Regulatory Activities

The chief aim of the amendments and addenda made to the Patent Regulations under the EAPC and the Statute on Fees of the Eurasian Patent Organization was to rationalize the system of reduced fee rates that applies to fees payable to the Eurasian Patent Office for performing legally significant actions with respect to Eurasian applications and Eurasian patents.

The amendments and addenda made to paragraphs 2, 4, 5, 6, 7(1), 7(3), 8 and 11 of EAPO’s Statute on Fees provide that, as of 1 January 2019, the reduced rate of fees will apply to the following groups of applicants, patent owners and subjects of transfer of right to a Eurasian application or a Eurasian patent:

• natural persons from a State party to the Eurasian Patent Convention;
• natural persons who are citizens and permanent residents of the States meeting the requirements for granting international fee reduction in line with the provisions of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT);
• legal entities from States party to the Eurasian Patent Convention.

Natural persons from among the first group shall pay a fee equal to 10 per cent of the established amount. Natural persons from among the second group shall pay a fee equal to 50 per cent of the established amount. A two-tier system of fee reduction has been established for legal entities of States party to the Eurasian Patent Convention. Thus, government research and educational institutions shall pay 30 per cent of the established fee amount, while other legal entities of the EAPC Member States shall pay 90 per cent of the established amount.

In addition to the amendments and addenda referred to above, the new language of EAPO’s Patent Regulations

• specifies the cases when Eurasian patent attorneys are under obligation to submit to the Eurasian Office the power of attorney issued to them for filing oppositions against the grant of a Eurasian patent or oppositions against patent term extension;
• establishes the norms regulating the use of digital signature in electronic documents of the Eurasian Patent Office;
• eliminates legal and regulatory omissions with respect to cases when one applicant files Eurasian applications for identical inventions having the same date of filing and priority date;
• specifies the provisions governing the calculation and extension of procedural time limits for the performance by the Eurasian Office of actions with respect to Eurasian patents for invention.

Likewise, the EAPO’s Statute on Fees had some of its provisions amended, including those that specify the timeframes for the submission of supporting documents with respect to payment of fees for filing oppositions or extension of deadlines for performing procedural actions.

Amendments and addenda made to the Administrative Regulations under the EAPC and the Rules of Procedure of the Eurasian Organization’s Administrative Council improve the operations of the EAPO Administrative Council.

Thus, to further advance the principle of equitable geographic representation, a new provision was added to the Administrative Regulations under the EAPC. It specifies that the Chair and the Deputy Chair of the EAPO Administrative Council may not represent the same Member State of the Eurasian Patent Convention.

The main amendment to the Rules of Procedure of EAPO’s Administrative Council facilitates the performance of its mandated functions, in a consistent manner. The new language of the Rules of Procedure provides that the items on the agenda of a regular meeting of the Administrative Council, which were not addressed by the same regular meeting, shall be included into the agenda of the next meeting, unless the EAPO Administrative Council decides otherwise. The Rules of Procedure of the EAPO Administrative Council also specify that the Eurasian Patent Office acts as the secretariat of the EAPO Administrative Council.

The amendments and addenda made to the Patent Regulations under the Eurasian Patent Convention and the EAPO Statute on Fees require that the regulatory documents of the Eurasian Office containing relevant provisions be amended accordingly.