BASIC PROVISIONS OF EURASIAN PATENT LAW

The Eurasian Patent Convention, as effective from August 1995, creates an interstate system for protection of inventions on the basis of the single patent valid on the territory of all Contracting States that have ratified the Convention or acceded to it. At present there are 9 such states: the Russian Federation, Belarus, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Armenia, Moldova. Signed but not yet ratified the Convention have two more countries - Ukraine and Georgia.

Pursuant to article 6 of the Convention the Eurasian Patent Office grants Eurasian patents for inventions that are new, have inventive step and are industrially applicable.

The Convention envisages the first-to-file system of filing Eurasian patent applications, according to which the patent is granted to the first applicant without examination of his title to the invention claimed. In accordance with Article 19 of the Convention, the requirements as to the form and contents of the Eurasian application are stated in the Patent Regulations. According to Rule 21 of the Regulations, the Eurasian Application must contain: request on grant of the Eurasian patent, specification, claims, drawings or other descriptive materials, if they are necessary for understanding of the essence of the invention, and the abstract. Also enclosed should be the document confirming payment of the single procedural fee and the Power of Attorney.

The official language of the Eurasian Patent Application is Russian.

A Eurasian patent application may contain a declaration claiming priority of one or more earlier applications filed in or in respect of any country, which is party to the Paris Convention. The priority of an invention might be defined by the filing date of an earlier application in any such state, if the Eurasian application was received by the Eurasian Office within twelve months from the said date.

If the applicant does not have permanent residence on the territory of a Contracting State, it is to be represented by a patent attorney, registered in the Eurasian Patent Office.

After the application is received by the Eurasian Patent Office, carried out are the formal examination, patent search, and the substantive examination ( the latter is implemented after filing of the appropriate request).

The decision of the examination might be contested by way of filing an appeal.

The Eurasian Patent Application might be withdrawn by the applicant pursuant to its request.

For juridically significant actions the Eurasian Office levies corresponding fees.

The volume of protection granted by the Eurasian patent is defined by claims.

The starting point from which the validity term of a Eurasian patent is counted does not coincide with the beginning of the exclusive right, arising out of that patent. The term of a Eurasian patent is 20 years from the filing date of the Eurasian application, and the effect of the exclusive rights on the patented invention starts from the publication date of the Eurasian patent. ( this publication is made within 6 months from the date of registration of the patent in the Register of Eurasian patents).

A Eurasian patent is valid on the territory of all contracting states. For a certain period of time (from one day to one year - depending of the term between the date of granting the patent and the day and month of filing of Eurasian application, that occurs subsequent the granting date ) the Eurasian patent has a single character. In order to prolong the validity of the Eurasian patent in each contracting state, the patentee should indicate the name of each state where it wishes to prolong the validity of the Eurasian patent. Such indication is forwarded to the Eurasian Patent office simultaneously with payment of the fee for maintenance of the Eurasian patent, which is payable in respect of each designated state.

This is a peculiarity of the Eurasian Patent Convention and its difference from, say, the European Patent Convention, where the states are designated in the application.

Article 13(2) of the Convention states that each contracting state provides, in the case of infringement of a Eurasian patent, for the same civil law or other liability as in the case of infringement of a national patent.