Patents in countries that no longer exist
At a time when the UK’s exit from the European Union and the delay in the unitary patent makes us question the management of industrial property rights at European level; it is worth remembering that this is not the first time that such situations of uncertainty and change have occurred.
Without going too far, the fall of the USSR marked a drastic change in the management of industrial property rights in a gigan territorial extension. The dance of agreements and alliances tells us about the idiosyncrasies of each of the countries and where they focus their expectations for the future.
Join me on this journey through patents from the former USSR to the present day
The Russian patent system officially has its origins in 1812, when Emperor Alexander I established the “Manifesto of Constituted Rights”.
After the 1917 revolution, the patent system was abolished, but in 1919 it was relaunched by replacing patents with INVENTOR CERTIFICATES.
INVENTOR CERTIFICATES
Under the title of INVENTOR CERTIFICATE the inventions were declared state property and the inventor received compensation for the invention developed.
This form of protection of inventions occurred not only in the Soviet Union but also in other communist countries.
These inventor certificates can be identified by the precedeing SU code in the publication number.
INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS
The Soviet Union acceded to the Paris Convention in 1965. It subsequently entered the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) in the year of its establishment in 1978. Subsequently, and after the disintegration of the USSR, Russia could ratify its continuation as a party to both conventions, as it did in January 1992, with retroactive effect to 25 December 1991.
Inventor’s certificates were maintained until 1990 when the Soviet Union Patent Law was adopted and titles were renamed “Patents”.
In 1991, the USSR disintegrated into a multitude of countries and independent patent systems:
The Fall of the Soviet Union
Lithuania was the first state to declare independence on 11 March 1990. Afterwards it was Azerbaijan, who proclaimed its independence on 30 August 1991 and ratified the same on 18 October 1991. Estonia did the same on 20 August 1991 and Latvia recognized its independence only a day later, on 21 August.
With the fall of the Soviet Union, on 25 December 1991, the rest of the States used legal instruments to continue to form part of the treaties signed by the USSR, in particular: the Paris Convention and the International Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).
Thus, even if they were ratified later, these international treaties had effect from 25 December 1991 in most states. Russia was the only one that kept as the date of entry into these treaties the date on which they had been signed by the Soviet Union.
States that declared their independence prior to the disintegration of the USSR had to subsequently sign these treaties separately.
However, it was not long before several of these States saw the need to cooperate with each other or with third States in the patent grant proceedings.
THE EURASIAN PATENT
As a result, a centralized patent application and grant system was born, incorporating part of the former republics of the Soviet Union: EURO-ASIAN PATENTS.
The Eurasian Patent Convention is signed on 9 September 1994 by the governments of the Republics of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Russia.
This agreement entered into force on August 12, 1995, although it was subsequently effective for some of the signatory states.
This creates a centralized system of deposit, examination, grant and maintenance of patents, where the applicant can choose to protect his invention in all or part of the member states of the Convention. Unlike the European Patent Convention, the need for validation of the patent once granted is not contemplated, and this is maintained as a single record throughout its legal life. Of course, the owner may choose to renew or not the patent for each of the States designated individually.
THE EUROPEAN PATENT CONVENTION
Other States, such as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, for their part, turned their gaze to Europe. They opted to join the European Patent Convention (of 1973) as full members in 2002, 2005 and 2004 respectively. The last two, Latvia and Lithuania, have even opted to close the direct route of entry into national phase in their country from PCT. This implies that it is only possible to opt for the presentation of a European Patent application if you want to obtain protection in these territories after having filed an international PCT application.
Moldova is a curious case, as it was part of the Eurasian patent until 2012 and after its release in 2015, it becomes part of the European Patent Convention as a State of Validation.
Notwithstanding the agreements reached with third parties, all the States derived from the disintegration of the Soviet Union created their own patent system. The alliances and collaborations that have emerged between them have varied over time, giving rise to changing and complex scenarios, and why not say so, also very interesting.
