On 23 November 2020, delegation of the Eurasian Patent Office (EAPO) took part in the East meets West, the European Patent Office’s conference.

East meets West is an annual forum for professionals in the field of patent information. Patent search specialists, patent attorneys, data providers, representatives of patent offices gather to provide first-hand information on the latest updates of patent information in Asia and beyond the region.

The participants reviewed the experience of Japanese and Korean patent offices in using artificial intelligence for patent search and examination, and received an update on the new Chinese Patent Law amendments.

This year the forum also drew attention to the Eurasian patent information. The EAPO representative briefed on recent progress in patent information tools in the Office.

The EAPO presented new opportunities for the English-speaking audience to use the Eurasian Publication Server and the Register of Eurasian patents, advanced search of Eurasian applications and patents, as well as legal status information in English. Special focus was on the new technology of ‘instant’ publication of patent documents and announcements on legal status change.

Expansion of collections of patent documents of the countries of the Eurasian region with data available in English in the Eurasian Patent Information System (EAPATIS) as well as access to registers of national patent offices of the Contracting States of the Eurasian Patent Convention (with focus on direct links in EAPATIS) was also reviewed in the course of the presentation. The new version has been adapted for English-speaking users and contains manuals in English.

The EAPO representative also spoke about other updates in the Eurasian patent information, including the publication of authority file, new types of announcements on oppositions.