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Latest news from the European Patent Office

Release time:

2022-08-10 11:03

In two decisions dated25 April 2022, the President of the European Patent Office (“EPO”) announced the suspension of the Patent Prosecution Highway programme between the European Patent Office and both the Federal Service for Intellectual Property (“ROSPATENT”) and the Eurasian Patent Office (“EAPO”).

 

The ROSPATENT is a Russian governmental agency “responsible for the legal protection of inventions, utility models, industrial prototypes, computer software, databases and topology of integrated circuits, trademarks, service marks, appellations of origin of goods.” The agency is also in charge of the legal regulation of issues pertaining to the control, supervision and provision of government services in the area of intellectual property.

 

The EAPO grantsuniform patent protection to inventions in the territory of nine state members to the Eurasian Patent Convention, through a single patent application procedure. State members include the Russian Federation, but also the Turkmenistan, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Tajikistan, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and the Republic of Armenia. 

 

Since 25Apr2022,the EPO no longer grants Patent Prosecution Highway (“PPH”) requests where such requests are based on work performed by the ROSPATENT or the EAPO. In addition,PPH applicationsbased on work performed by these two patent agencies and submitted to the EPObefore25 April 2022 have been stripped of theirPPH status and have returned to the regular processing and examination queue.

 

These decisions were made in retaliation for the Russian military invasion of Ukraine. Theyecho a similar decision by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”), effective since 11 March 2022, to “no longer grant requests to participate in the Global Patent Prosecution Highway (“GPPH”) at the USPTO when such requests are based on work performed by ROSPATENT as an Office of Earlier Examination under the GPPH” and to “remove the GPPH status [of applications based on work performed byROSPATENT] and return those applications to the regular processing and examination queue.” 

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