EURASIAN REGION - EURASIAN PATENT TERRITORY

Any international organization is established in order to meet not only the existing needs of countries, but those which may arise in the course of resolution of their internal problems that can only be settled via cooperation and collaboration with other countries. This in particular concerns issues of protection of inventors' rights in neighboring countries.

The search for new forms of protection of the results of intellectual work is the order of the day for the satisfaction of the ever-growing needs of humanity. We are all witness to the fact that on the threshold of the new millennium the world community is intensely interested in establishing a universal title of protection, valid in the territory of any country (for example, a world patent).

Yet, the fact is that, for example, the ideas at the foundation of the Luxembourg Convention (Convention for the European Patent for the Common Market or Community Patent Convention), signed in 1975, were implemented only in August of 1995 via the coming into force of the Eurasian Patent Convention and the establishment of the Eurasian Patent Organization (i.e. the possibility of obtaining a regional patent).

It needs to be emphasized that the idea developed by one group of countries in response to their own needs was implemented in the countries formerly held together by an entirely different ideology in the area of industrial property protection.

Given its aims and potential, the Eurasian Patent Organization is able to assume a very specific place in the world system of industrial property protection as a regional intergovernmental organization covering the entire Eurasian region. And because the advantages obtained by the member states from their participation in the Eurasian Patent Convention are quite specific, and the Organization's remoteness from any political orientation is confirmed by five years of its activity, a real possibility exists of any other UN member state from the region also bound by the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property and Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) becoming a member of this organization.

Perhaps it is appropriate to review the advantages of participating in the Organization.

Procedural advantages

At the stage of drawing up and filing of the Eurasian application:

• filing of one application with EAPO to receive a Eurasian patent valid in the territory of all the Contracting states;
• the applicant is able to choose where to file the Eurasian application: either directly to EAPO, or by filing an international application according to the PCT procedure with a designation of a Eurasian patent;
• preparation and submission of the application materials in any language, with the possibility of providing their translation into the Convention's official language (Russian) at a later date;
• agreement of the material and legal criteria of patentability of the invention to the provisions of PCT, European Patent Convention (EPC), and the legislation of developed countries;
• uniform requirements, accepted in the international practice and, in particular, by the PCT and EPC, as to the form and content of Eurasian patent applications.

During the processing of a Eurasian application at EAPO:

• mandatory international patent search and substantive examination, which results in a "strong" Eurasian patent;
• the possibility for the applicant to submit a request for the substantive examination to be conducted within 6 months from the date of the publication the search results report, which gives him additional time for adjusting his patent claims or making a decision on continuing with the patenting process according to the Convention procedure;
• flexible and applicant-friendly deadlines for procedural actions involved in obtaining a Eurasian patent, with the possibility of their extension and the restoration of rights in case these have been allowed to elapse, as well as shorter application processing times at all stages of their processing.

Economic advantages

• the payment of all fees related to the obtaining and maintenance of a Eurasian patent to one office - EAPO, which results in a significantly lower cost and a simpler fee payment procedure;
• step-by-step examination system allows the applicant to reduce his patenting costs by evaluating the likelihood of his obtaining the patent and thus deciding on whether or not it is appropriate to continue with the application;
• sharp decrease in the cost of services of patent attorneys because of the lowering of the cost of these services in the process of obtaining patents in several of the Contracting states according to national procedures, and also because the cost of translating Eurasian applications into the languages of the Contracting states is excluded;
• without the payment of any special fees for designating any of the Contracting states, the patent owner receives the rights that strengthen his position on the markets of the Contracting states, and in particular:
  • a) an exclusive right to the invention in all the Contracting states for the period of time up to the payment of the first yearly fee for the maintenance of the Eurasian patent;
  • b) the possibility of receiving appropriate compensation from the persons who used the invention in any of the Contracting states without the applicant's consent during the period of validity of provisional protection;
  • c) lowering by 25% of the single procedural fee, if the application contains an international search report or an international type search report prepared by one of the International Searching Authorities, and by 40% if such reports are prepared by Rospatent.

The financial cost of paying fees to receive a Eurasian patent are lower compared to the cost of patenting an invention according to national procedures. For example, the total minimal state fees to obtain patents according to national procedures are only, depending on the combination of countries, from $1120 to $2870US for two countries, from $1770 to $3770US for three countries, and from $2570 to $4570US for four countries, not including patent attorneys' fees in each of these countries. Minimal cost to the applicant for a Eurasian patent valid in all 9 countries party to the Organization is only $2100US.

Information on specific material and financial support for the national patent offices of the countries party to the EAPC from the Eurasian Patent Organization is provided in other sections of this anniversary annual report.

Already for five years the Eurasian Patent Organization, in addition to everything else, is representing patent offices of the EAPC member states as a source of information about them. Thus, using this opportunity as well, the Organization is providing here below detailed information on the patent office of each state party to the Convention, which are: the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.