«EAPO stands for the building of a common Eurasian patent and information spac», - President of the Eurasian Patent Office (EAPO) Grigory Ivliev said at the plenary session of the II International Scientific and Practical Conference “Intellectual Property in the Modern World: Challenges of Time and Prospects of Development” in Minsk, Republic of Belarus.

According to the EAPO President, the institution of intellectual property is now being transformed. Patent offices are increasing their functionality in terms of supporting innovation ecosystems. Integration projects help us to overcome the current challenges. “The common task of the EAPO is to unlock most effectively the enormous existing potential in the participating countries. Due to integration, harmonization of approaches, data and information exchange, we can avoid duplication of work and reduce the costs at each of the national IP offices,” emphasized President Ivliev. Following the growing technical complexity of applications, the offices face personnel issues. Grigory Ivliev notes that in the future examiners with very narrow specialization will be in demand.

Since 2021, the Eurasian patent system includes industrial designs. With the support of the member states of the Eurasian Patent Organization, the EAPO is ready to expand the number of regional intellectual property subject matters – to build a system for registering Eurasian trademarks and utility models.

Priority steps for the development of examiner interaction and information cooperation will be determined based on the results of thematic research works next year.

The EAPO President paid special attention to cooperation with the Republic of Belarus. In addition to traditional activities, a large-scale regional seminar and a joint scientific survey on legal protection of utility models are planned for the coming year. A series of events for technology parks is forthcoming: workshops on IP rights management, IP valuation, IP marketing and patent analytics. The Scientific and Technological Park of the Belarusian National Technical University "Polytechnic" and the Minsk City Technopark will take part in the program.

The II International Scientific and Practical Conference "Intellectual Property in the Modern World: Challenges of Time and Prospects of Development" brought together leading IP experts, representatives of patent offices and authorities. At the conference, they exchanged views on pressing issues at the level of states and associations: parallel imports, development of legislation, protection of IP rights in the digital environment, dispute resolution practice.

«Holding major professional events is not an easy but highly demanded activity raising the level of patent culture and allowing numerous inventors, innovators, and talented youth to use the tools to implement their creative projects. The EAPO will continue to support all educational and scientific initiatives in all formats», Grigory Ivliev emphasized.