On February 26 – March 1, 2019 EAPO hosted a regional seminar on “Legal basis for the functioning of the Eurasian Patent System” organized for the EAPC national IP offices. Representatives of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and the Russian Federation took part in the event.

The training for representatives of legal departments of national IP offices was a new EAPO initiative within the frameworks of the Training Program for the EAPC Contracting States’ national offices. The new course of study was introduced in addition to the traditional sessions for examiners, organized twice a year by EAPO.

The EAPO speakers familiarized the participants with EAPO internal documents and peculiarities of applying the norms of international and national law in interaction with EAPO, examined issues of Eurasian patent law and practical aspects of its usage at various stages of processing Eurasian applications and patents.

Specifications of legal protection of inventions and dispute resolution in the regional and national levels were discussed by participants from national IP offices who presented the best practices in development of patent legislation in their respective countries.

The participants of the seminar noted the relevance of studying the essence and mechanisms of legal regulation in accordance with the EAPC. It is important in the context of the activities carried out by EAPO and the EAPC Contracting States in expanding the scope of EAPO competence with industrial designs as a new subject matter of regional legal protection.