— On behalf of the Eurasian Patent Office I would like to extend greetings to all the participants of the Assemblies.

We support the statements made by the Delegations of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus.

We cannot but note the alarming facts in the world IP system. The destructive practice of introducing unilateral illegitimate measures, discrimination of applicants, right holders, patent attorneys from the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus continues.

In violation of international obligations, they are refused proper IP services. The European Commission regularly issues relevant directives. The Russians have been refused access to legal advisory services altogether. The UK office has refused to provide IP services to sanctioned persons on principle. The Ukrainian office automatically refuses to provide IP services based only on the nationality of the applicants.

Uncertainty about the legal status of frozen applications will result in insufficient prior art data. This uncertainty would affect all users of the IP system, the Office examiners, without exception.

Inclusive development of the IP system is important to all of us. The EAPO encourages everyone to resume a constructive, meaningful multilateral dialogue.