Eurasian System for Legal Protection of Industrial Designs: Two Years of Steady Growth

Since June 1, 2021, the Eurasian Patent Office has started to accept Eurasian patent applications for industrial designs valid on the territory of seven states of the Eurasian Patent Organization (EAPO). Due to the significant regional demand for industrial design protection during the past two years, the system has demonstrated its relevance and efficiency.

The numbers are clear. While there were just dozens of protected industrial designs in the first year of the functioning of the regional registration system for industrial designs, there are now hundreds of them. During the first five months of 2023, 255 industrial designs have been registered, which exceeds the rates of the last year multiple times. In total, 419 industrial designs were registered in 2022.

The development of the regional system for legal protection of industrial designs and the demand for its services have forced the improvement of the digital systems of the Eurasian and national patent offices. In order to demonstrate the design features, the Eurasian Patent Office has implemented the possibility of filing applications with 3D models of the claimed industrial designs. Such an opportunity will increase the performance of the examiners and enable them to view all the essential features of the claimed industrial designs in detail.

Following the practice of the EAPO and with its assistance, the patent offices of the Republics of Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, and Armenia have implemented such an opportunity for national applicants. The Office of the Kyrgyz Republic intends to improve its digital systems for working with 3D images. The number of valid Eurasian patents protected in the member states of the Protocol on the Protection of Industrial Designs is growing steadily.

Over the years, the EAPO executives and specialists have organized a lot of workshops, round tables, sessions, and public events for intellectual property specialists, patent attorneys, inventors, designers, and entrepreneurs. Each attendee or observer was repeatedly presented in detail with the advantages of the regional system for legal protection of industrial designs, examples of the emerging practice, and the rules for filing applications and paperwork for it. The main advantage of obtaining a Eurasian industrial design patent, in addition to the “single window" concept (one language, one set of fees, one application, one representative), is the possibility to include in one application up to 100 industrial designs of the same class in the International Classification for Industrial Designs.

“The demand that evolved with the implementation of the regional system for legal protection of industrial designs demonstrates that business in the Eurasian space goes beyond national markets. Entrepreneurs are interested in expanding throughout Eurasia. Belarusian entrepreneurs want to trade in Kazakhstan; Armenian inventors want to be present in Kyrgyzstan; Russian designers want to be present in Tajikistan; and so on. This leads us to the issue of expanding the number of intellectual property objects protected at the regional level, which is stipulated in the EAPO Development Program. Since there is a demand, the EAPO and the Eurasian Patent Office need to work more efficiently in the interests of applicants," commented Grigory Ivliev, the President of the EAPO.

Source: EAPO

Editor: IPR Daily-Ann