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The Eurasian Patent Convention is the highest legal act within the system of the Organization's normative acts; it came into effect following the ratification and accession procedures of the EAPC member states.
The contractual capacity of the Eurasian Patent Organization is manifest in its participation in international lawmaking, i.e. in the creation of the norms of international law. The international lawmaking of the Organization consists of the external aspect (signing of international treaties and agreements) and the internal one (developing normative acts that regulate the activity of the Organization). The Organization's Administrative Council, the area of responsibility of which is defined in Article 3 (3), plays the core role in the lawmaking activity of the Eurasian Patent Organization.
Normative acts regulating the entire complex of legal relations required for the functioning of the Eurasian Patent Office to commence on January 1, 1996, were accepted at the Second (First Ordinary) session of the Administrative Council in Moscow on December 30, 1995; these were:
The Rules of Procedure of the Administrative Council describe the session-holding and decision-making procedures of the Administrative Council.
The Administrative Regulations regulates various issues concerning the Administrative Council's work, the management of the Eurasian Patent Office, and includes the rules on staff. Staff Regulations (on the work conditions of the Eurasian patent office employees) were approved as an Appendix to the Administrative Regulations.
The Provisions of the Patent Regulations regulate legal relations in respect of the filing of the Eurasian applications, their processing, the granting of Eurasian patents, and the protection provided by Eurasian patents. Its six Chapters contain seventy-five Rules.
The Financial Regulations is mostly concerned with the budget of the Organization, and with the accounting and reporting procedures.
The Statute of Fees stipulates the amounts, terms, and payment procedures for the fees required by the Convention and the Patent Regulations.
The Charter of the Organization defines its legal status as that of an international (intergovernmental) organization.
At the same Session the Administrative Council adopted the draft of the Agreement on the Headquarters of the Eurasian Patent Organization, and forwarded it to the Russian Federation Government for signing.
The Agreement between the Russian Federation Government and the Eurasian Patent Organization on the headquarters of the Eurasian Patent Organization was signed in Moscow on October 4, 1996.
Some changes and additions to the Rules of the Administrative Council procedure, the Administrative Regulations, the Staff Regulations, and the Financial Regulations, were made and approved at the Fourth (Third Ordinary) Session of the Administrative Council of the Organization on January 23 and 24, 1997.
The Sixth (Fourth Ordinary) Session of the Administrative Council of the Organization held on November 25 and 26, 1997, among other issues, considered and adopted changes and additions to the Eurasian Patent Legislation. These changes and additions were made to two normative acts: the Patent Regulations and the Statute of Fees. They came into effect on March 1, 1998.
The changes and additions to the Patent Regulations concerned general issues; the substantive norms of patent law, procedural norms of patent law, and rules for the filing and processing of international patent applications.
The changes and amendments made to the Statute of Fees represent a major reconsideration of several points of the financial policies of the Organization. Most of them aim at making the Eurasian Patent System more attractive by lessening the financial burden on its users.
The RF Federal Law No. 56-FZ, "On the Ratification of the Agreement between the Russian Federation Government and the Eurasian Patent Organization on the Headquarters of the Eurasian Patent Organization," was passed on April 11, 1998. This Agreement was signed with the aim of creating suitable conditions for the Organization's work in the territory of the Russian Federation. It stipulates the privileges and immunities of the Organization, its officials, and the representatives of the Contracting States in the Administrative Council.
At its Fourth (Third Ordinary) Session (January 23-24, 1997, Moscow) the Administrative Council approved the draft of the Agreement between the Organization and WIPO, and authorized the EAPO President to sign it on behalf of the Organization. This Agreement was signed on October 1, 1997, in Geneva (Switzerland). This Agreement regulates the issues concerning the participation of the Organization in WIPO sessions, the participation of WIPO in the sessions of the Organization, collaboration and cooperation, and the exchange of documents and publications.
The draft of the Agreement between the Organization and the Patent Office of Estonia on the exchange of patent documentation was approved at the same Session and signed in April, 1997. The Administrative Council also suggested that the EAPO President provides, by the end of each year, a list of such Agreements made by the Organization with patent offices of countries that are not party to the EAPC. During 1997 similar Agreements on the exchange of patent information were signed with the Ukraine (April 1997) and Uzbekistan (June 1997).
The Agreement between the Eurasian Patent Office of the Eurasian Patent Organization and the Russian Agency for Patents and Trademarks on cooperation in the area of legal protection of invention was approved and signed at the Seventh (Fifth Ordinary) Session of the Administrative Council of the Organization (December 1-2, 1998, Moscow).
The normative acts of the Organization mentioned above may be described as the "primary" acts of the Eurasian patent legislation because they have all either been ratified or accepted by the Administrative Council of the Organization.
Other normative acts required for the functioning of the Organization are accepted via a different procedure. They can be called "secondary" Eurasian patent legislation. Some of these are adopted by the President of EAPO following their approval by the Administrative Council.
For example, at its Second (First Ordinary) Session the Administrative Council approved the Statute of Eurasian Patent Attorneys, which were approved by the President of EAPO on December 5, 1995. These Statute with some changes according to the Order No. 8 of March 12, 1997, are presently in force. The Statute of Eurasian Patent Attorneys regulate legal aspects of the professional activity of Eurasian patent attorneys, who represent the interests of patent applicants before the Eurasian Patent Office and protect their rights.
Other normative acts are approved by an Order signed by the President of EAPO. Rule 8 (2) (i) of the Administrative Regulations under the EAPC gives such authority to the EAPO President.
The Temporary Regulations on the maintenance of the Register of Eurasian Patents of May 13, 1997 (EAPO Order No. 13) with amendments according to the EAPO Order No. 45 of December 5, 1997, describes, in particular, the procedure of registering information on the Eurasian patents granted, any changes in their legal status, assignment agreements concerning Eurasian Patents registered with EAPO, and the license agreements on Eurasian patents registered with national patent offices.
Order No. 20 of May 26, 1997 stipulated the Rules of Issuing Copies of the Eurasian Patent (in case of loss of the document of the presence of several patent owners).
The Procedures of the Certification and Re-certification Examination of Eurasian Patent Attorneys, with the Program of the Certification and Re-certification Examination of Eurasian Patent Attorneys as an Appendix (EAPO Order No. 2 of January 9, 1998), were approved by EAPO in order to improve the quality of work with Eurasian patent attorneys.
The Statute of vocational training courses for specialists from national patent offices of the Contracting States of the Eurasian Patent Convention were put into force by EAPO Order No. 8 of March 5, 1998.
According to the requirement of Rules 8 (2) and 10 (2) of the Administrative Regulations under the Eurasian Patent Convention, EAPO Order No. 24 of June 1, 1998 approved the Statute of competition for vacancies of the Eurasian Patent Office.
According to the requirements of Article 19 (xiii) of the Eurasian Patent Convention, Rule 53 of the Patent Regulations, and Section 6 of the Rules of Drawing up, Filing and Processing of Eurasian Applications, EAPO Order No. 26 of June 15, 1998 approved the Procedures of the administrative cancellation of Eurasian patents.
In order to describe the details of the applicable Provision of the Eurasian Patent Convention and the Patent Regulations, the Rules of Drawing up, Filing and Processing of Eurasian Applications in the Eurasian Patent Office were approved by EAPO Order No. 22 of May 18, 1998 and came into force on July 1, 1998. For example, the said Rules explain the concept of "expert", which is important for the verification of such patentability criteria as the inventive step. The Rules also regulate the issues of administrative cancellation of Eurasian patents, and of the registration, publication, and the maintenance of Eurasian patents.
The EAPO Order No. 39 of October 14, 1999 stipulates the Temporary Procedure of the Preparation, Publication and Distribution of the Official Publications of the Eurasian Patent Office, with the Amendments of May 27, 1999 (EAPO Order No. 21).
EAPO Order No. 3 of January 26, 1999, lists paid services rendered by the Eurasian Patent Office, and it replaces the earlier list of paid services of February 11, 1998. It needs to be noted that this list does not include legal actions, which are subject to a fee, or answering various inquiries, either written or verbal, which does not amount to more than providing simple information on the activity of EAPO (e.g. a request to send a Request form, provide EAPO's address, state the number of Convention member states and such).
In order to simplify the calculation of fees for maintenance of the Eurasian patent , in the EAPO Order No. 13 of April 8, 1999, a new Request form was approved for the maintenance of the Eurasian patent in designated Contracting States in place of the earlier Request form of January 8, 1998.
Other EAPO orders put into effect the so-called "internal" normative acts that regulate the relations between various subdivisions of EAPO.
For example, EAPO Order No. 25 of June 30, 1997 approves the Regulations on the Document Processing in the Eurasian Patent Office of the Eurasian Patent Organization. This Regulations determines the procedure of preparation, filling, processing, sending, and executing control of documents in EAPO, and archiving the processed cases.
In order to institute the registration of fees and tariffs by the structural divisions of EAPO in the course of processing Eurasian applications, granting and publication of Eurasian patents, and their maintenance , the Temporary Procedure of Registration of Fees and Tariffs in EAPO was accepted (EAPO Order No. 22 of May 31, 1999).
The procedure of preparing materials for archiving in the database of normative, legal, and referential information of the automated information and search system was accepted on November 15, 1999 (EAPO Order No. 40).
In addition to that, the Eurasian Patent Office develops and adopts various types of documents which are not of normative nature. Such documents either explain the current normative acts of the Organization, or render methodological support for various organizational procedures.
In order to assure uniform understanding of the Rulings of the Eurasian patent legislation, EAPO issues appropriate explanations.
The EAPO Explanation on the issues concerning observance of the requirement for the unity of invention in the applications for "intermediate and final product", the possibility of protecting under one patent claim either the whole invention or its part, and the possibility of making a dependent claim of the invention subordinate to a number of independent ones was published on October 1, 1996. These issues were raised at the international seminar on the Convention, held on May 22 and 23, 1996, in Moscow.
The EAPO Explanation of the adaptation of Article 15 (5) of the Convention towards international applications, i.e. on the specifics of filing a request for substantive examination of an international applications transferred to the regional stage at EAPO, was published on June 30, 1997.
The EAPO Explanation on the issue of fees payment according to the temporary tariff reduction published on September 30, 1997, stipulated the procedure of preparing and submitting the documents that confirm the right of legal entities to use these temporary reduced tariffs for their payment of fees according to Rule 40 (4) of the Patent Regulations. In order to simplify the confirmation procedure for legal entities, it is sufficient to present a note stating that as of the date of the application filing, there are no direct or indirect contributions in their registered capital by either persons or legal entities from countries with per capita income of over 3000 US dollars per year. Such a note is written in free form, is signed by the person(s) that by the force of law or according to the founding documents of the legal entity act on its behalf, and is sealed with the official seal of the legal entity, and is presented no later than the document confirming the fee payment.
For a more detailed explanation of the legal norms that regulate the payment of fees the EAPO explanations listed below have been published:
EAPO Order No. 17 of April 30, 1999, adopts the Temporary Regulations of the Eurasian Patent Office on the examination of Eurasian applications, which is a methodological document for EAPO employees, which explains various provisions contained in the EAPC, Patent Regulations under the EAPC, Statute of Fees Charged by the Organization, Rules of Drawing up, Filing and Processing of Eurasian Applications as far as these concern the examination of Eurasian application.
