The 16th (11th ordinary) session of the Administrative Council of the Eurasian Patent Organization (EAPO) was held in Moscow, Russia, from 15 to 19 of November, 2004.

Representatives of all Contracting States of the Eurasian Patent Convention – namely the plenipotentiary representatives of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Kazakstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation the Republic of Tajikistan, the Republic of Turkmenistan, the deputy plenipotentiary representatives of the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Moldova and the Russian Federation have participated in the session held in the EAPO headquarters. Representatives of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the European Patent Office (EPO) and Ukrainian Patent Office took part in the session in an observer capacity.

Mr. Seidov M.Ya.M.A., plenipotentiary representative of the Republic of Azerbaijan, was unanimously elected as the Chairman of the Administrative Council of the EAPO.

The session has considered a number of topical matters of the activity of the EAPO.

Based on the recommendations of the ninth (October 2004) session of the Budget Group of the Administrative Council, the Administrative Council has approved implementing of the EAPO annual balance of accounts for 2003 and accepted the EAPO budget for 2005.

The session participants have discussed matters of provision of current activity and future development of the Organization for the short term keeping in mind the started reconstruction of the EAPO headquarters building, move of the Eurasian Patent Office to another office building by the end of 2004 and carrying out of the corresponding investment project.

The EAPO Administrative Council has introduced alterations and amendments to the Administrative Instruction to the Eurasian Patent Convention in the part concerning selection of candidates and appointing the officials of the Eurasian Patent Office as well as regulation of labor relations with them.

Information was presented to the session participants on activities in the field of information technologies based on decisions of the 3-rd meeting (April 2004) of the Permanent Working Group on Information Technologies of the EAPO Administrative Council.

Having considered the proposals of the Eurasian Patent Office on developments in the field of information technologies the Administrative Council has decided:

• to allow providing interested third parties a free access via the Eurasian patent-information system (EAPATIS) to bibliographic descriptions, abstracts (claims) and main drawings of inventions stored in the database of the EAPO and the patent offices of the EAPO Contracting states;
• to agree to grant the patent offices of the Ukraine and the Republic of Uzbekistan, as well as other interested organizations working in field of patent information an access via EAPATIS to the full-text patent documentation databases of the Eurasian Patent Office and the EAPO Contracting states on the reciprocal basis;
• to recommend the EAPO Contracting states regularly send to the EAPO a current national patent documentation to include it into the EAPATIS, and the patent offices of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Tajikistan to stipulate activities on presenting a retrospective part of the national patent documentation.

The session participants visited the Rospatent and discussed there the problems associated mainly with intellectual property protection on the territory of the EAPO Contracting states.

The EAPO Administrative Council has instituted gold medal named after V.I.Blinnikov “For contribution in inventive and patent work”, approved the corresponding provision, the medal design and other required normative documents.

The gold medal is set up as the EAPO award commemorating the memory of Victor Ivanovich Blinnikov, the first EAPO President, a prominent figure in the field of intellectual property in the Eurasian region and the founder of the EAPO. The medal can be awarded to inventors, specialists and organizations in the field of intellectual property who contributed significantly in the development of innovations and legislative protection of inventions in the Eurasion region, for creation, formation and development of the Eurasian Patent Organization.

The gold medals will be presented yearly by the Administrative Council’s decision considering the significance of the contribution for the EAPO Contracting states.

The session participants laid a wreath on the tombstone on V.I.Blinnikov grave.

In the course of the final part of the session preliminary results of the work on the book of history of the EAPO and other matters concerned with the forthcoming 10-th anniversary of the EAPO were discussed.

The Council agreed with the proposal of plenipotentiary representative of the Kyrgyz Republic to consider August 12, 1995 as the EAPO foundation day.

The next ordinary session of the EAPO Administrative Council is scheduled to be held in October-November 2005 in Moscow.