The 15th (5th extraordinary) meeting of the Administrative Council of the Eurasian Patent Organization (“the Organization”) was held in Moscow, Russia, from 9 to 10 of February, 2004.

Plenipotentiary representatives of all the Eurasian Patent Convention member states (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan) participated in the meeting held at the Organization’s headquarters. Representatives of the World Intellectual Property Organization and of the European Patent Office were present as observers.

Meeting participants honoured by a minute of silence the memory of the victims of the Moscow subway terrorist attack on the 6th of February, 2004.

Based on recommendations on the President of the Eurasian Patent Office accepted at the Administrative Council’s previous meeting, a proposal by Plenipotentiary Representative of the Russian Federation A.D. Korchagin supported by the Russian Federal government, and unanimous position of all the participants of the 15th Meeting of the Council, Alexander Nikolayevich GRIGORIEV was appointed President of the Eurasian Patent Office for the term of six years in accordance with Article 3 (3) (iii) of the Eurasian Patent Convention.

Taking into consideration the earlier decision of the Organization’s Administrative Council on holding seminars on the protection of industrial property in the republics of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, meeting participants agreed with the following proposals:

• to hold a seminar in the Republic of Tajikistan in the period from April 28 to May 2, 2004, during the celebration of the International Day of Intellectual Property and the Day of Innovator and Inventor (Chairman of the Organization’s Administration Council I.G. Takhirov);
• to hold a seminar in the Kyrgyz Republic in the period from May 24 to May 28, 2004, on the subject related to the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) (Plenipotentiary representative of the Kyrgyz Republic P.O. Omorov);
• to hold the third meeting of the Working Group on Information Technologies in the Republic of Tajikistan in the period from April 28 to May 2, 2004 (Head of the Constant Working Group on Information Technologies of the Organization’s Administrative Council, vice-president of the EAPO Kh. F. Fayazov).

President of the EAPO A.N. Grigoryev informed meeting participants about the preparation of proposals by the Eurasian Patent Office on the development of the Eurasian Patent Organization in the near future that are planned to be presented for consideration at the sixteenth (eleventh ordinary) meeting of the Organization’s Administrative Council.