On May 23-24, 2019, working negotiations with representatives of IP Office Business Solutions Division of WIPO were held at EAPO headquarters.

EAPO Vice-President Emil Mammadov, heads and experts of the EAPO divisions dealing with the maintenance and development of EAPO’s information systems took part in the meeting.

Mr. William Meredith, Director, and Mr. Adel Baccouche, Project Manager, IP Office Business Solutions Division, presented the WIPO IPAS – IP Office Administration System, developed and implemented by WIPO in 84 IP offices around the world. The following WIPO software products were introduced: WIPO File (online submission and tracking of applications and subsequent transactions), WIPO Publish (online publication and dissemination of IP information), EDMS (digital document management system) and WIPO Scan (toolkit for digitizing patent documents).

Functional features of the IPAS system and options of its implementation in EAPO with respect to industrial designs were discussed in detail. The parties considered IPAS settings which allowed realizing the peculiarities of legislation, as well as technical requirements for hardware and software. Special attention was paid to the integration of IPAS system and related software with the EAPO internal information systems, including the main risks associated with the regional nature of the legal protection of industrial designs.

WIPO experts introduced the procedure for the implementation and following support of the IPAS system, training of EAPO experts in administration and work with the system.

Following the meeting, the parties agreed on the priority measures needed for conformity assessment of WIPO software with the EAPO needs in order to make a final decision on implementation the IPAS system in the Office.