Armenia parliament amends Law on Patents

YEREVAN, March 3. /ARKA/. Armenian parliament has passed today a set of amendments and additions to the Law on Patents in the second and final reading.

According to Deputy Minister of Economy Varos Simonyan, the changes were designed to regulate property and personal relations associated with creation, protection and use of certain inventions. He specified that the amendments are meant to regulate the relationship associated with the creation and use of patents for inventions, industrial design and industrial prototypes.

He said the amendments take into account not only the latest developments, but also the obligations undertaken and accepted by Armenia in the framework of various international agreements, including the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, the documents of the World Intellectual Property Organization and  the Eurasian Patent Convention.

The Deputy Minister noted that the registration, protection and use of inventions will be under the jurisdiction of a relevant state body that will have also a board of appeals.

“The new changes are aimed specifically at protecting the rights of patent holders, introducing a more modern system for protecting their rights, providing opportunities for challenging decisions, registering rights to industrial design and industrial prototype, including for protection of patents within the Eurasian Economic Union,” said Simonyan.

According to the changes, both short-term and long-term patents are awarded for 10 and 20 years respectively.

Simonyan said the changes provide for the possibility of international registration of a patent, for which it will be necessary to submit an application to the state authorized body. The rights to an invention on the territory of Armenia will be acquired and protected by a patent issued in accordance with the procedure established by law. He said that applications can be submitted also electronically. --0--