The outcomes of the EU Project “Support to Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights” in the Republic of Moldova were discussed on 5 November during the last meeting of the Steering Committee, chaired by the State Agency on Intellectual Property (AGEPI), as the main beneficiary of the Project.
The event was attended by representatives of the co-beneficiary authorities of the project, namely: Agency for Consumer Protection and Market Surveillance, Prosecutor General’s Office, Customs Service, General Police Inspectorate, Agency for Courts Administration and members of the Project Steering Committee. The representative of the European Union Delegation to the Republic of Moldova, the Project manager Speranta Olaru, the representative of the State Chancellery of the Republic of Moldova, the representatives of the implementation consortium as well as the team of Project experts were present as observers at the meeting.
AGEPI Deputy Director General Andrei Popa mentioned that the project had a very important objective in improving the implementation of the legal framework in the field of intellectual property in the Republic of Moldova, and the results obtained from its implementation are visible and very useful to the beneficiary institutions.
Next, the EU Project experts made a presentation of the project outcomes. Thus, in order to improve the enforcement of intellectual property rights in the Republic of Moldova, the project has implemented a cultural change program in the field of intellectual property, which included events and training activities, seminars, workshops, round tables, information campaigns, elaboration of methodological documents, studies, guidelines and recommendations for project beneficiaries.
Also, within the project, an E-Learning Platform was developed in order to strengthen the educational system in the field of IP. The project also contributed to the revision of the university curriculum and the development of lesson models for lyceums, of instructive-educational materials, which will then be integrated into the E-learning platform.
In addition, a useful and highly awaited tool for authorities with intellectual property rights (IPR) enforcement competences is the IT system developed within the project, in the form of a communication and data exchange platform between institutions with responsibilities in the IPR enforcement field. The integration of this system will take place on the basis of a Government Decision that will regulate the cooperation between the public institutions involved in this process. At the moment, the platform is hosted by AGEPI and can be enhanced or developed with other modules.
Significant efforts have also been made to strengthen the geographical indications (GIs) system in the Republic of Moldova. Among the results obtained in this chapter were mentioned the Study on the evaluation of the potential of traditional products eligible to be protected by the GIs system, the trainings organized for the authorities responsible for the certification and control of GI products, the promotion of the system among producers, and also the review of the regulatory framework in the field.
Moreover, Project experts provided assistance in initiating the GI registration process for 6 Moldovan traditional products and creating 5 associations of producers to register new GIs, including the drafting of specifications. In addition, an interactive map for Moldovan traditional products and registered geographical indications has been developed.
We should mention that the Technical Assistance Project “Support to Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights” in the Republic of Moldova is funded by the European Union, being implemented by a Consortium made up of the companies Archidata Srl (Italy), European Profiles S.A. (Greece) and Business and Strategies in Europe S.A. (Belgium). The project had a two-year period and ends on 9 November 2018.
