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The core of the State system of intellectual property protection in the Kyrgyz Republic is the State Agency of Intellectual Property under the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic (Kyrgyzpatent), originally established by Government Decree No. 262 of June 15, 1993, as the Patent Department of the State Committee for Science and New Technologies, later reformed, by Government Decree No. 13 of January 13, 1995, into the Main Department of Intellectual Property of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Kyrgyz Republic.
Prior to the establishment of Kyrgyzpatent, Kyrgyzstan had a few disjointed patent offices that belonged to enterprises, organizations, ministries and departments, plus the Patent Section of the Republican Scientific and Technical Library with an insufficient patent fund, while the interests of inventors were represented by the remains of the Society of Inventors and Innovators (formerly the All-Union Society of Inventors and Innovators).
As Kyrgyzpatent was developing, its aims and functions as the national agency in the area of intellectual property grew more complex. The State Agency of Intellectual Property under the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic (Kyrgyzpatent) was created by a Presidential Decree on March 4, 1996, with the aim of developing a comprehensive state policy in the area of intellectual property. Thus, the fact that the office has received the status of government structure demonstrates the importance and high priority of that area in the development of Kyrgyzstan.
Since Kyrgyzpatent has been in existence, major changes have occurred in the system of intellectual property in the Kyrgyz Republic, the main parts of which are the patent system of industrial property and the system of copyright and related rights protection.
The structure of the system of intellectual property in the Kyrgyz Republic is given in Figure 1.
Kyrgyzpatent has a functioning State Fund of Intellectual Property, to encourage the creation and use of intellectual property and to assist in the development of technical and artistic creativity. An important tool for the support and encouragement of inventive activity is public recognition of inventors. For instance, Kyrgyzpatent held two Republic-wide competitions "For best works in the area of invention" for the 1993-1996 and 1996-1998 periods with the aims of identifying technical solutions most significant for the national economy and encouraging the creative activity of inventors, in which many Kyrgyz inventors participated.
Realizing that information on intellectual property has priority over other sources of technical information in its availability and selectivity, Kyrgyzpatent took under its special care the Republican Scientific and Technical Library, which was in a very sorry state, and transformed it into the State Patent and Technical Library of Kyrgyzpatent (SPTL). At this time Kyrgyzpatent finances the replenishment of the library's fund and is attempting to establish a base capable of providing, at a modern technological level, comprehensive information in the area of intellectual property.
The "Tabylga" Innovations Centre has been established for the purposes of rendering patent information services to legal entities and private individuals, and to perform Kyrgyzpatent's publishing functions.
Staff preparation in the area of intellectual property is treated as an important issue; with that purpose an intercollegiate faculty "Intellectual Property" has been established for the training of college and university students in the following subjects: intellectual property law, patent law, patent science, and copyright and related rights. Professional development of experts in the area of intellectual property is its other aim.
During the period of formation of the intellectual property system in the Kyrgyz Republic the institute of patent attorneys - citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic - has been established and is functioning.
As the aims and functions of Kyrgyzpatent grew more complex, the structure of its central body was developing as well. Presently Kyrgyzpatent has 5 production divisions and 1 service division, which are made up of over 20 sections and sectors (Fig. 2).
The aim of the Examination Division is state examination of all types of industrial property objects (inventions, utility models, industrial designs, trademarks, service marks, appellations of origin, and trade names) and selection achievements.
The aims of the Legal Division include the development of normative and legal documents, registration of contractual and license relations, and the issues of consummation of intellectual property rights.
The Registration Division is responsible for the registration and issue of titles of protection for industrial property objects that were awarded protection following their examination, and registration of objects of copyright and related rights.
The Information Division is responsible for the preparation of methodological materials and the establishment of automated information systems, including the rendering of information services via the Internet, plus the preparation of Kyrgyzpatent publications.
The Division of Property Rights of Authors and Right Owners performs the function of organizing collective management of property rights of authors and right owners, which are stipulated in the Law "On Copyright and Related Rights".
Kyrgyzpatent pays special attention to the legislative support of legal regulation of relations in the area of intellectual property. Since the adoption on August 2, 1993, of the first legal document in the Kyrgyz Republic in the area of intellectual property protection, entitled "Temporary Provision on Industrial Property in the Kyrgyz Republic", the following Kyrgyz Republic laws have been adopted and put into effect with active participation of Kyrgyzpatent (Table 1):
Table 1
| No. | Legislative act | Date of coming into effect |
| 1 | Civil Code, Part II, Section 5 "Intellectual property" | March 1, 1998 |
| 2 | Patent Law | Feb. 4, 1998 |
| 3 | On trademarks, service marks, and appellations of origin | Feb. 28, 1998 |
| 4 | On copyright and related rights | Feb. 23, 1998 |
| 5 | On legal protection of computer programs and databases | April 4,1998 |
| 6 | On legal protection of topographies of integrated circuits | April 10, 1998 |
| 7 | On commercial secret | April 10, 1998 |
| 8 | On legal protection of achievements in selection | June 26, 1998 |
| 9 | On limiting monopolistic activity, and the development and protection of competition | April 15,1994 |
| 10 | On service inventions, utility models, and industrial designs | Aug. 13, 1999 |
| 11 | On trade names | Dec. 31, 1999 |
For the entire set of new legal acts, Kyrgyzpatent has prepared and adopted normative and methodological documents governing the filing of applications for intellectual property protection and their processing in Kyrgyzpatent.
One of the directions of Kyrgyzpatent work is information and publishing activity. Periodicals published by Kyrgyzpatent: The Official Bulletin "Intellektualdyk menchik", scientific and practical journal "The Herald of Kyrgyzpatent: Intellectual Property Issues", training and methodological materials for students and experts, and compilations of norms and laws on all aspects of intellectual property.
An important role in the development of the intellectual property system is awarded to international collaboration. The accession of the Kyrgyz Republic to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and becoming party to several international agreements is an important step for Kyrgyzpatent (Table 2).
Table 2
| No. | Name | Date of accession |
| 1 | Convention Establishing the WIPO | 14.02.94 |
| 2 | Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property | 14.02.94 |
| 3 | Madrid Agreement (Concerning the International Registration of Marks) | 14.02.94 |
| 4 | Patent cooperation treaty (PCT) | 14.02.94 |
| 5 | Eurasian Patent Convention | 13.01.96 |
| 6 | Nice Agreement on International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks | 10.12.98 |
| 7 | Locarno Agreement on International Classification for Industrial Design | 10.12.98 |
| 8 | Vienna Agreement Establishing an International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks | 10.12.98 |
| 9 | The TRIPS agreement under WTO | 20.12.98 |
| 10 | Strasbourg Agreement Concerning the International Patent Classification (IPC) | 10.09.99 |
| 11 | WIPO Copyright Treaty | 10.12.98 |
| 12 | Berne Convention for the Protection of Literature and Artistic Works | 08.07.99 |
International agreements related to intellectual property protection, despite their importance, have no real mechanism to assure that their requirements are followed. Kyrgyzstan has acceded to the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which is one of the key multilateral agreements that sets standards to be followed by the states party to WTO in the area of intellectual property. Within the framework of the Interdepartmental Commission on negotiations with WTO, Kyrgyzpatent did a lot of work towards bringing the legal acts in the area of intellectual property protection into conformity with the TRIPS Agreement. Presently the Interdepartmental Commission of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic is working on coordinating the activity of ministries and departments on the issues related to WTO.
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In 1995 an international seminar on the protection of industrial property was held under the auspices of WIPO, an international and a national seminar on "Protection of Plant Varieties According to the UPOV Convention" was held in 1996, and a WIPO seminar on copyright and related rights was held in August of 1999.
Within the framework of the WIPO program to establish a global network on intellectual property information, work is being conducted to enable the citizens of Kyrgyzstan to access, via global information networks, various informational databases and to provide via the Internet system information on intellectual property in Kyrgyzstan to users from other countries. Also, work is under way to introduce the automated examination system, which will eventually lead to a paperless technology system of processing applications.
A great deal of work is conducted to collaborate with the CIS countries within the framework of the Interstate Council on the Protection of Industrial Property. An indubitably important element in the modern global system of industrial property protection in the territory of former USSR was the adoption of the Eurasian Patent Convention, in the development and adoption of which Kyrgyzpatent played an active role. On September 29, 1995, the President of the Kyrgyz Republic signed a Ratification Document on the accession of the Kyrgyz Republic to the Eurasian Patent Convention, which came into effect in the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic on January 13, 1996. Ratification of the Eurasian Patent Convention was enthusiastically met by the inventors of the Kyrgyz Republic because the links of the former USSR countries still persist, and invention protection in the territory of CIS countries remains a relevant issue.
Kyrgyzpatent is active within the framework of the Eurasian Patent Convention. In November of 1999 the Eighth (sixth ordinary) meeting of the Administrative Council of the Eurasian Patent Organization was held in the city of Cholpon-Ata; the Administrative Council is a representative body of the Organization, where each Contracting state is represented by a plenipotentiary representative, and the main objective is the performance of administrative tasks. At this Administrative Council meeting the Director of Kyrgyzpatent was elected Chairman of the Administrative Council of the Organization for the next two years.
Kyrgyzpatent's efforts lead to the signing of interstate agreements in the area of industrial property protection with the Russian Federation, the Republics of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia and Azerbaijan and in the area of intellectual property protection with the Republic of Turkey.
Kyrgyzpatent has signed interdepartmental agreements with the Russian Association of Authors, the representative office of the International Federation of Producers of Phonograms, the Tajik Agency of Copyright and Related Rights, the Kazakh Association of Authors, the Uzbek Republican Agency of Copyright, the Agency of Copyright in Kazakhstan in the Area of Management of Property Right of Authors on the Collective Basis.
Obviously, the legal acts mentioned above and the membership in international agreements cannot be observed without the application of appropriate measures to implement these rights and to coordinated the activity of all state bodies; thus one of the main objectives is establishing what specific measures are to be taken to prevent the violation of rights. Kyrgyzpatent is doing extensive work in that direction; in particular, on the Kyrgyzpatent's initiative, an extended Collegium of Kyrgyzpatent is being established in order to coordinate the work of state bodies of the Kyrgyz Republic for the development of a coherent policy in the area of intellectual property, assurance of interdepartmental cooperation for the implementation of measures to protect intellectual property rights, and the monitoring of implementation and observance of international agreements in the area of intellectual property; legislative, executive, law enforcement, custom and court bodies of the Kyrgyz Republic are represented on this Collegium.
In order to coordinate the management of the authors' property rights, a deliberative body was established at Kyrgyzpatent: the Council of Authors, the members of which are authors who transferred the management of their property rights to Kyrgyzpatent. Presidium is the working organ of the Council.
Kyrgyzpatent has participated in drafting a National Program of developing the intellectual property system, named "Intellect", for the 2000-2010 period; its goal is to establish in Kyrgyzstan a generally recognised National system of development of scientific, technical, and artistic creativity, the patenting and licensing business, and collaboration with regard to innovations and investments. The adoption and implementation of this program will permit the establishment of a system of intellectual property that encourages the creative activity of authors and inventors, which will eventually form the foundation of a competitive economy and will enhance cultural development. In order for the Program to achieve its objectives, state support not only from Kyrgyzpatent, but from all state structures is required.
