The Eurasian Patent Convention (EAPC; russian: Евразийская патентная конвенция) is an international

patent law A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations, individuals, business entities, and other legal pe ...

instituting both the Eurasian Patent Organization (EAPO) and the legal system pursuant to which

Eurasian Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Ja ...

patents are granted. It was signed on 9 September 1994 in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, and entered into force on 12 August 1995.

History

After the

Collapse of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

, its successor states had no system for protection of intellectual property. A common patent system was perceived in a convention which was signed on 27 December 1991, but never entered into force. This system would provide for a true unitary patent that "may be granted, assigned or canceled in the territory of all the Contracting States with due regard to the invention

patentability Within the context of a national or multilateral body of law, an invention is patentable if it meets the relevant legal conditions to be granted a patent. By extension, patentability also refers to the substantive conditions that must be met fo ...

criteria provided for in the USSR legislation". The second version of the convention went less far: in line with the

European Patent Convention The European Patent Convention (EPC), also known as the Convention on the Grant of European Patents of 5 October 1973, is a multilateral treaty instituting the European Patent Organisation and providing an autonomous legal system according to ...

, it provided for a single evaluation phase, but after approval, it would be converted in a bundle of national patents.

States parties

The convention was signed by 10 states in 1994, 8 of which became members one year later upon

ratification Ratification is a principal's approval of an act of its agent that lacked the authority to bind the principal legally. Ratification defines the international act in which a state indicates its consent to be bound to a treaty if the parties inte ...

Opposition

An opposition can be filed against a Eurasian patent granted under the provisions of the Eurasian Patent Convention within six months from the publication of the granted patent.

Statistics

"Between 1996 and the end of 2015, approximately 43 700 Eurasian applications were filed and 22 700 Eurasian patents were granted at the EAPO."

References

External links

Eurasian Patent Convention (English translation, archived)
Eurasian Patent Organization * The full text of th
Eurasian Patent Convention (Translation by the International Bureau of WIPO)
in the

WIPO Lex WIPO Lex is an online global database launched in 2010, which provides free public access to intellectual property laws, treaties and judicial decisions from around the world. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) maintains and devel ...

database — official website of

WIPO The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO; french: link=no, Organisation mondiale de la propriété intellectuelle (OMPI)) is one of the 15 specialized agencies of the United Nations (UN). Pursuant to the 1967 Convention Establishin ...