiving Manager for verification and documentation purposes
• If the document to be received could not be verified against the records of the IPOPHL (i.e., no record exists in the database, BOP records, or the DITTB library), the document shall be forwarded to the BOP Office of the Director for appropriate action . The Director shall either approve the creation of a new record or order the reconstitution of the records of the application .
• If the BOP Director approves the creation of a new record or orders the reconstitution of the file, a new record shall be created in IPAS Inventions or IPAS UMID by the IPAS Receiving Manager.
2 Mr. Nony Prudenciado . 3 Mr. Ernesto Villanueva.
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3. RECEIVING OF DOCUMENTS BY THE BOP RECEIVING UNIT
3.1 The responsible BOP Receiving Unit shall check the physical documents against the User Documents List and ensure that the document types in the user documents list are correct and complete before posting the documents as received
3.2 If the document type and/or Receiving Unit in the user documents list is not correct , it will be the responsibi lity of the Receiving Officer to correct the mistake upon notification by the RMU of the error The RMU shall not post the document(s) until the error is corrected by the Receiving Officer responsible for transmitting the documents. The error must be corrected immediately. The Receiving Officer from BOP must also correct the error in IPAS as soon as the documents are posted.
3.3 The BOP Receiving Unit will be respons ible for the following : • New Applications - safekeeping of the documents, encoding of the complete
bibliographic data, filewrapping , and electronic and physical forwarding to the concerned divisions or units.
• Other Communication - safekeeping of the documents and electronic and physical forwarding to the Examiner , Division Chief , or other BOP personnel or officer.
4. ENCODING OF BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA
4.1 New applications can only be assigned and the filewrapper transmitted to the Examiners after the following bibliographic data have been encoded in IPAS: • Basic information (application number, title, filing date , applicant);
• Agent information (if the application has an agent) and agent code; • Complete applicant information ; • Complete inventor / designer / maker informat ion; • Complete assignee information , if any; • IPC / Locarno , if available; • Complete Priority Data, if available; and
• Abstract. 4.2 The BOP RMU Officers shall ensure the correctness of entries encoded before the
records/files are forwarded to the concerned division/unit.
5. ASSIGNMENT TO EXAMINER AND APPROVAL OF EXAMINER'S ACTION
5.1 Assignment of applications to Examiners and approval of Examiner's actions must be done using IPAS.
5.2 All signed Examiner's actions (except Allowance/Registration Form/Search Report) should be forwarded to the BOP Receiving Unit for mailing immediately after being posted in IPAS.
6. EXAMINERS' ACTIONS
6.1 All Examiners' actions should be generated and edited or corrected using IPAS. No Examiner's action should be mailed if it is not completely done using IPAS (in case of edited/corrected actions). Actions not done and recorded in IPAS shall not be considered valid.
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6.2 In the event that the action is either disapproved or edited by the Supervisor, the Examiner shall delete the action and create a new one to replace the revised action .
6.3 The Examiner shall print approved actions by the Division Chief for the latter's signature . It is the responsibility of the Division Chief to ensure that the actions of Examiners under his or her supervision are validly recorded using IPAS.
7. MAILING OF ACTIONS
7.1 The mailing date should be post-dated three (3) working days ahead of the encoding date by the BOP Receiving Unit to give ample time to the mailing unit to ensure that the actions are mailed within the period.
7.2 The BOP Receiving Unit shall be responsible for directly placing the Examine r's actions and other comm unicat ion in the IPOPHL mailbox. Only those that need to be sent by post or courier shall be forwarded by the BOP Receiving Unit to the IPOPHL mailing section.
8. EDITING OF BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
8.1 Editing by the Publicat ion Section of bibliograph ic information prior to publication is not allowed . Only the Examiner-in-Charge assigned to an application is authorized to edit the bibliographic information.
8.2 The Examiner-in-Charge shall correct all typographical errors (including the bibliographic data) in the applicat ion prior to the issuance of any action or allowance .
8.3 The Publication Section shall be allowed to edit the bibliographic information only if the request for correction is made after the first publication .
9. RECORDALS AND ANNUTIES
91 All recordation changes shall be made in IPAS by the Registry Officer authorized to make such changes.
9.2 Annuity-related notices and payments must also be recorded in IPAS.
10. ENTRY OF PENDING WORK INTO IPAS INVENTIONS
10.1 The Examiner-in-Charge of the application shall be responsible for bringing the application to the correct status in IPAS Inventions within the approved workflow. This will be done immediately on the day IPAS Inventions goes on production .
10.2 To bring the application into the correct status using IPAS Inventions, the Examiner -in-Charge will check the history of actions and create a new action using IPAS. Once a new action is created, the status of the application will become current.
10.3 The BOP Division Chiefs shall verify and ensure that the initial status of applications assigned to the Examiners in their respective divisions on the day IPAS Inventions goes on production is correct.
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11. REPORTING OF ISSUES OR ERRORS
11.1 Errors encountered by IPAS UMID and Inventions users must be immediately reported to any of the followinq":
• Nony Prudenciado Jr., • Abel Ambata; • Jefferson Acierto; or • Marvin Malaluan.
11.2 All other IPAS UMID and Inventions issues and queries shall likewise be directed to the above officers.
11.3 The IIPMS Business Team listed above shall be responsible for coordinating with the IIPMS IT Personnel for the resolution of any issues or errors.
These Implementation Guidelines shall take effect immediately for IPAS UIVIID and on 10 September 2012 for IPAS Inventions.
Office Order No 56 s. 2012, "Implementing Guidelines Industrial Property Automation System (IPAS) for Utility Models and Industrial Designs (UMID)" and other conflicting office orders are hereby superseded by this office order.
05 September 2012; Taguig City, Philippines.
ardo R. Blancaflor Director General
4 In the absence of the officers listed, the report may be made to any of the following Radel Espiritu, Marianne Buendia, or Carina Antonio.
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