On 24 February this year at the AGEPI was held the meeting to hear reports of the AGEPI staff work carried out in 2010, attended by the correspondent member of ASM Ion Tighineanu, Vice- President of ASM, and Mihai Vornicescu, Deputy Director of the Agency for Innovation and Technology Transfer of the ASM.
Within the framework of the meeting chaired by Dr. Lilia Bolocan, Director General of AGEPI, the leaders of the Agency subdivisions have reviewed the main achievements obtained in 2010 in the field of patenting/registration of IPO, as well as indexes registered in other spheres of activity.
In his speech at the inauguration of the review meeting, Vice-President of the ASM, Ion Tighineanu, revealed the main challenges of 2010 to the scientific community of the Republic of Moldova, mentioning that the actors of the research and development sphere impose more strongly by strengthening activities related to the achievement of state programs, projects with international participation, by encouraging resonance in the works published abroad, thus opening up the green light to the actual framing of our country in the European Research Program RP7. The speaker wanted to emphasize the weaknesses of our forward movement, the need for targeted development of science, implementation of technology culture and entrepreneurship in the society just starting from the students.
Both Director General of AGEPI, Dr. Lilia Bolocan, and Director of Inventions and Plant Varieties Department, Tudor Jovmir, supported the speaker declaring that inventors must mandatory assume as a basis in every new technical solution based the economic criterion, to investigate the impact of future patent on the national economy and the needs of society, and scientific community shall engage more actively in the expertise of inventions proposed for patenting, in order that they may be competitive.
In the year under review has been registered an increase by 2.2% compared with the previous year of the total number of applications for protection of intellectual property objects (IPO), filed with the AGEPI.
Of the 6445 applications for registration of IPO, 334 were related to the objects protected by copyright and related rights and 6111 applications – to industrial property objects. Of these the last, 1907 (31%) applications came from national applicants, and 4204 (69%) - from foreign applicants. The most requested IPO remain the trademarks - 5454 applications, of which 1455 - from the national applicants and 3999 - from the foreign ones. Follow inventions - 339 applications (334 submitted by national applicants and 5 – by the foreign ones), of which 4 applications under the procedure of the Patent Cooperation Treaty); industrial designs, whose indicators are, accordingly, 289 applications (95 submitted by the national applicants and 194 by the foreign ones; 6 applications for appellations of origin (filed under the Lisbon Agreement) and 18 applications for plant varieties filed by national applicants.
Following the examination of applications, in 2010 were issued 2096 titles of protection. 1352 of them refer to the trademarks, 316 - to patents for invention, 25 - to plant varieties, 88 - to industrial designs, 315 - to works protected by copyright and related rights.
As in previous years, the most active academic institutions in the field of patenting inventions were: USM (47 filed patent applications and 41 issued patents), SUMPh “N. Testemitanu” (23 applications and 10 patents), TUM (21 applications and 19 patents). From the Academy of Sciences of Moldova distinguished: Institute of Applied Physics (22 applications and 22 patents), Institute of Genetics and Plant Physiology (16 applications and 13 patents), Institute of Energy (10 applications and 7 patents), Institute of Chemistry (9 applications and 10 patents), Institute of Microbiology and Biotechnology (6 applications and 10 patents).
Every year increases the interest of economic agents in taking over, on the basis of license or assignment contracts, the rights on intellectual property objects legally protected in the Republic of Moldova. Thus, AGEPI has registered 149 contracts during 2010, of which 134 – assignment and 13 - license ones.
In the year under review, in order to make effective the provisions of the legislation on copyright and related rights, AGEPI continued, in common with employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the controls on legality of use of copies of works and phonograms in the Republic of Moldova. Following these controls, there have been prepared and submitted to the courts 61 expertise reports (42 - on administrative cases and 19 - on criminal cases). Simultaneously, were examined 2414 copies of alleged infringing works and phonograms, on various media, including DVDs, CDs, VCDs, MP3s, MCs and HDDs.
In order to ensure a legal marketing of phonograms and audiovisual works recorded on compact discs and video cassettes, there were issued 388,653 control markings.
In accordance with the provisions of the Code on Science and Innovation of the Republic of Moldova, in the part which refers to recording of scientific research results of the science and innovation organizations, in the year 2010 were received and recorded in the Database “Scientific Results”, created and managed by AGEPI, 246 information cards for science and innovation projects, financed from the State Budget, and issued 282 certificates. AGEPI published the information on scientific results recorded in the edition of the Index “Research Reports in Science and Innovation. Collection of Summaries” (2007-2009), vol. II. We should also mention that in August 2010 AGEPI published a special edition of the Official Bulletin of Industrial Property (BOPI), in which it presented for public consultation the Lists of geographical indications of the European Union proposed for protection in the Republic of Moldova. These Lists were published for the purpose of execution of the Government Decision of the Republic of Moldova no. 307 of 23.04.2010 on the initiation of negotiations on the draft Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Moldova and the European Community on protection of geographical indications (GIs) for agricultural products and foodstuffs.
With the object of promotion and propagation of intellectual product, underlying the economic growth of any country, AGEPI organized 11 specialized seminars and workshops for representatives of the research-development and higher education sphere and for various categories of economic agents in the national exhibitions held in Chisinau, Balti, Briceni and Ceadar-Lunga. Also, during 2010, training courses were organized in the field of intellectual property, as a result of which 22 persons have obtained the qualification “Counsellor in Intellectual Property” and 15 other persons – the qualification “Evaluator of Intellectual Property Objects”. Also, AGEPI organizes and certifies the work of patent attorneys. Thus, in 2010 have been officially certified and registered in the Official Register 7 patent attorneys, their total number being 105 at the end of the year.
Special attention was paid to further development of international, regional and bilateral collaboration and cooperation. The Agency has intensified its collaboration with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), European Patent Office (EPO), Eurasian Patent Office (EAPO) and others.
With the support of the Government and Parliament AGEPI was further concerned with the creation of most favorable conditions for applicants by developing the regulatory and legislative framework in the field. Thus, at the meeting of the Moldovan Parliament of 2 July 2010 was adopted the new Law no. 139-XVIII on Copyright and Related Rights, which entered into force on 1 January 2011. With the adoption of this Act there has been completed the process of harmonization of intellectual property legislation of the Republic of Moldova with the international and community standards, thus being met the commitment assumed by the Republic of Moldova in accordance with Art. 49 of the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement; the legal framework covered the entire spectrum of intellectual property rights.