The Eurasian Patent Office starts operations as an International Searching Authority (ISA) and an International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA) under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). Only 24 patent offices in the world have status of International Authorities.

The appointment of EAPO as an ISA/IPEA took place at the session of the Assemblies of the Member States of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) is an international agreement in the field of intellectual property, and currently has 156 Contracting States. The International Authority carries out patent search on the PCT applications and prepares reports on patentability of the inventions at the international phase of the PCT procedure.

In fact, this means that through the EAPO the applicant and the future patent owner – inventor, scientist, researcher, corporation or organization – from the very beginning of the procedure for patent protection abroad will be able to assess their chances to obtain a patent for their invention. In case of discrepancies, the applicant will have the opportunity to amend the application, adjust the claims in order to increase the chances for obtaining a patent. In case of negative search results, the applicant may decide to refrain from patenting, thus reducing their expenses, for example, for payment of fees, translation of documents or hiring patent attorneys in many countries.

The fee for international patent search for an application in Russian will be 9,000 Rubles, and for an application in English – 40,000 Rubles. The amounts of fees payable for international search and other actions carried out by the EAPO as an International Authority are published on the web portal of the Eurasian Patent Organization.