Margus Viher, the Director General of the Estonian Patent Office, visited Kiev last October, where he became familiar with the work of the Ukrainian office and the legal protection of intellectual property under the conditions of war. Ukraine has been invited to join the European Union and there have already been several meetings where experiences have been exchanged, so far in Poland, Ukraine and Moldova.
At the meeting on Monday experiences were shared on the governance of an intellectual property office. Another important topic was joining the European Union, integration with the EU legal system and its impact on the Offices. The role of new technologies in the management of IO rights (cloud technologies, blockchain, cybersecurity, etc.) was discussed separately.
Of great interest to the guests was the digitization of work processes, the archiving and storage of digitized documents. We also presented the IT solutions, new information systems and databases in use at the Patent Office and spoke about the prospects of Ukraine in joining the European Patent Convention.
The later meeting at the Ministry of Justice dealt in particular with the harmonisation of copyright with the directives of the European Union. In addition, the harmonisation of Ukrainian practices with EU Member States in the fields of patents, trade marks, industrial designs and geographical indications was discussed. The guests also introduced the Ukrainian practice in relation to the EU regulation on geographical indications of craft and industrial products.
This week, the delegation will also visit the Latvian and Lithuanian Offices.