Press-release of the Fourthinth (Tenth Ordinary) Session of the Administrative Council of the Eurasian Patent Organization.

 

The fourteenth (tenth ordinary) session of the Administrative Council of the Eurasian Patent Organization (EAPO) was held in Moscow, Russian Federation, on November 17-21, 2003.

Representatives of all Contracting States of the Eurasian Patent Convention (EPC) - namely the plenipotentiary representatives of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, The Republic of Kazakstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, the Republic of Turkmenistan, and representatives of the Ukrainian Patent office, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and European Patent office (EPO) as observers have participated in the session held in the EAPO headquarters.

The participants of the session stood in memory of Viktor Ivanovich Blinnikov, the man who has initialized setting up the Eurasian Patent Convention, the first President of the Eurasian Patent office who has contributed decisively in establishing and developing the EAPO.

The session chaired by Mr. Korchagin A.D., the Chairman of the EAPO Administrative Council and the plenipotentiary representative of the Russian Federation has considered a number of important problems and documents concerning mainstreams Organization's activities prepared on the results previously discussed by experts of the EPC Member States.

Having considered the results of the financial and management activities for accounting period and tasks for the incoming year and based on the recommendations of the eigth (September 2003) session of the Budget Group the Administrative Council has approved implementing of the EAPO annual balance of accounts for 2002 and accepted the EAPO budget for 2004.

Within the financial assets provided for the respective articles of the EAPO budget the Administrative Council has decided:

to hold in 2004 two workshops under the auspices of the Industrial Property Protection of the Republic of Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic. Based on recommendations of the Interstate council on the industrial property protection it is scheduled to hold the workshop in the Kyrgyz Republic late in May in Bishkek, Cholpon-Ata.

The Administrative Council has amended the EAPO Patent Regulations and Statute of Fees as well as the Staff Regulations to the Eurasian Patent office and has decided to effect amendments and appendices to said EAPO normative acts from January, 1, 2004.

Starting from said date the Patent Regulations to the Eurasian Patent Convention:

providing a possibility to extend terms of Eurasian patents validity in respect to those EAPO Contracting States, the legislation of which provides for extension terms of national patents validity;

obliging to provide nucleotides and/or amino acid sequences on machine-readable carriers relative to invention applications in which said sequences are disclosed;

setting the sequence of entering in the Register of Eurasian patents data concerning changes of names or patent owners description, their residence or whereabouts (a corresponding appendix is provided in the EAPO Statute of Fees).

Refinements and appendices in the Staff Regulations of the EAPO personnel reflect changes in the Labor Legislation of the Russian Federation as the EAPO host country where the EAPO headquarters sits.

The session participants have also heard reports on activities in the field of information technologies within frames of realization decisions of the second (May 2003) session of permanent working group on information technologies set up by the EAPO Administrative Council. The work has resulted in providing an access to the EAPATIS patent and information system, developed by the EAPO experts, signing an agreement with a majority of the Contracting States on the EAPATIS use, rendering them technical, methodical and other required support in mastering and using the system. The work is underway to convert a retrospective part of the patent documentation of said States to machine readable carriers and its presenting to the EAPO, mostly by end of 2003. The next stage includes the development a search data base of patent documentation of the EAPO Contracting States and hanging the documentation over to them in a digital form for placing on their web-sites, providing an access thereto for experts of national offices via the EAPATIS system and subsequent providing an access to said information product by interested users on the level of national offices.

To commemorate the memory of Mr. V.I. Blinnikov, the first President of the European Patent office, the Administrative Council has considered the proposals made by the plenipotentiary representatives, patent offices of the Eurasian Patent Convention Member States and the European Patent office and taken a number of decisions, including:

to name an award after V.I. Blinnikov, yearly awarded to post-graduates of Russian State Institute of intellectual property, and call it ²V.I. Blinnikov¢ award²;

to draw up a proposal to the next Administrative Council session on founding Gold medal named after V.I. Blinnikov to award it to the best inventors of the EAPO Contracting States;

to prepare for publishing a book devoted to the EAPO 10-th anniversary initialized and headed by V.I. Blinnikov.

Mr. I.G.Takhirov, the plenipotentiary representative of the Republic of Tajikistan, handed over to the Eurasian Patent office the Honorary breastplate of the National patent-information Center of the Republic of Tajikistan with which V.I. Blinnikov was awarded on the occasion of 10-th anniversary of the NPI Center.

On the ground of office term expire of Mr. Korchagin A.D., as the EAPO Administrative Council Chairman and Mr. Seidov M.-Ya.M.-A. and Mr. Azizjan A.F. as the EAPO Administrative Council Deputy-Chairmen the Administrative Council has expressed its gratitude for their fruitful work in guiding the Administrative Council activities.

The Administrative Council has elected unanimously the plenipotentiary representative of the Republic Tajikistan Mr. Takhirov Inom Gafurovich as the EAPO Administrative Council Chairman;

the plenipotentiary representative of the Republic of Armenia Mr. Azizjan Armen Felixovich as the EAPO Administrative Council Deputy-Chairman;

the plenipotentiary representative of the Republic of Kazakstan Ms. Sakhipova Nurgaisha Nurtaevna as the EAPO Administrative Council Deputy-Chairman.

The EAPO Administrative Council has discussed a matter concerning the EAPO President and taking into an account proposals made by the plenipotentiary representative of the Russian Federation to elect a representative of Russia as the EAPO president, the host country of the EAPO headquarters which contributed much in establishing and developing the EAPO and decided:

to support the EAPO vice-President Mr. A.N. Grigoriev as a nominee for the EAPO President in accordance with the position of the plenipotentiary representatives of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, The Republic of Kazakstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, the Republic of Turkmenistan,

based on said position address to Mr. A.D. Korchagin, the plenipotentiary representatives of the Russian Federation, to approve and nominate in a prescribed manner the EAPO vice-President Mr. A.N. Grigoriev for electing as the EAPO President and include it into the agenda of the EAPO extraordinary session to be held in February, 2004,

to prepare to the next ordinary session of the Administrative Council proposals concerning representation of the Eurasian Patent Convention Member States in the top executive positions of the EAPO Administrative Council and in the Eurasian Patent office preliminary discussed by the Eurasian Patent office with the national patent offices of the EAPO Member States.

The Administrative Council has appointed the EAPO vice-President Mr. A.N. Grigoriev as acting EAPO President.

It is decided to hold the next ordinary session of the Administrative Council in Moscow, Russian Federation in October-November 2004.

After the end of the EAPO Administrative Council session, Mr. I.G. Takhirov, the EAPO Administrative Council President has directed a message to the Government of the Russian Federation expressing his gratitude to Rospatent and its top executives for fruitful work and cooperation within the EAPO frames and expressed his wish to support the position of the EAPO Administrative Council concerning the EAPO President.