DIGITALIZATION OF THE EURASIAN PATENT OFFICE

New President: New Development Strategy, New Challenges

By a decision of the plenipotentiary representatives of the EAPO member states, a representative of the Russian Federation was elected the President of the Eurasian Patent Office, who took up his duties in February 2022. A new strategic course has been taken for the closest integration of the intellectual potential of all EAPO member states.

Grigory Ivliev, President of the Eurasian Patent Office, defines the basic principles of the development of integration in examination activity as: “...the joint effort of examiners from the region’s patent offices in terms of patent search and industrial property examination, distribution of the workload among the patent offices with due account for their specialization in certain technical fields, and, in some cases, the involvement of leading dedicated scientific and educational establishments in the examination. As part of such a system, the Eurasian Patent Office should become a kind of regional competence center and a coordination center for expert collaboration contributing to closer ties between countries in the legal protection of industrial property.”

This places new challenges before the Eurasian Patent Office, including the enhancement of trust in the organization as a center of the Eurasian ecosystem in the area of intellectual property that brings together regional examination and patent information resources using the latest achievements and best practices in information technology.

Current state of automation

Existing corporate information tools automate the vast majority of the office’s processes, both internal processes and those for interacting with external users, including other industrial property offices. The existing information systems and services are mostly integrated with each other, however there are still many circumstances in which state-of-the-art standardized approaches to integration are not yet used.

The information tools of the Eurasian Office have been developed using different technologies at different points in time over more than 20 years. The resulting state can be described as “patchwork” or “fragmented” automation, in which most processes are digitized, but a single technology stack has not been chosen, nor have common approaches and policies for the development and maintenance of information systems been adopted. This increases the cost of operating the systems, seriously hampers further development or even makes advancement impossible, and creates a high risk of introducing additional errors into the operation of these tools.

With a view to revamp the existing information systems and to ensure the further digitalization of the office as a whole, the creation and rollout of the Eurasian Patent Organization’s Integrated Information System began in 2022.

At the same time, production use of the Eurasian Patent Office’s existing set of technical tools continued in the reporting year. The IT team ensured the development and support of the office’s automated systems to improve the efficiency of users’ work and expand the capabilities available to them.

Introduction of new information products

In the reporting year, the Eurasian Patent Office offered applicants the option to submit digital 3D models as part of the files of applications for inventions and industrial designs. Operations with 3D models are supported at all stages of the Eurasian patent procedure, beginning with online filing via the EAPO-ONLINE system and ending with official publication using the information services of the EAPO website.

Patents for inventions and industrial designs have been granted in electronic form since May 1, 2022. Electronic patents are available in EAPO-ONLINE Personal Accounts and the registers of Eurasian patents on the EAPO website.

In 2022, high-quality translation of patent documents was ensured through the implementation in the Eurasian Patent Office of a new version of the machine translation system WIPO Translate based on neural networks. Russian-English and English-Russian translation is available, and translation from French, German, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Spanish into English is provided in more than 30 technical fields.

New services were implemented for EAPO-ONLINE users to enable the filing of oppositions, observations, requests concerning the applications and patents of other applicants and patent owners. EAPO-ONLINE users may file:

• requests for changing the representatives for applications or patents
• observations on applications at the stage of substantive examination following their publication
• requests for patent term extension
• oppositions against the grant of patents

The importance of the maintenance and development of the patent search tools has increased because, on July 1, 2022, the Eurasian Patent Office began operating as an International Searching Authority and International Preliminary Examining Authority under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). The new version of the machine translation system based on artificial intelligence (AI) technology was embedded into the EAPATIS patent search tool for automated translation of the terms in search queries and the documents found. The Eurasian Office continued the use of AI technologies for classification and search for similar documents.

Creation of common Eurasian information space

On August 23–24, 2022, the regional “Forming of Eurasian Patent Information Space: Experience and Prospects” seminar was held in Osh, Kyrgyz Republic. It was arranged by the Eurasian Patent Office and the State Agency for Intellectual Property and Innovation of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Kyrgyz Republic (Kyrgyzpatent). The event was attended by representatives of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, the President of the Eurasian Patent Office, and the leadership and experts of the patent offices of the EAPO member states. The seminar addressed key issues of the informational and technological support for the processes of integration and interaction in the field of intellectual property in the Eurasian space and the Eurasian Patent Office’s electronic systems and services for applicants and scientific organizations from the EAPO member states. The participants exchanged experience in the digitalization of national patent offices, discussed the ways for using modern information technologies in the practical activities of the offices, including AI tools and digital 3D models of claimed subject matter.

On November 21, 2022, the Tenth Meeting of the Permanent Working Group on Information Technologies of the Eurasian Patent Organization Administrative Council was held in videoconference format. The meeting was chaired by Emil Mammadov, Vice-President of the Eurasian Patent Office. The meeting of the working group was attended by representatives of the national IP offices of the EAPO member states and representatives of the Eurasian Patent Office.

The main topic of the event was the introduction of an updated version of EAPO-ONLINE, which enables applicants to apply for Eurasian patents for inventions and industrial designs with the incorporation of digital 3D models of the subject matter claimed in the documents of Eurasian applications.

The Permanent Working Group advised that the national IP offices provide a pilot mode for the receipt of Eurasian applications for patents for inventions and industrial designs which enables the incorporation of digital 3D models in the files and their subsequent transfer to the Eurasian Patent Office through EAPO-ONLINE.

In December 2022, the Intellectual Property Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan, supported by the Eurasian Patent Office, implemented a pilot project on the submission of the graphic files of applications for inventions, utility models, and industrial designs in the format of digital 3D models.

Main indicators for digitalization

Electronic workflow of Eurasian applications and patents for inventions and industrial designs

The Eurasian Patent Office has recorded an ever-growing inflow of electronic applications for inventions and industrial designs. In numbers, 2022 saw 3,798 applications filed electronically with the office, which constitutes more than 96 per cent of total filings.

The number of EAPO-ONLINE users who have completely switched to electronic interaction with the Eurasian Patent Office continued to grow in 2022.

As of January 1, 2023, all registered users of EAPO-ONLINE have switched to completely electronic interaction under an agreement regulating the receipt of electronic correspondence from the Eurasian Patent Office, with notifications sent to users by e-mail.

Electronic publication of Eurasian patent documents

The development of the technology for the instant publication of information on Eurasian patents granted, full descriptions thereof, and notices of changes in the legal status of Eurasian applications and patents for inventions has continued. The work performed has resulted in a reduction in the average time for preparing descriptions for publication to 22 days.

Maintenance and enhancement of EAPATIS

The Eurasian Patent Information System (EAPATIS) is one of the core tools providing examiners of the Eurasian Patent Office and users from the States party to the EAPC with access to the global collection of patent documents.

The EAPATIS search arrays are continuously augmented with newly published information and growing collections of patent documentation.

Information security management

Supporting the Office’s information infrastructure

In 2022, the Eurasian Patent Office completed the transition to process management for the supporting information infrastructure and information security in accordance with all of the relevant requirements of international standards and accepted practices. A proactive system for technical protection of information was implemented, including tools for preventing attacks, monitoring the flow of patent information in the course of operations, ensuring its redundancy, and disaster tolerance.

The Eurasian Patent Office is following the global trends in the development of information security and information technology. The process management implemented enables the flexible adaptation of the basic infrastructure of the office to the potential effects of geopolitical risks and cyber threats. The list of solutions used is based on the best information security practices for the purposes of the maximum protection of applicants’ interests in receiving the proper quality services and the protection of the interests of internal users in terms of maintaining the Eurasian Patent Office’s reputation.

Starting from 2023, the improvement of the maturity of information security management processes through the creation of a process to ensure the continuity of the organization’s activities (ISO 22301), which is necessary for the maintenance of the vital functions and security of the organization’s IT services, will become the main strategic objective of the Eurasian Patent Office, especially taking into account geopolitical risks. Thus, the current strategic goal of the Eurasian Patent Office lies in the enhancement of the security of the organization’s key processes and assets under conditions of uncertainty.

The measures planned are aimed at establishing and maintaining proactive monitoring and risk management systems that allow the design of solutions for the development and improvement of the security and information infrastructure systems in the form of a single balanced product that offers a reasonable cost-benefit ratio, with the minimum costs necessary to meet the continuity requirements.

The main objectives of the implementation of a business continuity management system in the Eurasian Patent Office include:

- improvement of the manageability and continuity of the processing of applications for inventions

- demonstration of its high reliability level to applicants by the employment of solutions which guarantee that the office can perform its functions and fulfil its obligations in the event of emergencies

- cost reduction for the management and recovery of the organization’s functionality after possible failures

- objective substantiation of the cost of ensuring continuity, including through risk management and the timely identification of threats to continuity

- ensuring the personal protection of interested parties in the event of force majeure.

The creation of a secure IT infrastructure is one area for the application of effort on the path to the creation of a unified patent space in the face of increased risks of cyber threats. The Eurasian Patent Office has set itself the ambitious task of improving the cyber threat security of the IT infrastructures of all the patent offices which are part of the EAPO.

Currently, the Eurasian Patent Office has the ability and desire to share its experience with its colleagues in the Eurasian space, and it is ready to develop integration processes. The information infrastructure is protected against contingencies and is ready to repel possible cyber attacks. Additionally, the Eurasian Patent Office has had positive experience in helping to restore the infrastructures of the patent offices of the EAPO member states after incidents related to information security.

The organization’s medium-term plans include support for the offices of the member states in the creation of a secure and continuous infrastructure platform for unified IT services, assistance in setting up and launching a secure and continuous IT infrastructure, and professional training of IT specialists.

Its long-term plans include support for the national IP offices of the EAPO member states in building effective information security and continuity management systems for the IT services of these offices (information security risk analysis, designing solutions for information security systems, and advisory assistance in their implementation).

Support for Dedicated Internet Access (DIA)

In 2022, the organization took its traditional measures to provide high-speed Internet access via dedicated lines for the national IP offices of the States party to the EAPC, aimed at maintaining and developing a common Eurasian patent information space, which is especially relevant for the implementation of the current policy of closer Eurasian integration.