Due to the termination of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics by the Resolution of the USSR State Council of November 14, 1991, the ministries and other bodies of the state management, including the USSR Gospatent, were abolished. The USSR Gospatent stopped performing its functions from December 1, 1991, due to which an uncertain situation was created in the field of industrial property protection both in the Russian Federation and in the other states - Republics of the former USSR. One of the main reasons for that uncertainty was the termination, in the CIS States, the legislative acts of the former USSR and, in particular, those on the legal protection of inventions, industrial designs and trademarks.

By that time the single patent space was broken. In the territory of the independent States (subjects of the former USSR) an unfavorable situation was formed in respect of the invention activity, the creation of new kinds of equipment, goods, the implementation of new technologies, both domestic and foreign ones.

The main lines for going out of the emerged crisis in the field of industrial property protection were:

- establishment of an interstate system for the protection of industrial property;

- establishment of national patent systems in the CIS States and other States - subjects of the former USSR alongside with setting-up of the respective Patent Offices and adoption of their own laws in this field.

Establishment of an Interstate System for the Protection of Industrial Property

Bearing in mind that after the disintegration of the USSR the single patent space in the territory of the newly born states would be broken and that it would be impossible to stop the political process, the only reasonable way out was to maintain a central body for the industrial property protection alongside with Patent Offices which may be established by the independent Republics, which would grant the single patent in the single patent space.

The management of the USSR Gospatent addressed, before its liquidation, the proposal to start negotiations on the matters of establishing an interstate system for the industrial property protection and preparing a patent convention to the Governments of the former USSR Republics.

That proposal evoked a warm response and understanding on the side of a number of Republics, since, in their striving for independence, all the Republics remained linked by a thousand of ties, and the economic, scientific, technical and ecological relations which appeared during decades, with the other Republics. In those conditions, establishment of an interstate system would be a good prerequisite for protecting industrial property and putting forward modern technologies, forming conditions for setting up joint venture companies and promoting activities of foreign investors in the field of economy.

The idea of establishing and ensuring the conditions for running a single patent service of the country was first stated already in 1990, when on August 15, 1990 a meeting on sharing the functions in the field of industrial property between the USSR and the RSFSR was held in the USSR Gospatent (Protocol of August 15, 1990).

The Protocol was signed by Yu.A.Bespalov, Chairman of the USSR Gospatent, and N.G.Malyshev, Deputy Chairman of the RSFSR Council of Ministers.

On September 10-11, 1991 a working meeting of representatives of the Republics of the former USSR devoted to matters of interstate scientific and technical cooperation was held in Kiev.

The participants of the meeting, proceeding from their own long-term interests associated with the necessity of preserving and developing the scientific and technical potential of each state, as well as from the availability of highly integrated elements of the scientific and technical potential, which were situated in the territories of different states, from the already formed scientific and technical relations and recognizing advantages of international cooperation in the scientific and technical sphere, found it necessary to prepare and conclude, within the shortest time limits, an interstate agreement on scientific and technical cooperation.

This meeting also recommended the main principles of the coordinated scientific and technical policy, including:

- determination of priority lines in the interstate scientific and technical cooperation;

- organization of the state support for fundamental scientific research, scientific and technical programs and projects within the framework of such cooperation;

- undertaking of mutual legal and economic obligations to ensure scientific and technical cooperation;

- mutually beneficial cooperation in the field of scientific and technical information, statistics, science, metrology, intellectual property protection, patent policy, standardization and certification of scientific and technical products.

A draft provisional agreement on the industrial property protection, which provided for the establishment of an Interstate Organization for the Protection of Industrial Property one of the main task of which would be the grant of interstate titles of protection, was prepared in the USSR Gospatent with the participation of representatives of several Republics.

In the beginning of October 1991 a draft document on the Principles of Organization of a Single Patent System was prepared in the USSR Gospatent in the framework of a draft Treaty on Economic Union.

The principles of organization of a single patent system were as follows:

1. The Contracting States would establish a single patent system providing that the legal protection of industrial property in the territory of those States should be effected on the basis of a single application which would be considered by a single Patent Office.

2. The patent granted by the Patent Office in the framework of such a single patent system would be valid in the territory of all the Contracting States, i.e., such a patent may be granted, assigned or canceled in the territory of all the Contracting States with due regard to the invention patentability criteria provided for in the USSR legislation.

The Contracting States would recognize the validity, in their territory, of the earlier titles of protection issued in the USSR for inventions, industrial designs and trademarks.

3. The Interstate Patent Council should be formed for the purpose of working out a coordinated policy of the Contracting States in the patent field.

4. The Patent Office, including the organizations subordinate at that time to the USSR Gospatent, would be the executive body of the single patent system, which would be authorized to grant titles of protection for industrial property.

The said principles were approved and recommended for discussions with the Republics.

On October 10, 1991, in Moscow, at the USSR Gospatent, a working meeting of representatives of Republics of the former USSR was held with the aim to form principles of the Provisional Agreement on the Patent System functioning until signing the Interstate Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.

At that meeting the worked out principles of organization of the single patent system were adopted by the representatives of six Republics participating in the meeting and by five representatives of Republics acting in the observer capacity.

At that meeting the Working Group was entrusted with the task to submit, by the end of October 1991, a draft Agreement and, taking into account the comments received thereon to prepare the document for signing. It was also considered as appropriate to hold, after completion of the work on the draft Agreement, a meeting of full representatives of the respective Republics and to set up a Working Group for preparing a draft Interstate Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.

A meeting of the Working Group was held from October 21 to 28, 1991. All the documents necessary for the functioning of the Agreement on the Single Patent System were prepared. The Working Group found it appropriate to hold a meeting of full representatives for coordinating and signing of the Agreement in Moscow from November 12 to 14, 1991.

But the said meeting was held in Minsk, rather than in Moscow, on December 27, 1991, since, by that time, Minsk became the city where the Headquarters of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was situated.

On December 27, 1991, at a meeting of full representatives of the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan and Ukraine two important documents were considered and signed, namely: the Agreement on Interstate Scientific and Technical Cooperation and the Provisional Agreement on the Protection of Industrial Property.

The Provisional Agreement on the Protection of Industrial Property related to the protection of inventions, industrial designs and trademarks. It was supposed that the legislative base of that system would be recently adopted USSR laws, in particular the laws on inventions, trademarks and industrial designs so long as there was no another legal base at that time. The Agreement provided for the establishment of the Interstate Organization for the Protection of Industrial Property comprising the Interstate Patent Office for granting interstate titles of protection and the Administrative Council composed of representatives of the Contracting States.

At that meeting a Declaration of full representatives of the States party to the Agreement on the Protection of Industrial Property was made.

The Declaration stressed the concern about the delay in promoting to the economy advanced foreign technologies due to the lack of legal basis and a very system for industrial property protection in the territory of independent States - subjects of the former USSR.

The Agreement prepared was aimed at finding easier solutions to the said matters for the Contracting States. However, it was supposed that the mechanisms of the legal protection would gain their actual strength only after the Interstate Convention was in effect and the Interstate Patent Office was set up.

From the time of termination of the USSR Gospatent (December 1, 1991) and up to the time of signing of the Interstate Convention there existed a transitional period which main negative feature was that the mechanism of industrial property protection in the territory of the States subjects of the former USSR continued lying idle.

Taking into account the abovesaid, representatives of the States party to the Agreement addressed to B.N.Yeltsin, President of the Russian Federation, a recommendation concerning urgent setting-up of the Russian Patent Office which would undertake to perform some of the abovementioned international duties on the industrial property protection during the transitional period until the Interstate Convention took effect.

In order the Minsk Agreement be effective, it should be ratified by not less than three states. Regretfully, it was ratified by Ukraine only. The other states failed to take any decisions, though their striving for cooperation was obvious.

Delays with ratifying the Provisional Agreement in many States - Republics of the former USSR were due to their complex internal policies and economic instability as well as to the lack of state bodies which would manage the industrial property matters.

The States - Republics of the former USSR started setting up their national Patent Offices only in the end of January 1992. According to the Decree of President of the Russian Federation of January 24, 1992, the Patents and Trademarks Committee at the Ministry of Science, Higher Education and Technical Policy was formed.

The said Committee, as the successor, inherited all the organizations of the USSR Gospatent system. Draft laws on the industrial property protection were prepared, which were considered by the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation in February 1992.

The Minister of Science, Higher Education and Technical Policy of the Russian Federation and the Chairman of the Patents and Trademarks Committee indicated in their address to the heads of the Governments of the States party to the CIS that the Agreement prepared in Minsk in December 1991 might not be signed, since it did not comply with the economic and legal conditions formed by that time in the CIS. Therefore, some urgent measures concerning establishment of the single interstate system for the legal protection of industrial property and concerning preparation of a Patent Convention were proposed. The address, in particular, stated:

“We propose to the Governments of the CIS States as well as any other interested states to set down at once to preparing, and conclude in the nearest future, an open “Patent Convention”, i.e., an agreement on the single system for the legal protection of industrial property, similar to the system of the “European patent”.

After the setting-up of the Patent Offices in Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Armenia and other Republics the feeling of dissatisfaction with unsolved matters in respect of the formation of the Interstate system for the protection of industrial property was intensified.

It manifested itself at the meetings of representatives and the heads of the Patent Offices, which were held in Moscow in July and November 1992, when discussing matters of intergovernmental and interdepartmental cooperation in the field of industrial property protection. Most participants of those meetings, having confirmed the necessity of preparing the Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, spoke in favor of early ratification of the Interstate Agreement and addressed the Governments of the States, asking them to speed up the consideration of this matter.

In the result, they managed to convince the Governments of the CIS countries that a single system of the industrial property protection would be one of the most important elements of the economic cooperation. It is called upon to contribute to the restoration of the broken ties in the industry and to the protection of interests of inventors who, after the disintegration of the USSR, were deprived of their rights in the territory of the Republics of the former Union.

Creation of the Eurasian Patent Convention

On March 12, 1993, in Moscow, a meeting of the heads of the Governments of the CIS countries was held, where the Agreement on measures concerning the protection of industrial property and the setting-up of the Interstate Council on the Protection of Industrial Property was signed.

Article 1 of the Agreement provided for the setting-up of the Interstate Council on the Protection of Industrial Property for coordinating the joint activities on creating an interstate system for the protection of industrial property, harmonizing the national laws in the field of industrial property protection, and preparing an open Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.

Article 2 stated that, prior to preparation and conclusion of the Convention, the parties to the Agreement were entrusting the Council with the task of preparing, by July 1, 1993, proposals on primary steps on creating an interstate system for the legal protection of industrial property.

Article 4 recommended to the Council to apply to the World Intellectual Property Organization and other international organizations in order to have the draft Convention examined.

On May 18-19, 1993, in Moscow the first meeting of the Interstate Council on the Protection of Industrial Property was held. The meeting was attended by the delegations of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Moldova, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Ukraine headed by full representatives of those states, as well as observers delegated by the national Patent Offices of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. Dr. A.Bogsch, Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization, also took part in the meeting.

The participants of the meeting elaborated proposals on primary steps for creating an interstate system for the legal protection of industrial property and forwarded them to the Governments of their states. This, in the first place, was the creation of the Interstate Bureau for the Protection of Industrial Property, on which basis they supposed to start forming the Interstate Patent Office. In order to prepare a draft open Patent Convention and a list of documents arising out of it, the Permanent Interstate Working Group of Experts headed by the President of the Interstate Bureau was established.

The first meeting of the Interstate Council on the Protection of Industrial Property unanimously elected:

- Mr. Valeri L. Petrov, the full representative of Ukraine, as the Chairman of the Interstate Council on the Protection of Industrial Property;

- Mr. Tolesh Ye. Kaudyrov, the full representative of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as the Deputy Chairman of the Council;

- Mr. Victor I. Blinnikov, the First Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation Committee on Patents and Trademarks, as the President of the Interstate Bureau for the Protection of Industrial Property.

The Group for Preparing a draft Patent Convention was formed in the following composition: V.I.Blinnikov - head of the Group, R.T.Altchimbayeva (Republic of Kazakhstan), V.V.Belov (Russian Federation), Yu.L.Bobtchenok (Republic of Belarus), A.N.Grigoriev (Russian Federation), I.Ja.Daniljuk (Republic of Moldova), V.A.Zharov (Ukraine), S.D.Masaidova (Republic of Tajikistan), E.A.Nagapetjan (Republic of Armenia), A.T.Tokayev (Kirghiz Republic).

At the first stage of creating an interstate system for the legal protection of industrial property it was decided to be limited to the legal protection of inventions as special kinds of industrial property, most actively influencing the world art and the rates of the scientific and technical progress.

Approved were the principles of preparing a Patent Convention, the main of which were:

- creation of the Eurasian Patent Organization composed of the Administrative Council and the Eurasian Patent Office;

- the location of the headquarters of the Interstate Organization is Moscow; the official language is Russian;

- self-financing of the Eurasian Patent Office, in the meaning that its expenses should be covered by the fees and other derived income;

- the Eurasian Patent Office grants the Eurasian patent for any invention which is new, involves an inventive step and is industrially applicable;

- the term of the Eurasian patent is 20 years from the filing date of the application for a Eurasian patent;

- each Contracting State would provide for in its legislation the same civil law or another liability for infringement of a Eurasian patent as is provided for infringement of a national patent;

- as from the date of its publication the Eurasian patent is valid in all the States party to the Convention.

Membership in the Convention is open for any State-member of the United Nations, which is also bound by the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property and by the Patent Cooperation Treaty.

The Working Group prepared a draft Patent Convention with due regard to the abovestated principles. At its first meeting in Moscow it took into account the comments on the draft, as made by Patent Offices, and the corrected draft was once more considered at the second meeting of the Group, as was held in Uzhgorod, Ukraine, in September 1993. The Working Group approved the draft and recommended it for consideration at the second meeting of the Interstate Council, which was held on the next day in Uzhgorod also.

The Convention was approved in its entirety, and it was that time when its new title “the Eurasian Patent Convention” was adopted, which was called upon to stress the territorial (regional) nature of the cooperation agreement in the field of the legal protection of industrial property, similarly to the European Patent Convention or to the African Intellectual Property Organization.

In accordance with Article 4 of the Agreement on the Protection of Industrial Property and a decision of the Interstate Council for the Protection of Industrial Property, the draft Eurasian Patent Convention was forwarded for examination to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the European Patent Organization and the International Association for the Protection of Industrial Property.

By the end of 1993 all the international organizations gave positive replies concerning the draft Convention.

At the third meeting of the Interstate Council, held with the assistance of the International Bureau of WIPO in Geneva in February 1994, the most important questions relating to the draft Convention were discussed, such as distribution of the fees for maintenance of Eurasian patents between the Eurasian Patent Organization and the Contracting States, the list of various regulations under the Convention and their main provisions; a number of other issues were also considered.

According to a decision of the Interstate Council, the coordinated text of the Convention was transmitted to the Executive Secretariat of the CIS for coordinating matters relating to the preparation of the Convention for signing by the heads of the Governments. The Executive Secretary of the CIS, Mr. I.M.Korotchenja, was invited to visit the WIPO Headquarters in Geneva.

In July 1994 the Executive Secretariat of the CIS held a meeting in Minsk with the participation of full representatives of the CIS states and representatives of WIPO, where recommendations concerning signing of the Convention were adopted.

The official signing of the Eurasian Patent Convention took place in Moscow, at a meeting of the Council of the Heads of the Governments of the CIS countries, on September 9, 1994. The Convention was signed by the heads of the Governments of the Azerbaijan Republic, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Georgia, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kirghiz Republic, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan and Ukraine.

The main purpose of the Eurasian Patent Convention, as it is clearly declared in the preamble of that document, is to strengthen the cooperation in the field of protection of inventions and to create an interstate system for obtaining the legal protection on the basis of a single patent valid in the territory of the Contracting States.

For the Convention to become effective, at least three states, which signed it, should deposit their instruments of ratification, or at least three other states should deposit their instruments of accession to it.

The first state, which acceded to the Convention was Turkmenistan which deposited its instrument of accession on March 1, 1995, then, on May 8, its instrument of ratification was deposited by the Republic of Belarus, and on May 12 the similar instrument was deposited by the Republic of Tajikistan.

The Eurasian Patent Convention, in accordance with Article 26(4) entered into force on August 12, 1995.

In May 1995 the Convention was ratified also by the Parliaments of Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation. In the Russian Federation the Law “On the Ratification of the Eurasian Patent Convention” was considered by the State Duma on May 19, by the Council of Federation on May 21, and then, on June 1, 1995, it was signed by President of the Russian Federation B.N.Yeltsin.

The VI meeting of the Interstate Council on the Protection of Industrial Property was held in Baku on September 7-8, 1995.

The Council heard a statement of the Permanent Interstate Working Group of Experts concerning the prepared drafts of the Patent Regulations, the Administrative Instructions, the Financial Regulations as well as a draft Statute of Fees and Payments Charged by the Eurasian Patent Organization and a draft Agreement Concerning the Headquarters between the Eurasian Patent Organization and the Government of the Russian Federation. The Council, with due regard to the discussions held and the decisions taken, recommended to submit the coordinated draft documents to the Administrative Council. The first (extraordinary) meeting of the Administrative Council of the Eurasian Patent Organization was held, upon the initiative of three states which addressed Dr. A.Bogsch, WIPO Director General, being the depositary of the Convention, in Geneva on October 2, 1995. At the first meeting of the Administrative Council the President of the Eurasian Patent Office was elected, and a number of documents concerning the beginning of the Office’s work were considered.

We would like to acknowledge the constant support and assistance rendered at all the stages of preparation and coordination of the Eurasian Patent Convention by Dr. A.Bogsch, WIPO Director General, Mr. F.Curchod, his Deputy, as well as Mr. V.Troussov and Mr. E.Bobrovsky, WIPO experts.

During the preparation of the Convention the assistance was also rendered by the European Patent Organization. Actively participating in solving problems of creation of the Eurasian Patent Office and the Convention were the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and the Chambers of Commerce of the CIS countries, which well understood from the very beginning of the work on the Convention that it was expedient to preserve economic ties between the countries in spite of the political scrapes. For this it was necessary to preserve the single economic and scientific and technical space, the single patent.

The Eurasian Patent Convention, as effective from August 1995, creates an interstate system for the protection of inventions on the basis of the single patent valid in the territory of all the Contracting States which ratified the Convention or acceded to it.

At the present time there are 9 such States - Turkmenistan, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Tajikistan, the Russian Federation, the Azerbaijan Republic, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kirghiz Republic, the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Moldova.

The creation of the Eurasian patent system is a definite success of the indicated States which, at present, are facing certain difficulties while trying to implement their wide plans of economic integration. At the same time, applicants from the other states also need the well functioning Eurasian patent system.

In order to perform the administrative tasks connected with the functioning of the Eurasian patent system and the grant of Eurasian patents, the Convention has established the Eurasian Patent Organization, the members of which being all the Contracting States.

The bodies of the Organization are the Administrative Council, where each Contracting States is represented by its full representative, and the Eurasian Patent Office which performs all the administrative functions of the Organization, being its Secretariat.

Each Contracting State has its quota in the personnel of the Eurasian Office.

In the field of protection of inventions this is one of the most important events in the world ranking after the adoption of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) concluded in 1970 and now having 83 states as its members.

At a meeting of the Administrative Council, which was held in Moscow from November 30 to December 1, 1995, the Chairman of the Administrative Council and his Deputy were elected.

The full representative of the republic of Kazakhstan, Mr. Tolesh Ye. Kaudyrov, was elected as the Chairman, and the full representative of the Republic of Belarus, Mr. Valeri I. Koudashov, was elected as his Deputy.

The meeting adopted the following documents necessary for the beginning of the Organization’s work:

- the Rules of Procedure of the Administrative Council;

- the Patent Regulations;

- the Administrative Instructions;

- the Financial Instructions;

- the Statute of Fees Charged by the Eurasian Patent Organization;

- the Statute of Eurasian Patent Attorneys;

- the By-laws of the Eurasian Patent Organization.

At its meeting the Administrative Council took a decision concerning the starting date for filing Eurasian applications with the Eurasian Patent Office - January 1, 1996.

Thus, the Eurasian Patent Convention and its new international Organization were historically established for the benefit of inventors from all the countries.