The International Forum of Young Inventors and Innovators started in Veliky Novgorod. The first event was the Eurasian Conference of Women Inventors and Technological Entrepreneurs. The Vice-President of the Eurasian Patent Office (EAPO) Emil Mammadov delivered a speech at the plenary session of the Conference.

Briefly describing the activities and advantages of the Eurasian patent system, the EAPO Vice-President noted that this year the gender gap in intellectual property has become a central issue of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) campaign for the World IP Day. According to WIPO calculations, only 16% of applications are filed through the PCT (international system for patents registration), even in developed countries women are less represented among the founders of start-ups and business incubators.

Meanwhile, women are co-authors of more than 1,400 active Eurasian patents in a wide variety of fields of science and technology. They are involved in the creation of breakthrough medical technologies, geological exploration technologies, chemical and manufacturing technologies, and the construction industry.

The applications that are now at the final stage of substantive examination in the EAPO include breakthrough technologies in the field of nuclear safety and energy, instrument engineering, nuclear and physical analysis, oil refining, and the production of polymeric materials. Their co-authors are women scientists, engineers from Russia, the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Kazakhstan and other states of the Eurasian Patent Organization.

Emil Mammadov believes that the creative, intellectual, and commercial potential of women inventors has not yet been fully unleashed. Measures that reveal the opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurial activities of women that IP protection brings, understanding how IP assets can be used for business development should help to achieve this.

EAPO is ready to transfer knowledge on how to obtain patent protection at the Eurasian level, to create together with the Women’s League of the All-Russian Society of Inventors and Innovators a platform for the development of educational projects in the IP field and exchange of best practices. EAPO is ready to help in preparing guidelines and recommendations for women on setting up high-tech businesses, reflecting concrete examples of new technical solutions, obtaining protection and introducing them to the market.

— Increasing the importance of women and innovation and entrepreneurship will be a social and economic growth in Russia and other countries of the Eurasian region. Working together and pooling our knowledge, resources, and ideas will help create powerful synergies, stated the EAPO Vice President.