Cooperation with the CIS Countries

In 2008 cooperation of Rospatent with the CIS Countries (the Azerbaijan Republic, the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Moldova, the Republic of Tajikistan, the Republic of Uzbekistan and Ukraine) was carried out not only in the line of bilateral contacts but also in the line of participation in the work of authorities of branch cooperation of the CIS Countries
In March (Minsk, the Republic of Belarus) and in November (Kishinev, the Republic of Moldova) within the framework of the Agreement on Cooperation for Combating Intellectual Property Infringements the delegation of Rospatent took part in the regular sessions of the Joint Working Commission under the chairmanship of Dr. Boris Simonov. In the course of the sessions the work on the draft Agreement on the Cooperation of the Member-States of the CIS Countries on Organization of Intergovernmental Exchange of Information and Development of Copyright and Related Rights National Databases prepared by Rospatent was continued.
In accordance with the decision of the Joint Working Commission in December 2008 Rospatent sent the Draft of the said Agreement to the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation subject to further submission to the Executive Committee of the CIS. The delegation of Rospatent also took part in discussion of the Draft Agreement on Legal Regime of the Signs Used before the Date of Establishing of the CIS elaborated by Belarus.
In spite of the concern expressed by the delegation of Rospatent about the existence of the considered problem and the necessity of finding ways for solving it, particularly, on the basis of proposals of the Byelorussian side, the Draft Agreement was not supported by most of the participants of the session. According to the results of the discussion the participants of the session reached the decision of inexpediency of continuation of work on the Draft Agreement and continuation of finding ways for solving the said matter on the bilateral basis.
Moreover, the delegation of Rospatent provided the participants of the session of the Joint Working Commission with the information for the reporting period of the latest changes in the legislation of the Russian Federation in the sphere of protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights and of the main activities carried out by internal affairs and the customs Authorities of the Russian Federation for efficient protection of intellectual property rights.
In March 2008 (Tbilisi, Georgia) Rospatent as a coordinator participated in holding a regular session of the Coordination Council of the Project for the Industrial Output of Regional Patent and Informational Product of the CIS Countries on Optical Disks CD-ROM. In the course of the session of the Coordination Council the report of Rospatent on industrial output of regional patent and informational product on CD-ROM in 2007, the plan on output of disk «CISPATENT» for 2008, issues of further development of the Project for the Industrial Output of Regional Patent and Informational Product of the CIS Countries and also the issue of switching to information publication in XML format were considered. During 2008 Rospatent executed a coordinating role on unification of approach on submission of information in XML format according to WIPO Standard ST.36.
In June 2008 (Astana, the Republic of Kazakhstan) the delegation of Rospatent took part in the Joint Meeting of the Intergovernmental Council on Issues of "Industrial Property Protection (hereinafter referred to as "MGS OPS") and the Joint Working Commission of the Member-States of the Agreement on Cooperation for Combating Intellectual Property Infringements. In the course of the meeting the delegation of Rospatent took part in discussion of the report on the results of the Working Group activity on improvement and harmonization of national legislation of the CIS Member-States within the framework of MGS OPS and the establishment of the Intergovernmental Register of Appellations of Origin of the MGS OPS Member-States. Rospatent informed the participants of the meeting on the cooperation with the World Intellectual Property Organization on organization of work with the purpose of carrying out the studies on development of inventive activity and support of the small and medium-sized innovative business with the use of mechanisms of intellectual property protection and enforcement. At the same time Rospatent made the statement on the progress of the implementation of the Agreement on Mutual Protection of Intergovernmental Secrets in the Field of the Legal Protection of Inventions dated June 4, 1999. Following the decision of the 17th meeting of MGS OPS the Ad hoc Working Group was created, the provision of organizational and technical support of which according to the Agreement was put on Rospatent. The list of members of the said Working Group was confirmed, the representative of Rospatent Mr. D.B. Klefortov was elected as a head of the Group.
In the framework of the MGS OPS meeting, the delegation of Rospatent participated in discussion of the conception of foundation of the Intergovernmental Council on Issues of Intellectual Property Protection and Enforcement by means of combining functions of MGS OPS and the Joint Working Commission of the Member-States of the Agreement on Cooperation for Combating Intellectual Property Infringements and widening the scope of activity to the copyright and related rights. On the results of the discussion the Working Group on Improvement and Harmonization of the National Legislation of the CIS Member-States was decided to complete drafts of main normative documents that define new functions of the Intergovernmental Council.
The important result of the MGS OPS meeting was a signing of the Protocol on Joining the Committee for Intellectual Property of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the Agreement on Output of Joint Regional Patent and Informational Product on Optical Disks CD-ROM.
In the reporting period the representatives of Rospatent took part and made the presentations on the following international academic and research activities that are organized in patent offices of the CIS Countries:
• Seminar «Intellectual Properly, Information Technology and Innovations» (May, the Republic of Tajikistan);
• Symposium «Traditional Knowledge and Folklore» (June, the Kyrgyz Republic);
• Seminar «Intellectual Properly and SME Innovations» (June, the Republic of Kazakhstan);
• Symposium «Modern Management of Intellectual Property System for Economic, Social and Cultural Development» (July, the Azerbaijani Republic);
• VII Science and Practical Conference dedicated to Economic Issues of Intellectual Property (November, the Republic of Moldova);


Mr. Samir Rahman
On & in behalf of
Patent and Law firm ‘IPPro’