As of 1 February, amendments to the Patent Regulations under the Eurasian Patent Convention come into effect. The updates affect the procedures for obtaining protection for inventions and industrial designs and are intended to clarify regulatory provisions and eliminate existing legal uncertainties.
Inventions
With regard to inventions, the amendments introduce several key changes, including:
- clarification of the rules governing the application of the grace period;
- explicit exclusion from patentability of methods of human cloning, methods of modifying the genetic integrity of human germline cells, and the use of human embryos for industrial or commercial purposes;
- more detailed regulation of the conditions for extending the term of a Eurasian patent for an invention;
- limitation of the possibility to extend procedural time limits granted by the Eurasian Patent Office to a maximum of 24 months per procedural action;
- introduction of restrictions on amendments to the claims during substantive examination of a Eurasian patent application;
- removal of uncertainty related to the sequential filing of multiple divisional applications.
Industrial Designs
The amendments also address issues related to industrial designs. In particular:
- the scope of designs excluded from protection due to identity or confusing similarity with trademarks has been clarified;
- patentees are now allowed to extend the term of a Eurasian patent not only for all industrial designs covered by the patent, but also for individual designs;
- time limits for third parties to file objections seeking invalidation of a Eurasian patent through administrative revocation have been removed.
Overall, the amendments aim to enhance legal certainty, streamline patent procedures, and ensure a more balanced approach to the protection of intellectual property rights within the Eurasian patent system.