The EAPO Administrative Council held its twenty-ninth (eighth extraordinary) meeting at the Moscow headquarters 3-4 June 2015 to elect a Eurasian Patent Office president to be appointed for a new six-year term with effect from 11 February 2016.

The meeting drew participation from plenipotentiary representatives of the Republic of Armenia, Republic of Belarus, Republic of Kazakhstan, Russian Federation, Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, deputy plenipotentiary representatives of the Azerbaijan Republic, Kyrgyz Republic and delegation members from the Republic of Kazakhstan, Russian Federation and Republic of Tajikistan. A representative of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) was also in attendance acting as an observer.

Presiding over the meeting was Abzal Kuanyshbekovitch Yestaev, Chairman of the EAPO Administrative Council and plenipotentiary representative of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The plenipotentiary representatives of the states party to the Eurasian Patent Convention made five nominations as follows:

― Armen Felixovitch Azizyan, nominee from the Republic of Armenia,

― Leonid Iosifovitch Voronetsky, nominee from the Republic of Belarus,

― Saule Yanvarbekovna Tlevlesova, nominee from the Republic of Kazakhstan,

― Boris Petrovitch Simonov, nominee from the Russian Federation,

― Khabibullo Faizullayevitch Fayazov, nominee from the Republic of Tajikistan.

The election followed Rule 34¹of the Rules of Procedure of the Eurasian Patent Organization’s Administrative Council and had three ballot sessions. Armen Felixovitch Azizyan, nominee from the Republic of Armenia, and Saule Yanvarbekovna Tlevlesova, nominee from the Republic of Kazakhstan, qualified for the third, final, stage of elections.

The tight nature of the race can be clearly seen from the fact that the third ballot session alone required five rounds of vote whereby the nominee from the Republic of Kazakhstan had the lead in the last two rounds, with one ballot paper proving invalid.

Based on the returns of the third ballot session’s fifth round of vote for Eurasian Patent Office presidency, the EAPO AC Chairman announced the voting results and voiced the decision that the nominee from the Republic of Kazakhstan, S.Y. Tlevlesova, had been elected.

The minutes of the meeting are currently at the approval stage.