What are the ways of filing an application for an invention, utility model or industrial design?

An application for an invention, utility model or industrial design is filed by an applicant or his representative.

The applicant is a person requesting the grant of a patent in his own name (an author of the invention (utility model/industrial design), a group of the authors or his (their) successor.

The representative of the applicant is a patent attorney or another representative acting on the basis of a power of attorney executed in accordance with the requirements of Article 1851 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

The patent attorney is a person, whose profession is providing legal assistance in the field of the patent law to individuals (citizens, stateless persons) and legal entities (organizations), including providing defence of their interests and rights in the court. This person must have special qualifications necessary to represent the interests of the clients in obtaining patents and act in all matters and procedures relating to the patent law and practice, including patent disputes.

According to Paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article 1357 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the right to obtain a patent for an invention, utility model or industrial design originally shall belong to the author of the invention, utility model or industrial design. The right to obtain the patent for the invention, utility model or industrial design may revert to another person (successor) or may be transferred to him in the cases and on the grounds established by the law, including under the universal succession, or under a contract, including under an employment contract.

The applicant or his representative has an opportunity to file the application for the invention, utility model or industrial design, both personally and remotely:

1. To send by mail to the address: Berezhkovskaya Nab., 30, Bldg. 1, Moscow, G-59, GSP-3, 125993, the Russian Federation.

If the application documents are sent on paper by mail, the applicant shall be sent a notification informing him on the registration number of the application and on the date of the receipt of the documents within two weeks from the date of the receipt of the application documents.

2. To hand over directly through the expedition of Rospatent to the above address. In the case of filing the application documents on paper through the expedition of Rospatent, the applicant shall receive a notification informing him on the registration number of the application and on the date of handing over the documents.

3. To send by fax: +7 (495) 531-63-18.

In this case, the originals of the application documents, together with a covering letter identifying the documents previously received by fax, must be submitted to Rospatent within one month from the date of their receipt by fax. Subject to this condition, the date of the receipt of the document shall be considered the date of its receipt by fax.

4. To take advantage of electronic filing with the use of an electronic and digital signature:

1) Through the FIIP web-site www.fips.ru

For more detailed information on filing the application in the electronic form through the FIIP web-site, as well as on the procedure for obtaining the electronic and digital signature, one can refer to section “Electronic Interaction with Applicants” on the FIIP web-site.

It is possible to do the following through the “Personal Account”: to send the documents and/or additional materials relating to the previously filed application, the objection; to receive the documents being sent by the officials of the FIIP in the course of providing the state service; to view the lists of the sent and received documents.

The advantages of using the “Personal Account” service on the FIIP web-site are:

– the size of the fee for the implementation of the legally significant actions is 30% less, when sending the correspondence signed with the electronic signature;

– the reduction of the period of delivering the documents, while maintaining the correspondence with the FIIP;

– the reduction of the costs for maintaining the correspondence (including for courier delivery);

– the correspondence regarding the applications filed on paper is also possible through the electronic filing system for an invention.

In the case of filing the application in the electronic form using the electronic and digital signature through the FIIP web-site, the information on the receipt of the application shall be immediately displayed in the Personal Account of the applicant (an assigned registration number of the application and its receipt date).

2) Through the Public Services Portal of the Russian Federation www.gosuslugi.ru

In the case of filing the application through the Public Services Portal of the Russian Federation, the applicant shall be sent a notification informing him on the registration number of the application and the date of the receipt of the documents within two weeks from the date of the receipt of the application documents.

            Thus, currently there is a convenient and remote way of filing applications in the electronic form, which has a number of advantages that ensure the reduction of the costs for paying the fees, speeding up an interaction and transparency of the work with the Office.