On May 25, 2021, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) issued the Interim Measures for the Processing of Related Examination Businesses Regarding the Implementation of the Revised Patent Law. As the amended patent law has come into effect on June 1, 2021 and the implementation rules are still being revised, CNIPA issued these Interim Measures that have been effective  since June 1, 2021.  The Interim Measures cover design patent term, partial design examination, patent term adjustment, patent term extension, and other areas. The Interim Measures do not cover patent linkage.

Highlights include:

·       Applicants can submit partial designs starting June 1, 2021. However, CNIPA will not examine partial designs until the implementation rules are released.

·       Applicants can request for both patent term extensions (PTE) and patent term adjustments (PTA) for any patent application granted on or after June 1, 2021. The requests for PTA and PTE must be filed within 3 months of grant of patent or of drug marketing approval from the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), respectively. CNIPA will examine the requests once the implementation rules are released.  

·       CNIPA will begin examining applications for good faith requirements (Article 20, Paragraph 1 of the Patent Law) starting June 1, 2021.  

·       Design patent term is 15 years from filing only for design applications filed on or after June 1, 2021. 

The full text (Chinese only) is reproduced below and is available on the following link: https://www.cnipa.gov.cn/art/2021/5/25/art_74_159631.html

The 90th meeting of the Council of the European Patent Institute (EPI) took place on 8 May 2021 by video conference, which was attended by a total of 160 members, including three representatives from MK: prof. Dr. Gjorgji Filipov, B.Sc. eng. Bogoljub Ilievski (as permanent members and Marija Kjoseska, M.Sc., as a substitute member of the Council).

During the meeting, the members of the Council elected a new Secretary General, Ms. Olga SIRAKOVA (BG), in place of Mr. Cornelis Mulder (NL), resigned in January 2021.

Council members also elected members of Committees for which there where vacancies. The updated list of Committee members will be soon available on the epi website (https://patentepi.org/en/epi-bodies).

Council also welcomed Ms. Tatjana LISSAK who started working as Executive Director for EPI on 1st February 2021. Ms. LISSAK gave an insight on epi's current operating model and on organisational objectives going forward.

Amongst the topics discussed, the EQE discussion paper prepared by the Professional Education Committee was presented to Council members and triggered many comments and suggestions.

The EPI Council has 12,300 patent attorneys from 38 European countries. Let us remind that with a three-year mandate in the governing bodies of the European Patent Institute, the following representatives from (MK) have been elected: Bogoljub Ilievski (one of the two vice presidents of EPI), Vancho Damjanski (member of the Disciplinary Committee), Blagica Veskoska (member of the Committee for Finding ), Marija Kjoseska (member of the Committee for Implementation of Proceedings), Valentin Pepeljugoski (member of the Committees for Education and Litigation) and Gjorgji Filipov (member of the Committee for the European Patent Committee).

In 1440 Johannes Gutenber from Germany found the printing machine. That event was a spark that ignited the fire of interest in protecting the rights of inventors and authors in general. In 1469 the government of Venice gave the exclusive right to John of Speyer, the first printer, to be the only one allowed to "print letters". Shortly afterwards, in 1474, the Venetian Law was enacted, which is considered to be the first systematic approach to the protection of an invention in the form of a patent, giving the inventor the exclusive right to dispose of the benefits of its use. The English monopoly law from 1624 was the first law that provided a monopoly on an invention with a limited duration. In 1710 in the United Kingdom, the Anne Act was passed, extending the right to print books to the authors  not just to the printers. The words invention and patent first appeared in a constitution in 1788. Namely, the US Constitution of that year speaks of inventions and exclusive rights for creators. It was translated into the first Patent Law in 1790. Immediately afterwards, as a result of the French bourgeois revolution, in France in 1791 the first patent law was passed. In 1877 Germany adopted the first patent law which precisely defined the conditions for granting a patent.

The refusal of many inventors to attend the first World Exhibition of Inventions in Vienna in 1873, due to the lack of an international system of protection of inventions, initiated the signing of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (1883). It was signed by only 12 countries including the young Kingdom of Serbia. The convention guaranteed  the same rights to the patent owners in all territories that they'd wished to be protected. Industrial property means the ownership of patent rights, trademarks, industrial designs and geographical names. For similar reasons, to guarantee copyrights in different countries, three years later, in 1886 the Berne Convention for Protection of Literary and Artistic Works was concluded. These include works in the field of literature, science, works of painters, performers, phonograms, shows... Works that belong to industrial property and copyright and related works are collectively called intellectual property.

The Paris and Bern Conventions are the base, and today there are more than fifty international conventions and agreements, which specify protection in accordance with the progress in the scientific, technological and artistic development of mankind. Their administration is most often carried out by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

On April 24, 1992, the Ministry of Development of the Republic of Macedonia took over the competencies related to the protection of industrial property and from that date applications for protection of industrial property began to be submitted. The Macedonian Law on Protection of Industrial Property entered into force on 15.07.1993 but the Republic of Macedonia has been considered a member of WIPO since 08.09.1991. The first director of the Institute for Protection of Industrial Property was appointed on November 26, 1993, after which, on December 1, 1993. The Office for Protection of Industrial Property was established. Later, the Office changed its name to the Bureau of IP Protection, and later to the State Office of Industrial Property.

This year, the World Organization WIPO celebrates IP Day with the motto "Helping Smaller Businesses Thrive".

Happy Intellectual Property Day - April 26!

On September 9, 2019, the Eurasian Patent Organization (EAPO) members states adopted the Protocol on the Protection of Industrial Designs to the Eurasian Patent Convention (the Protocol). 

From June 1, 2021 the Eurasian Patent Office, one of the two bodies of the EAPO, will accept Eurasian design applications. An Eurasian design patent will be valid on the territory of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia - these are the countries, where the Protocol is already in force.
 
The EAPO Administrative Council has adopted regulations necessary to implement the Protocol. The normative legal acts of the Eurasian Patent Office defining the rules of drafting, filing and examining applications for Eurasian design patents, procedures for certification and registration of Eurasian patent attorneys specializing in industrial designs, procedures for filing opposition against Eurasian design patents, as well as other normative legal acts provided for by Part II of the Patent Regulations under the Eurasian Patent Convention  are under preparation.

The Eurasian Patent Organization (EAPO) is an international organization set up in 1995 by the Eurasian Patent Convention (EAPC) to grant Eurasian patents. The headquarters of the EAPO is in Moscow, Russia. The current member states are: Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan. 

A new trademark law entered into force in Serbia on February 1, 2020 introducing important changes that further harmonize the country’s trademark legislation with the corresponding European Union law. Here are the most important changes:

1. Introduction of the opposition system - One of the most important changes brought by the new trademark law is the introduction of the opposition system. Interested parties can file an opposition within three months from the application’s publication date in the Serbian IPO’s Official Gazette.  The deadline for filing oppositions against international registrations is three months from the first day of the month following the date of publication in the WIPO Gazette of International Marks. Only if the two parties make a joint request to that effect, will the Serbian IPO approve a “cooling-off” period, which can last for 24 months at the longest. 

2. Grounds For Opposition - Oppositions can be based on two new grounds for refusal which are not examined ex officio and were previously entirely absent from the law. One of these is filing of a trademark application by a trademark owner’s agent or representative without the owner’s authorization. The other is similarity of a trademark to an existing company name. 

3. Adopting the principle of international exhaustion - The new Trademarks Act adopts the concept of international exhaustion. Therefore, once the trademark proprietor places, or consents to placing, on the market anywhere in the world goods protected by the trademark, the proprietor has exhausted its right to prohibit further circulation of the goods.

4. Infringement Actions In The Name Of Licensees - Unless otherwise stipulated by the license agreement, the holder of an exclusive license is entitled to file an infringement action if they notified the trademark owner and the latter did not file the infringement action within 30 days from being notified, and the holder of a non-exclusive licence is entitled to file an infringement action only if such an action is authorized by the trademark owner.

5. International Trademark Use - In opposition, infringement, invalidity and non-use cancellation proceedings, the relevant registration date for an international trademark will be one year after the date of notifying WIPO of the request to extend protection to the territory of Serbia. 

6. Comparative advertising - Trademark proprietor may now claim trademark infringement if the defendant used the sign in comparative advertising in a manner that is contrary to law. 

7. Right to prohibit preparatory acts in relation to the use of packaging or other means - Where the risk of infringement exists, the proprietor has the right to prohibit affixing a sign identical with, or similar to, the protected trademark on the packaging, labels, and other items on which a mark may be placed. 

8. Restitutio in integrum -The new Trademark Act now allows for restitutio in integrum in a number of stages in the proceeding before the SIPO. 

9. Decisions of the Serbian Intellectual Property Office are final - Once the SIPO takes a decision, the dissatisfied party no longer has the possibility of filing an appeal. However, administrative litigation can be initiated.

10. Trademarks as objects of enforcement -The law makes it explicit that trademarks are suitable as objects of enforcement.