On 26 October, the first virtual meeting of the heads of intellectual property offices of the G20 countries (IP20+) took place under the chairmanship of Saudi Arabia. Rospatent Head Mr. Grigory Ivliev participated in the event.

Among the participant were Director-General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Mr. Daren Tang, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Mr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, representatives of the intellectual property offices of China, USA, League of Arab States, France, UK, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, Japan, Republic of Korea, Turkey, Indonesia, Argentina, Mexico, Singapore, and others.

In his speech, the head of the Russian IP Office summarized the current situation in the field of intellectual property and noted that measures to fight the pandemic required more flexibility on the part of all state agencies, including Rospatent.

The Head of Rospatent also recalled that the IP Office has given priority consideration to the inventions that help to fight COVID-19 and congratulate the Russian Gamaleya National Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology that was the first in the world to register a two-component vaccine against the COVID-19 infection.

So far, Rospatent has received 364 applications for inventions and utility models in the field of virus and related diseases control. Based on them, 64 patents were granted. Notwithstanding the pandemic, the Office received 9.6% more applications for inventions and 6.1% more applications for trademarks than over the same period of 2019.

Mr. Ivliev also highlighted the active participation of Rospatent in bilateral, regional, and multilateral cooperation. Within the Committee on WIPO Standards, the Office chairs the Task Force for three-dimensional models and images, and co-leads, together with the Australian IP Office, the new Task Force for blockchain technology in the processes of providing IP rights protection.

The heads of the participating IP offices agreed that the challenges and opportunities in the context of the pandemic required unprecedented approaches and actions, as well as comprehensive cooperation between the offices and WIPO.

The joint work focuses on information exchange to speed up the examination process and facilitate users' access to IP services in electronic format. The role of the global IP system in promoting innovation and accelerating progress, particularly in the area of medical and digital technologies, is gradually increasing, and the efforts of IP offices aim at ensuring the rapid registration of IP rights that will assist countries in fighting COVID-19.