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The Eurasian Patent Organization ("the Organization"), which has been performing its functions of receiving and examining Eurasian applications and granting common Eurasian patents for inventions valid in the territories of all countries party to the Convention since January 1, 1996, and is now in its fifth year, was established according to the Eurasian Patent Convention that came into effect on August 12, 1995.
Presently 9 states are party to the Convention: Turkmenistan, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Tajikistan, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Moldova, and the Republic of Armenia. The Eurasian Patent Convention is an open convention, which means that any UN member bound by the Paris Convention and the PCT may join it.
Today's tendencies in patent legislation that lie at the core of the convention, the agreement of its provisions with multilateral WIPO agreements on industrial property and provisions on patents of the TRIPS agreement, and advantages of procedural and economic character for applicants and patent owners - all these resulted in a constantly growing interest in the Eurasian patent system on the part of users from many countries.
Presently the Eurasian Patent Office receives over 1100 Eurasian applications yearly, and grants around 450 Eurasian patents.
The establishment of the Organization and its ability, within a relatively short time, to start administer functions related to granting Eurasian patents, became possible as a result of well-focused and properly managed work by the Administrative Council of the Organization and the Eurasian Patent Office headed by its President V.I. Blinnikov.
Eight (six ordinary and two extraordinary) meetings of the Administrative Council, where important decision for the establishment and development of the Organization were made, have taken place since the Convention's coming into effect.
The President and Vice Presidents of EAPO, and also the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Administrative Council, were elected from among plenipotentiary representatives while taking rotation into account, and based on the principles of parity of regional representation in the management of EAPO and the Administrative Council. Quotas of EAPO staff positions for each state party to the Convention were established, and the staff of EAPO was hired during the elapsed years according to these quotas, and now represents all countries party to the Convention.
The Administrative Council is mostly concerned with the questions of creating and fine-tuning Eurasian patent legislation, finding solutions for which is of fundamental importance for the regulation of the processing of Eurasian application and the granting of Eurasian patents by the Organization.
The yearly auditing and approval of annual reports on the activity of the Organization in the previous year and the budgets for the next year by the Administrative Council, and systematic amendments and elaborations to these financial documents that follow from the practical work and the long-term strategy of the Organization, result in the Organization's greater strength and financial stability.
Created by the Administrative Council from the qualified experts of patent offices of the states party to the Convention and EAPO, the working groups of experts and the Budget working group for the preparation of issues related to the creation and refinement of the normative base and the financial documents of the Organization for the consideration have become essential tools in the activity of the Administrative Council for the purpose of its making decisions on these very important aspects of the Organization's activity.
During the elapsed period the Administrative Council has approved important international agreements: the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Eurasian Patent Organization on the headquarters of the Organization, and the Agreement Between the World Intellectual Property Organization and the Eurasian Patent Organization. An Agreement between Rospatent and the Eurasian Patent Office in the area of legal protection of inventions has also been approved.
Several Administrative Council decisions concerning the exchange of patent documentation between EAPO and patent offices of the states not party to the Convention, publication and distribution of official EAPO publications on CD-ROMs, development of the Organization's website in the Internet and other issues are among the developments that enhanced the creation of the fund of patent and non-patent information by EAPO, implementation of paperless technology, and wider use of the capabilities offered by the Internet in the activity of the Organization.
During the elapsed period the Administrative Council was headed, in the role of its Chairman, by plenipotentiary representatives R.A. Agabaev - Chairman of Turkmenpatent, T.E. Kaudyrov - Chairman of Kazpatent, and V.I. Kudashov - Chairman of Belgospatent, who made, at certain stages of the Organization's work, significant contributions to the creation of the Eurasian patent system.
The role and importance of the Administrative Council in the development of the Organization will keep on increasing because issues related to further development of the Eurasian patent system in the coming 21st century and the new millennium need to be solved while taking into account the scientific and technical progress and new computer technologies.
The World Intellectual Property Organization and the European Patent Office made an invaluable contribution to the establishment of the Eurasian Patent Organization.
While celebrating the obvious successes of the young Eurasian Patent Organization, I want to congratulate my colleagues - plenipotentiary representatives, the staff of patent offices of the states party to the Convention, the employees of the Eurasian Patent Office and Eurasian patent attorneys -- with the coming five year anniversary of its activity, and wish all productive collaboration and success in the business of further development of the Eurasian patent system.
Chairman of the Administrative Council of the Organization, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor,
Acting member of the International Engineering Academy R.O. Omorov
