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In the Republic of Moldova the multi-faceted activity of AGEPI aims at the implementation of one single policy in the area of industrial property. The essence of this policy is the creation of a favourable climate to encourage innovations, and making the system of industrial property protection more effective.
Implemented from 1992 to 1995, the first stage of the AGEPI policy is characterised, among other achievements, by streamlining the management structure, developing the basis of the system of legal regulation of industrial property, improving the mechanism of registration, and granting titles of protection. During this period the "Temporary Provision on the Protection of Industrial Property in the Republic of Moldova" were put into effect, the drafts of the main laws on industrial property protection and 337 normative documents developed, all of which have significantly speeded up the invention patenting procedure. Computerization of the technological processes of state examination and registration of industrial property has been started; the structure of the industrial property databases has been developed; the required solution on the automation of information processing have been proposed; multilateral relations in the area of collaboration and cooperation with organizations and patent offices of other countries have been developed. The Republic of Moldova has acceded to the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.
The specific feature of the second stage, from 1996 to 1999, is that the protection of industrial property received support from an adequate legislative base. The laws passed in the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, which were brought into agreement with the current norms of the international law, have created a firm foundation for organizational, technical, economic and other measures directed at the creation of the infrastructure that controls and promotes intellectual creativity. The ratification of international conventions and accession to these have been continuing. At this time the Republic of Moldova is party to 15 international agreements, conventions and treaties in the area of industrial property protection. This lays the foundation of the institution of industrial property protection, which is one of important attributes of a developed statehood.
Our experts have developed the required documents and obtained the state license for the establishment of the Institute of Intellectual Property as part of AGEPI, which will be reformed into the Regional Training Centre for the preparation of experts and dissemination of knowledge in the area of industrial property. In addition, normative acts have been adopted to encourage a more active integration of industrial property into the system of economy. A package of normative and legislative acts concerned with the estimation and registration of industrial property has been forwarded to the government for its consideration. The adoption of these acts will encourage innovative business strategy in the entrepreneurial activity.
The structure of AGEPI is constantly developed and modernized. In order to achieve higher efficiency, to reduce the time of the preparation of materials and the cost of publication of the official publications of AGEPI, a new subdivision of the Information Department - the Publications Section - was established. The AGEPI Examination Division of inventions and utility models includes 5 topical groups: biology, medicine and veterinary science; electronics, electric engineering, automation, physics, telecommunications and energy; machine building, metallurgy, construction and transportation; consumer goods industry, agriculture and food industry; chemistry and pharmacology. Specialized statistics, document issue, technical services, and preliminary examination groups have been set up too. From 1995 to 1999 over 200 patents were issued yearly, with 3.6 times more patents granted to national applicants than to foreign ones.
Eurasian patents contribute to the total number of invention patents that are valid in the territory of the Republic of Moldova. As of the end of 1999, they amounted to a total of 458 patents.
Amending the complex of laws related to national industrial property legislation in such a way that these laws would conform to the provisions of the TRIPS agreement, which is one of the main legal documents that determine the legal mechanism of the activity of the World Trade Organization (WTO), became an important objective for AGEPI. Customs, Prosecutor's Office, Economic Police and court bodies were involved into the above work. The Customs Department received several proposals on the measures to be taken for industrial property protection at the border. A proposal was sent to the government to set up a special group to co-ordinate the adherence to the TRIPS requirements in view of Moldova's accession to WTO.
One of the high-priority directions in the activity of AGEPI is the establishment of the Republic of Moldova on the world arena. Ratification of the main international conventions made the Republic of Moldova a full-fledged member of the world community in the area of industrial property.
Participation of AGEPI in the sessions of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and expansion of collaboration under various programs encourage constant and ongoing improvement of the state policy in the area of industrial property.
On the invitation of Moldova's president, a WIPO delegation headed by its Director-General Doctor Kamil Idris visited Moldova in April of 1999. In the course of this visit the distinguished guests held a number of meetings with the heads of the Republic of Moldova, during which the questions of collaboration for the sake of improvement of the system of intellectual property protection in our country had been discussed. Mr. Kamil Idris was awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa of the State University of the Republic of Moldova.
Collaboration with the European Patent Office (EPO) is conducted based on direct bilateral relations, multilateral ICON programs, and the TACIS regional project (expert training, English courses, technical assistance). With EPO support the representatives of AGEPI, patent attorneys and lawyers participated in 18 international seminars organized in several countries and concerned with patent information management, invention examination in the area of chemistry, food industry, pharmaceutics, protection of new plant varieties, the procedure of registering inventions and trademarks, etc.
From its very foundation AGEPI participates in the Eurasian Patent Convention. From February 14 to February 18, 1994, AGEPI participated in the Third session of the Interstate Council on the Protection of Industrial Property, which took place on the initiative of the Director-General of WIPO in the WIPO headquarters in Geneva. As an outcome of this session, a multilateral agreement "Eurasian Patent Convention" was adopted and signed.
The Eurasian Patent Convention went into force in the Republic of Moldova on February 16, 1996. Given the importance of the Convention as a tool in the integration processes in the area of industrial property in the CIS countries, the representatives of AGEPI systematically participate in the work of various organs of the Eurasian Patent Convention, in conferences and seminars of the Administrative Council of the Eurasian Organization and in the special working groups. It needs to be noted that at the Administrative Council's meeting in 1998 Director-General of AGEPI Eugen Stashkov was voted to the post of Deputy-Chairman of the Council for the next period. And at the 10th meeting of the Interstate CIS Council on Industrial Property Protection, which took place in March of this year in the city of Dushanbe, Mr. Eugen Stashkov was voted to the post of the Council Chairman for the term of 3 years.
AGEPI solves the problems of the exchange and dissemination of patent information on bilateral basis with 34 countries and 4 international organizations.
Many international meetings, seminars and conferences are held in the Republic of Moldova. One program that needs to be pointed out is the regional seminar "Fulfilment of Intellectual Property Rights", which was among the events held in the city of Kishinev on October 21 and 22 under the auspices of WIPO and AGEPI.
The deciding factor in the expansion of our information system's capacity is the creation of the territorial network of intellectual property AGEPINET, which will serve as a base for the integration into the Internet. Thanks to the integration of the local network into the WIPONET global network, the main requirements with regard to transmitting information over large distances between the offices concerned with intellectual property will be observed.
One of the main functions of AGEPI is the establishment and maintenance of the National Patent Fund (NPF), which exerts a significant influence on the quality of information and services.
The International Patent Documentation Fund of AGEPI on CD-ROMs contains publications from WIPO, EPO, Eurasian Patent Organization, patent offices of Austria, Germany, USA, Switzerland, and Japan. It is constantly being replenished according to agreements on bilateral information exchanges. During 1998 and 1999 such sizeable databases as ESPACE - ACCESS EUROPE, GLOBALPat, USAMark, ESPASE-PRECES, ROIPATENT-IMAGES, ESPASE-MEXICO, CD-BANAPA were added to this fund. Russian databases have also been acquired: Russian Patents (full descriptions) and Russian Patents (abstracts), plus the Comprehensive Index to the Russian Federation Fund.
The CD-ROM collection of AGEPI presently contains 4.5 thousand disks. The possibilities of extending paperless information search have been expanded because of a greater number of new foreign CD-ROMs and because automated databases of domestic patent documentation have been established. An important component of the CD-ROM collection are domestic disks: Infoinvent, which contains a bibliographical index of inventions by Moldavian inventors from 1963 to 1992, and Infoinvent Colectia AGEPI, with inventions registered in the Republic of Moldova from 1993 to 1998. These DBs allow different depth of search for the following PCT minimum countries: Austria, Germany, USA, Switzerland, and Japan, and for international PCT applications. In addition, starting the middle of 1998, the AGEPI examiners are able to access the database INPADOC DB PFS/INL via the Internet.
The Official Bulletin of the Industrial Property (BOPI), which is the business card of AGEPI, is published monthly and is sent to 40 countries of the world. Among other official publications of AGEPI the following publications are worthy of a special notice: journal of intellectual property "Intellectus", published quarterly since 1995; "Bursa Inventiilor", published monthly since 1996 and concerned with the marketing of inventions made and patented in the Republic of Moldova and presenting to the business community useful information on signing agreements on the assignment of rights, franchising and licensing; journal "AGEPI Consult" that discusses the possibilities and advantages brought by industrial property and explains the objectives of the examination procedure and the procedure of obtaining patents and registration certificates, assignment of rights to industrial property, and evaluation and tracking of intangible assets; "AGEPI Expo", published in Romanian and English, that covers national and international exhibitions of inventions.
The State Agency of the Industrial Property Protection works closely with inventors, and regularly holds seminars, exhibitions and business meetings for information exchange and consultations.
It needs to be noted that the first specialized exhibition "Know-How Exchange '98", held in Kishinev in the International Exhibition Centre "MoldExpo", was a true test of the intellectual and technical potential of national science, the activity of inventors, and of the scientific and technical creativity of the youth.
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AGEPI renders regular financial help to the inventor groups to support their participation in international exhibitions, the development of displays, models and exhibits that are to be presented at the exhibition. In 1999 the inventors of the Republic of Moldova participated in the 26th International Exhibition of Inventions for the first time, which was held in Geneva, where they won 46 medals, of which 10 were gold medals. Similar results were obtained this year. At the 13th International Exhibition of Inventions, Researchers, and New Products in Pittsburgh (USA), the Republic of Moldova presented 16 exhibits. The results exceeded all expectations: 10 medals, of which three were gold, and two special prized by the jury, including the Grand Prize, awarded to inventors Professor Aurelian Gulea (Ph.D.) and Professor Valery Rudik (Ph.D.). Moldavian researchers that participated in the work of the 4th World-wide Exhibitions of Inventions, Researches, and New Products in Africa (Casablanca), where they too won gold medals.
Over 260 patents have been granted to women inventors of the Republic of Moldova during the 5-year period of activity of the national system of industrial property protection. Achievements of women inventors Liliana Chepoy, Lidia Gavrilitsa, Maria Duka and Galina Lupashku brought 10 gold and silver medals at the international exhibitions held in Budapest (Hungary), Brussels (Belgium), Pittsburgh (USA), Casablanca (Morocco), Bucharest (Romania), and Kishinev (the Republic of Moldova). Every year the Agency nominates, among the inventors, candidates for the WIPO gold medal.
The work of AGEPI in the area of rendering services to enterprises and organizations is conducted on commercial basis, but the price policy is flexible. To introduce order into the relations with clients, fees for information, consulting and other services have been calculated and set based on general practical experience.
The activity of AGEPI is developing in two main long-term directions.
First: to avail to enterprises the most full and complete information, to expand the range of protected types of industrial properties, to establish the National Centre of Information and the Institute of Industrial Property under the auspices of AGEPI.
Second: to actively collaborate with government bodies (Customs Department, Economic Police, specialized court institutions) in order to consolidate the capabilities of the administrative and legal systems in protecting industrial property rights and assure the application of measures used in the international practice for the prevention of illegal activity and resolution of unavoidable conflicts that arise in the process of using industrial property objects.
