The Eurasian Patent Office’s cooperation with the EAPO Member States is aimed at the creation of a common examination and information space. This interaction expands dialogue on examination and digitalization between national IP offices.

In 2023, two Agreements on cooperation in patent search and the examination of  patent applications were concluded with the IP Office of the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Armenia (May 18, 2023, Veliky Novgorod) and with the State Agency for Intellectual Property and Innovation under the Cabinet of Ministers of the Kyrgyz Republic (October 5, 2023, Bishkek). A similar draft document has been prepared for cooperation in the field of examination with the Intellectual Property Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Such agreements provide for the involvement of Eurasian Patent Office examiners in patent search and the preparation of reports on the patentability of inventions claimed in national applications in complex technical fields based on the standards applied under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

In 2023, the Eurasian Patent Office received 19 orders under such agreements for patent search and the preparation of reports on the patentability of inventions in national applications, including 18 orders from Kyrgyzpatent and 1 order from the IP Office of the Republic of Armenia.

In 2023, the Eurasian Patent Office approved a Pilot Program for Advanced Information Search and Preliminary Assessment of the Patentability of Inventions (Pilot Program) focused on expanding interaction between examiners of the Eurasian Patent Office and the leading scientific and educational organizations of the EAPO Member States. The purpose of the Pilot Program is to improve the quality of granted Eurasian patents for inventions through involvement in the search and examination process of highly specialized examiners in the domains of science and technology in which the high competence of the corresponding organizations has been confirmed.

The Pilot Program provides for Eurasian Patent Office accreditation of scientific and educational organizations from the EAPO Member States that meet the requirements specified in the Pilot Program. This requirements, in particular, include the performance of scientific and (or) scientific and technological activities in a thematic area of expertise that falls into the areas of competence specified in the Pilot Program as priority areas. The presence of a certain number of employees in the organization who have the necessary competencies in information search and examination, including those who have academic degrees or titles in the field of science that is the area of the organization’s scientific and (or) scientific and technological activities, and the availability of access to dedicated search databases in the scope required by the Pilot Program are the necessary requirements as well.

The Pilot Program provides for the use of the results of extended information search and the preliminary assessment of the patentability of inventions in the process of substantive examination of Eurasian applications by the Eurasian Patent Office.

To implement the Eurasian Patent Office’s Pilot Program, in 2023, the priority areas of the scientific competence of scientific or educational organizations accredited under the Pilot Program were identified. The commission for the accreditation of scientific and educational organizations for the purposes of the Pilot Program (the Commission) was created, and the Regulations on the Commission were approved.

IT cooperation between IP offices has become systematic. Visits of Eurasian Patent Office IT experts were arranged to the national IP Offices of Armenia (April 19–21, 2023), Azerbaijan (February 8–10, 2023 and November 12–15, 2023), Belarus (September 19–21, 2023), Kazakhstan (October 17–21, 2023), Kyrgyzstan (May 24–26, 2023), and Tajikistan (March 15–17, 2023).

The IT interaction was aimed at the implementation of common, up-to-date digital solutions in office operations, the development of common patent information resources, and the exchange of information and registers of inventions, industrial designs, and trademarks.

A series of joint digitalization projects was implemented following consultations between the offices.

One example of the successful scaling of the best practices of national offices is the implementation of technology for the use of the three-dimensional digital models (3D models) included in the documents filed as part of applications for inventions, industrial designs, and trademarks (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan). The implementation of support for 3D models in its own systems has enabled the Eurasian Patent Office to assist the interested national patent offices of the EAPO Member States in the introduction of such technologies since the end of 2022. The technologies for the receipt, processing, examination, and publication of documents, including 3D models, based on the recommendations of ST.91—Recommendations for Digital Three-Dimensional (3D) Models and 3D Images were originally developed by Rospatent and transferred to the Eurasian Patent Office in the second half of 2022.

The project for the integration of information from the public registers of the national offices and the Eurasian Patent Office is a new important area of cooperation with the national IP offices of the EAPO Member States in the field of digitalization. Unlike the patent documentation used for search, information on the legal status of applications, patents, and registrations contained in the public registries is much more dynamic. Such information must be exchanged a frequency high enough to maintain relevance, preferably online. The wide availability of new technological capabilities for machine-to-machine interaction allows for information exchange within the region at virtually any frequency.

Thus, the implementation of such integration services will enable the creation of a common Eurasian Register, which will contain information on both regional and national IP rights. As a result, users will have the opportunity to obtain information on IP rights throughout the region through a single access point.

This project was launched in the reporting year at the Intellectual Property Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Eurasian Patent Office IT specialists took part in the development of a prototype of a public web register in this office which will contain the information on such IP types as inventions, industrial designs, and trademarks. The service created incorporates integration capabilities based on web services, the use of which allows the transfer of public information for use in integration projects. As of the end of 2023, the migration of public data from the office’s internal systems was complete and the service had been deployed internally for testing and data validation by the office staff.

One of the objectives of the creation and development of a common information space for industrial property in the Eurasian region is the widest possible use by the interested national patent offices of the EAPO Member States of information systems, components, and information technologies created by other patent offices in the region. This approach contributes to the more rapid and uniform development of digitalization in the patent offices of the region and the rational use of office resources.

In 2023, this approach was successfully implemented in bilateral cooperation between the Eurasian Patent Office and the Federal Institute of Industrial Property (FIPS). Experts of the two offices integrated the EAPATIS system with the new Rospatent search platform in the first quarter of the reporting year. The integration was performed using the application programming interface of the Russian system, thus, the public information arrays and search capabilities of the Rospatent platform have been made available to users of EAPATIS. Results can be searched and viewed right from the EAPATIS system, with no need for direct user access to the Russian platform. It is also expected that Rospatent’s experience in creating a search platform will be used in the future to upgrade the EAPATIS system.

The Eurasian Patent Office supports the national patent offices in ensuring the information security of office systems. Direct interaction among specialized experts has been established, and joint projects are being implemented at the request of the offices, including the configuration of up-to-date basic infrastructure and information security systems and assistance in the development of local documents and action plans related to the information security management system. This area of cooperation is the broadest in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The activities performed to create continuous and secure infrastructure for Kyrgyzpatent and National IP Center (Republic of Tajikistan) have been highly appreciated by the leadership of the offices, and letters of gratitude were received from the plenipotentiary representatives of these countries. In 2023, an internship was held for the first time on creating a secure and continuous infrastructure platform for the EAPO’s unified IT services and on implementing the principles of creating integrated management systems. The program was developed by Eurasian Patent Office experts; it was completed in 2023 by experts from Armenia and Tajikistan.

The Permanent Working Group on Information Technologies (PWGI) held four meetings in 2023. This EAPO Administrative Council’s working body is aimed to coordinate information technology matters, including the review of joint projects, consultations, and the preparation of proposals for the Administrative Council.

The following main issues were discussed at the PWGI meetings in 2023:

- prioritization of the activity areas for the joint implementation of IT projects. Following the results of review, the relevant list was brought up for discussion and approved at a meeting of the EAPO Administrative Council

- coordination of the project for implementation of digital three-dimensional models in the national patent offices

- exchange of information and documents related to both industrial property and general office workflow

- cooperation in the field of information security and the development of information infrastructure

In addition, a new draft version of the Provisions on the Permanent Working Group on Information Technologies of the EAPO Administrative Council was submitted for review by the PWGI. This draft takes into account the new operating procedures of this body, existing technical support for new work methods, and the experience of recent years in organizing the activities of the working group. Upon review of the draft document by the national patent offices, the regulations will be submitted for approval by the EAPO Administrative Council.

At the meetings of the PWGI in the reporting year, representatives of the Eurasian Patent Office also informed the national IP offices on the strategic documents the EAPO has adopted related to information technologies, the development of key EAPO information systems, the research work performed, and statistics on the shared use of the search databases.

More information on IT projects is provided in Section 7: Digitalization of Eurasian Patent Office Operations.

Research and scientific work on the Organizational and Legal Aspects of Creating a Common Examination and Information Space in the Field of Industrial Property in the Eurasian Region has been performed together with the Federal Institute of Industrial Property. Based on its results, the Eurasian Patent Office and FIPS experts have formulated proposals on the specific formats of cooperation based on their study of international experience of leading patent offices in optimizing examination processes and improving examination quality.

The launch of the Pilot Program for Advanced Information Search and Preliminary Assessment of the Patentability of Inventions (approved in August 2023) is among the key results. The outsourcing of Eurasian patent examination will combine the patent information resources and examination potential of the Eurasian Patent Office and scientific and educational organizations of the EAPO Member States and will attract specialized experts in the fields of science and technology in which the respective organizations have high competence. On the one hand, the program will improve the quality of patents and the relevance of decisions and, on the other hand, involve new organizations which have unique competencies in patent activities.

Additionally, proposals were formulated on the modalities of the Eurasian Program to Accelerate Patent Examination and Joint Search, which aims to create the maximum benefit for applicants and provide high-quality, prompt, and inexpensive examination of patent applications.

Priority areas for expert interaction that have been proposed also include continuing education and the exchange of best examination practices, the reuse of search and examination results, the outsourcing of search and examination and their joint conduct, the harmonization of approaches used in patenting, and the exchange of information related to search and examination.

Promising areas of information interaction have been identified, namely the formation of common search arrays, the provision of access to world patent resources, the implementation of up-to-date digital data formats, the creation of a common register of intellectual property rights, and the creation of an electronic environment for interaction with examiners.

These proposals were discussed by examiners at the regional workshop IP as a Key to Eurasian Integration (June 13–14, 2023, Niasvizh, Republic of Belarus) and the XXVII International Rospatent Conference, Intellectual Property for the State and Individuals (September 28–29, 2023, Moscow, Russian Federation).