At the end of last week, at the State Agency on Intellectual Property (AGEPI) took place the visit of a group of journalists and bloggers of the country, in which was held a roundtable.

The meeting was attended by Lilia Bolocan, Director General of AGEPI and Deputy Directors General of AGEPI Svetlana Munteanu and Ion Tiganas.

At the meeting bloggers and mass media representatives were informed about the achievements obtained by AGEPI in 2013 in the field of adjustment of the regulatory and legal framework on the protection of IP objects to the national and international standards in the field, protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights, assistance projects from which benefited AGEPI to develop and strengthen the national IP system, including from EU, benefits and advantages of citizens as a result of RM integration on IP dimension, but also about AGEPI plans for 2014.

At the beginning of the meeting, Lilia Bolocan mentioned that in 2013 were registered several beautiful results, among which: obtaining by AGEPI of the Certificate of Conformity of the Quality Management System with ISO 9001:2008; implementation of the project “Online Submission of IPO Applications”; signing of the Cooperation Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Moldova and the European Patent Organization on Validation of European Patents, etc. Another important event of 2013 was the entry into force of the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Moldova and the European Union on the Protection of Geographical Indications of Agricultural Products and Foodstuffs.

Director General of AGEPI stated that for 2014 Agency has established more complex tasks, such as:

• realization of the Action Plan for implementation of the Agreement between RM and EU on the Protection of GIs of Agricultural Products and Foodstuffs, in common with the Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Customs Service, Agency for Consumer Protection;
• coordination with the EU Delegation to Chisinau of the technical assistance project in the IP field;
• acquisition and implementation of the information system “Collective Management of Copyright and Related Rights”;
• organization with the support of WIPO of a Regional Symposium on IP for judges;
• implementation with WIPO assistance of a project to promote the national system of protection of GIs and AO;
• development with the support of WIPO of the Study on the impact of creative industries on the national economy;
• conduct, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, of the pupil awareness campaign in Chisinau on counterfeiting and piracy phenomena;
• implementation of the TEMPUS TecTNet Project “Technology Transfer Network”.

The Director General emphasized that with a view to promote the national intellectual property system, AGEPI will continue to amplify during 2014 the activities on training, information and tuition of both representatives of institutions and public authorities with responsibilities in the field and business environment, researchers, inventors, and students in the country.

Further, participants in the roundtable have scoured a round of questions and answers that concern the national system of protection and enforcement of IP rights, including the implementation of Moldova’s commitments regionally and internationally in this field.

More details on the results scoured by AGEPI in 2013 you can found by accessing the link: http://agepi.gov.md/