INES+

Intellectual Property Rights Software

INES+: Intellectual Property Rights Software


Background info:

INES+ application (forerunners: “INES” and “IPR application”) has been developed in two phases by consultants engaged at the projects: EU-CAFAO and EU-SEMS.

  1. October 2006 – February 2008 (EU-CAFAO):
  • During 2004 and 2005, the very first application has been brought (from UK and Poland) to Serbia and installed by the CAFAO experts for the purpose of Serbian Customs Administration. This, very first version was in use until autumn 2006.
  • Since that application was insufficient for normal work of the department, it was decided that new application should be developed from the beginning.
  • Iterative development process has been used – RUP methodology.
  • Almost entire EU CAFAO IT Team (7 IT people) was involved in development. Of course, not all 7 people at the same time.
  • In addition, expertise has been provided by the other CAFAO experts involved in various customs law enforcement matters.
  • The majority of the time was spent for definition of user requirements (engagement of CAFAO IPR experts is included, as well).
  • The first version of the IPR Application (MS Access) has been installed in Serbia and Montenegro at the end of CAFAO Project (February 2008).
  1. May 2008 – April 2009 (EU-SEMS / EU-TACTA)
  • 4 consultants of the EU-SEMS team were involved in the development of the new application – “IPR on the Web” – INES.
  • New application comprises all modules of previous one, as well as, several new modules.
  • The same time has been spent for development purposes.
  • However much less time for defining of user requirements, because the same programmers developed new application.
  • The time spent for defining the user requirements also covered the activities of the EU-TACTA consultants engaged on IPR matters in the region.

Description of application:

  • Case Management Module (Management of Infringements) – in this module IIPR “cases” are stored, comprising the following information:
    • General Case Data: reference numbers, necessary dates, category of intellectual rights which is affected, etc.
    • Document Management: all issued/received documents (provided in full detail) related to a case (inter alia, the application follows the deadlines and provides warning if a deadline for receiving of some official note has expired)
    • Goods: details related to the goods category, type, quantity, value, etc.
    • Importer/Exporter details
    • Transport: means of transport, number plates, drivers, route, etc.
    • Warehouse: information about place where confiscate goods are stored (before destroying or releasing)
    • Destruction: information related to destroying of goods
  • Right Holders Module (Management of Applications for Actions) – in this module details from “Request for protection of Intellectual Property Rights” are stored:
    • General information about the Request, Decision and possible Compliance.
    • Information about Right Holder, his representative in the country, authorized importer/distributor,
    • Other details from “request”: country of origin, official route, etc.
    • Details about protected Trademarks: registration number, trademark name, goods classes, including the pictures.
  • Advanced Reporting Module – application provides facilities to users to make huge number of various queries to database (to search database by almost any criteria or combination of several criteria) and to automatically create number of various dynamic and statistical reports.
  • Administration Module – the application allows to one (or more) selected officer(s) from IPR Department to perform advanced administration of application:
    • Maintenance of users (including assignment appropriate rights to each user)
    • Maintenance of all code lists (to ensure the advanced and reliable filtering and reporting, the application has been designed so as to use the “drop-down” lists wherever possible)
    • By this approach, involvement of IT officers in administration and maintenance of application is reduced to minimum.

Technical Details:

  • Programming language: C#
  • DBMS: Microsoft SQL Server 2005
  • Application Server: Internet Information Services v 6.0
  • Operating system: Microsoft Windows Server 2003 / Microsoft Windows XP

References:

  • Customs Administration of Serbia
  • Customs Administration of Montenegro
  • Market Inspection of the Republic of Serbia
  • Montenegrin Market Inspection
  • Kosovo Customs Service (software is in version INES)

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