Follow-up discussion of procedural issues of the EAPO appointment as ISA / IPEA

25 july 2020

Interesting

On July 22, 2020, a meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Member States regional groups’ coordinators was held in a videoconference format. It covered the procedural issues of the appointment of the Eurasian Patent Office as an International Searching Authority (ISA) and International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA) under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

The need to continue discussing this issue was caused by the current situation related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the decision of the WIPO Member States to postpone all major meetings of WIPO committees and bodies, though the WIPO Secretariat proposed holding them in a remote form during June – September period this year. 

During the meeting, the coordinators of regional groups, representatives of EAPO, individual Member States and WIPO Secretariat considered possible options for implementing the procedure for the appointment of ISA/IPEA in the current context, and received WIPO comments on the legal aspects of this procedure and the practice of appointing international bodies.

Taking into account the importance of timely decision-making on the appointment of EAPO as an international body of the PCT system, the participants of the meeting reached a consensus on holding the 31st session of the PCT Committee for Technical Cooperation, the agenda of which will include the EAPO appointment, among the first meetings scheduled in full-time format for October this year with the subsequent submission of this issue to the next extraordinary meeting of the PCT Union Assembly in the first quarter of 2021.

The source of information is the Eurasian Patent Organization.