The Eurasian Patent Office (EAPO) and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) held a joint Technical Workshop on Industrial Designs Tools at the EAPO headquarters on December 11-12, 2019. Representatives of EAPO and the IP offices of the EAPC Contracting States evaluated the EUIPO experience in the European Union Intellectual Property Network (EUIPN).

Workshop on the Design Tools was the first joint project of EAPO and EUIPO within the framework of the bilateral cooperation based on Memorandum of understanding signed by the heads of the two offices in March this year.

EAPO President Saule Tlevlessova held a meeting with Ignacio de Medrano, Head of the International Cooperation Service of the International Cooperation and Legal Affairs Department (ICLAD) of EUIPO. She noted the importance of studying regional experience for EAPO, which is at the very beginning of its way to industrial designs protection system.

Saule Tlevlessova thanked EUIPO for the partnership and support provided at the stage of developing the concept of a new Eurasian system of legal protection of industrial designs, and appreciated further mutually beneficial cooperation.

Special attention was paid to the tools which support industrial design filing and interaction with applicants developed and used within the EUIPN platform. The Workshop participants got acquainted with the search system DesignView, classification system DesignClass, system for industrial design applications and subject matter management Front Office for Designs, as well as the possibilities of integration of EUIPO information systems with automated systems of national and regional patent offices.

The delegates presented the approaches of national IP offices, including the Rospatent experience, on the industrial design procedure for integration the EUIPO information systems into the activities of the office.

An important part of the workshop was a dispute session on the creation of Eurasian industrial design regulations. Representatives of the EAPC Contracting States, which have signed the Industrial Designs Protocol, discussed the progress of further preparation of regulations specifying the provisions of the Industrial Designs Protocol, studied the experience of EU colleagues in developing guidelines on issues related to the legal protection of industrial designs.