The President of the European Patent Office (EPO), Benoît Battistelli, and the Director General of the Federal Service for intellectual property of the Russian Federation (Rospatent), Dr Boris Simonov, signed a Memorandum of Understanding this week on joint activities to further develop co-operation in IP matters.
“The EPO and Russian Patent office have a long history of co-operation that is beneficial for both sides,” said EPO President Battistelli. “Russia is Europe’s third largest trading partner and draws significant volumes of EU foreign investment. Our continued collaboration will help strengthen the Patent system in Russia and align it more closely with the European Patent system, which should be a boon to companies doing business there. It will also further unlock access to a large amount of Russian technical knowledge to EPO Patent examiners and innovators around the globe.”
Under the four-year agreement, the two offices will work together in key areas such as human resources training and development, patenting procedures and processing, and data exchange. The planned activities will build on work that has already been done.
The memorandum of understanding was signed in Geneva on 27 September by the heads of the two offices at a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the annual WIPO General Assembly.