(129) Announcement on the Starting Date
of Operations under the Eurasian Patent Convention
The United States Patent and Trademark Office received notification
from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) that:
1. The starting date of operation under the Eurasian Patent
Convention* which was done at Moscow on September 9, 1994, is January 1,
1996. As from that date, the Eurasian Patent Office receives Eurasian
patent applications and Eurasian patents can be sought** in
international applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).
Name of the Office: Evraziiskoe patentnoe
vedomstrvo (EAPV) Eurasian
Patent Office (EAPO)
Location and mailing M. Cherkassky per. 2/6, EAPV
address: Moscow Centre, GSP, 103621
Russian Federation
Telephone: (70-95) 206 63 21
Facsimile: (70-95) 921 24 23
The President of the Eurasian Patent Office is Mr. Viktor I
Blinnikov.
2. By December 31, 1995, the following nine States (hereafter
referred to as "the Contracting States") have deposited their
instruments of accession to, or ratification of, the Eurasian Patent
Convention with the Director General of the World Intellectual Property
Organization: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.***
3. The Convention allows anyone--irrespective of nationality or
domicile--to obtain a Eurasian patent for invention, having effect in
all the Contracting States, by filing a single application with, and
making a single payment to, the Eurasian Patent Office in Moscow. The
request part of an application for the grant of a Eurasian patent must
be in Russian. Other parts of the Eurasian application may, at the
moment of the filing of the application, be in Russian or in any other
language. For any parts that are not in Russian, a Russian translation
must be furnished by the applicant within two months following the date
of receipt, by the Eurasian Patent Office, of the Eurasian application.
The Eurasian Patent Office accepts the filing of applications by
facsimile, but the signed original must reach the Office within 14 days.
4. The procedure in the Eurasian Patent Office follows the usual
rules: there is an examination as to form; this is followed by search,
publication after the expiry of 18 months from the priority date,
substantive examination (which is done on the request of the applicant;
such a request must be made before the expiry of six months from the
date of publication of the search report), and grant or refusal of grant
of the Eurasian patent.
5. If the grant of the Eurasian patent is refused, the applicant may
transform his Eurasian application into national applications having the
filing date and the priority date, if any, of the Eurasian application,
in those Contracting States in which he wishes to obtain a national
patent under the national procedure.
6. The granted Eurasian patent is not a bundle of national patents
but has, in the Contracting States, a unitary legal effect governed by
the Convention and the Patent Regulations adopted by the Administrative
Council.
7. Any dispute concerning the validity in a given Contracting State,
or an infringement in a given Contracting State, of a Eurasian patent
will be decided by the national courts or other competent authorities of
that State on the basis of the Convention and the Patent Regulations.
Such a decision has legal effect only in the territory of that
Contracting State.
8. In the case of a dispute, any national court or other competent
authority of a Contracting State in which Russian is not a State
language may require that the plaintiff furnish to it a translation of
the Eurasian patent in the State language.
9. There is no requirement and no possibility to designate
Contracting States in the Eurasian patent application. The Eurasian
patent has effect on the territory of all Contracting States from the
date of its publication by the Eurasian Patent Office. However, at the
time when the annual maintenance fees are due and are paid, the owner of
the patent must designate by name those Contracting States in which he
wishes the effect of the patent to continue. Designations must be
addressed to the Eurasian Patent Office, and the patent maintenance fees
must be paid at the same time. A separate fee is payable in respect of
each designated Contracting State.
10. Any person who has the right to be a representative before the
national Patent Office of a Contracting State and who is registered with
the Eurasian Patent Office as a patent agent may act as representative
before the Eurasian Patent Office. Where the applicant does not have his
residence or principal place of business in the territory of a
Contracting State, he is required to be represented by a so registered
patent agent.
11. The fee to be paid at the filing of a Eurasian application (so
called "unitary procedural fee") is US$ 800, plus US$ 50 for each claim
in excess of ten, if any. This fee covers also search and publication.
This fee is reduced by 25% when the application, filed via the PCT,
enters the regional phase before the Eurasian Patent Office and is
accompanied by an international (PCT) search report. A further amount of
US$ 800 is payable when examination is requested. Finally, US$ 500 are
payable when the Eurasian patent is granted.
12. The list of registered patent agents, the schedule of fees and
printed application (and other) forms are available from the Eurasian
Patent Office.
* For the text of the Eurasian Patent Convention, see Industrial
Property Laws and Treaties, MULTILATERAL TREATIES - Text 2-013,
Industrial Property and Copyright, July/August 1995.
** For designation of States party to the Eurasian Patent Convention,
see PCT Newsletter No. 11/1995, pages 1 and 6.
*** As to the date of entry into force of the Convention for a given
State, see the corresponding EAPC Notification issued by WIPO.
February 13, 1996 BRUCE A. LEHMAN
Assistant Secretary of Commerce and
Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks
[1184 OG 40]