The Eurasian Patent Convention (EAPC; ) 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 ...

treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between sovereign states and/or international organizations that is governed by international law. A treaty may also be known as an international agreement, protocol, covenant, convention ...

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

Eurasia Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...

patents 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 sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

are granted. It was signed on 9 September 1994 in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, and entered into force on 12 August 1995.

History

After the

Collapse of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

, its successor states had no system for protection of intellectual property. A common patent system was conceived 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 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 w ...

, 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 legal confirmation of an act of its agent. In international law, ratification is the process by which a state declares its consent to be bound to a treaty. In the case of bilateral treaties, ratification is usuall ...

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