REGULATORY ACTIVITIES

A number of objective factors led to operative regulatory activity throughout 2021. Among these, the entry into force of the Protocol on the Protection of Industrial Designs to the Eurasian Patent Convention (the Protocol) and the appointment of the Eurasian Patent Office as an International Searching Authority and an International Preliminary Examining Authority under the Patent Cooperation Treaty were undoubtedly the main factors.

In total, 27 regulatory legal acts were prepared in 2021, including: 8 regulatory legal acts for approval by the EAPO Administrative Council and 19 regulatory legal acts for approval by the President of the Eurasian Patent Office.

The following documents were prepared to implement the Protocol:

• Part II “Industrial Designs” of the Patent Regulations under the Eurasian Patent Convention (EAPC);
• EAPO Statute on Fees for legally significant and other actions performed in relation to Eurasian industrial design applications and Eurasian industrial design patents;
• amendments and addenda to the Patent Regulations under the EAPC and the EAPO Statute on Fees, which were previously in force and whose effect exclusively covered inventions.

The EAPO Administrative Council approved these acts at its thirty-seventh (tenth extraordinary) meeting, on April 12, 2021, and they took effect from that date.

The Eurasian Patent Office’s main objective in the development of these acts was the creation of a regulatory framework for the legal regulation of relations involved in the regional legal protection of industrial designs on the basis of a single Eurasian patent.

In order to detail the provisions of Part II “Industrial Designs” of the Patent Regulations under the EAPC, the Eurasian Patent Office adopted 8 regulatory legal acts on the procedural issues of the legal protection of industrial designs, including:

• Rules and Requirements Related to the Application for the Grant of a Eurasian Industrial Design Patent;
• Procedure for Completing Web Forms for Filing Eurasian Industrial Design Applications;
• Procedure for Filing and Examination of Oppositions to the Granting of Eurasian Industrial Design Patents;
• Procedure for Maintenance of the Register of Eurasian Industrial Design Patents;
• Procedure for Granting Eurasian Industrial Design Patents;
• Procedure for Filing and Examination of Requests for the Surrender of Eurasian Industrial Design Patents and for Limitation of Eurasian Industrial Design Patents.

The Eurasian Patent Office approved, by order, the Statute on the Eurasian Patent Attorneys, which takes into account the introduction of specialization in industrial designs, and the Office also approved the Procedure for Preparation and Issuance of Official Publications of the Eurasian Patent Office, the list of which includes the Industrial Designs (Eurasian Applications and Patents) Gazette.

The start of Eurasian Patent Office activities with Eurasian industrial design applications also required amendments to a number of Eurasian Patent Office regulatory legal acts on the procedural issues of the legal protection of inventions.

In addition, in 2021, the Eurasian Patent Office continued its improvement of the regulatory procedures related to the examination of Eurasian industrial design applications. In particular, the following were approved:

• Procedure for Filing and Examination of Third-Party Observations Concerning Patentability of Inventions;
• List of Information and Documents Excluded from the Materials of Eurasian Applications and Eurasian Patents in the Acquaintance of Third Parties with Them;
• Procedure for the Filing and Examination of Appeals against the Extension of the Validity of Eurasian Patents for Inventions.

The 2021 approval of the Procedure for Maintaining the EAPO Pharmaceutical Register was also important for the development of the Eurasian Patent Office’s new areas of activity.