ACTIVITIES OF THE EAPO ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL ACTIVITIES OF THE EAPO ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL

Thirty-fifth (twenty-sixth ordinary) meeting of the EAPO Administrative Council

On September 10-11, 2019 the thirty-fifth (twenty-sixth ordinary) meeting of the EAPO Administrative Council took place in Nur-Sultan, Republic of Kazakhstan. The meeting gathered together delegations of all Contracting States to the Eurasian Patent Convention (EAPC): the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.

A representative of the World Intellectual Property Organization participated in the meeting in the capacity of observer.

Plenipotentiary Representative of the Kyrgyz Republic in the EAPO Administrative Council, Chairman of the State Service for Intellectual Property and Innovation under the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic Dinara Moldosheva chaired the EAPO Administrative Council meeting.

The meeting focused on the issues related to the current operations and the prospects for the further development of the EAPO. Among the decisions taken by the EAPO AC it is worth mentioning the approval of the EAPO Annual Report for 2018, the adoption of the EAPO budget for 2020, as well as the approval and implementation of the amendments and addenda to the Procedure for Building and Disbursing the Eurasian Patent Organization Reserve Fund from January 1, 2020.

A significant resolution of the EAPO Administrative Council under Article 20 of the EAPC was the decision to authorize EAPO to request the status of an International Searching and International Preliminary Examining Authority under the Patent Cooperation Treaty.

With due appreciation of the results of the Diplomatic Conference on the Adoption of the Protocol on the Protection of Industrial Designs to the EAPC, the EAPO AC made a decision to entrust EAPO to continue joint endeavors with the IP offices of the EAPC Contracting States related to the development of the regulatory legal framework required for the establishment of the Eurasian system of legal protection of industrial designs.

The meeting also saw the EAPO AC’s approval of the conclusion of the Memorandum of Understanding on Bilateral Cooperation between the EAPO and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).

The EAPO AC also approved the Provisions on Long-Term Internships at EAPO and its enactment as of January 1, 2020.

The EAPO AC meeting became the platform for announcement on awarding the following representatives of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Republic of Tajikistan and EAPO with V.I. Blinnikov Gold Medal "For Promoting Invention and Patent Practice”:

• I.D. Osmonov, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor of the Department of “Electrification and Automation of Agriculture” of the Kyrgyz National Agrarian University named after Konstantin Skryabin;
• N.S. Buktukov, Academician of the National Academy of Sciences, Director of the D.A. Kunaev Mining Institute, Honoured Inventor of the Republic of Kazakhstan;
• Z.A. Yaminova, Candidate of Technical Sciences, Head of the Department for Training of Scientific and Scientific-Pedagogical Personnel of the Technological University of Tajikistan;
• M.B. Beketaev, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan;
• S.A. Eminov, Head of Administrative Information System Maintenance Division of the Patent Information and Automation Department, EAPO.

The twenty-fourth meeting of the Budget Working Group of the EAPO Administrative Council took place on August 8-9, 2019 in Moscow, Russian Federation. Representatives of IP offices of the following EAPC Contracting States took part in the meeting: the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Republic of Tajikistan and the Russian Federation.

Oleg Svetlov, Head of the EAPO Finance, Accounting and Budget Planning Department opened the meeting of the EAPO AC Budget Working Group (BWG). The BWG elected the representative of the Republic of Belarus Zhanna Gribko, Head of Financial and Economic Department of the National Centre for Intellectual Property, as the Chairman of the twenty-fourth meeting.

The BWG recommended that the EAPO Administrative Council approve the EAPO Annual Report 2018 and adopt the draft EAPO budget for 2020.

The Working Group also considered issues related to the updating of certain EAPO normative legal acts.

The decisions and recommendations of the EAPO AC BWG were reflected in the minutes of the meeting and submitted for review at the EAPO Administrative Council during the thirty-fifth (twenty-sixth ordinary) meeting.