May 28 – 30, 2018: the Eurasian Patent Office (EAPO), within the frameworks of the Spring Session of trainings for examiners of national IP offices of the Eurasian Patent Convention (EAPC) contracting states, held a Seminar on “Computer-implemented Inventions”.

Representatives from the State Intellectual Property Office of P.R. China (SIPO), the European Patent Office (EPO), the Federal Institute of Industrial Property of the Russian Federation (FIPS) and the Eurasian Patent Office delivered lectures with presentations during the Seminar. The participants were representatives of national offices of the Republic of Armenia, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Belarus, Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Russian Federation, Republic of Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

The topic of the Seminar was selected given the importance of information and communication technology dynamic development in the modern world and the patent offices’ involvement in examination of the growing number of applications on computer-implemented inventions.

The Seminar covered a broad spectrum of topics related to legal protection of solutions in computer programmes, data bases, payment methods, user interfaces, including blockchain technologies and artificial intelligence. Examples on decisions resulting from appeals and disputes in relation to these subject matters were discussed separately.

SIPO’s Zhou Shuhong, Director of Electricity Examination Department, and Zhang Yu, Head of Component Section of Electricity Examination Department, presented the main principles and specifications of examination in computer-implemented inventions according to the patent legislation of P.R. China, as well as determination of patentability of a given invention shown on examples.

EAPO’s Jesus Lavin Liermo, Examiner at Information and Communication Technology, conducted his lectures on both, theory and practice. Mr. Lavin Liermo spoke about EPO legislation in this area, EPO’s practice in examination and patent search for computer-implemented inventions, determination of patentability, etc. Technical and non-technical features of solutions concerning databases, payment methods and computer interfaces were reviewed. Mr. Lavin Liermo as well brought a vast amount of practical examples, thus triggering lively discussions and questions of the audience.

Galina Smirnova, Principal State Examiner of FIPS, made a presentation on the specifications of legal protection of inventions in the field of information technologies in the Russian Federation.

Dmitry Krylov, Head of Mechanics, Physics and Electric Engineering of the Examination Department of EAPO, spoke about the principles, which serve as basis for determination of the scope of protection of computer programmes within the frameworks of patent and copyright legislation.

The timeliness of the topic stimulated active discussions with the participation of the lecturers and the audience. The participants also discussed the approaches of the national IP offices when examining computer-implemented inventions and the principles of making decisions.

The EAPO, EPO and SIPO examiners’ mutual interest in studying the other parties’ practice in consideration of applications in the counterpart offices was as well conditioned by the cooperation within the frameworks of PPH programmes, according to which decisions made by one office may be used by the counterpart office examiners.

Holding regional seminars within the frameworks of the Training Programme for the EAPC contracting states’ national offices is a new trend in EAPO international activities. Participation of experts from international, regional and advanced national offices is a good investment in the knowledge of the beneficiary in the sense of getting acquainted with the new trends in various fields of technology, specifications of patent legislation and best practices of other national and international offices/organizations.