On 26 August, Mr Grigory Ivliyev, Head of the Russian Federal Service for Intellectual Property (Rospatent), chaired the 12th Meeting of the BRICS Heads of Intellectual Property Offices via videoconference.
The meeting participants summarized the work of the Line Agencies over the previous year, shared the results of joint projects and outlined prospects for further strengthening cooperation between the Agencies and expanding dialogue on new aspects of intellectual property.
Being the Chair of the meeting, Rospatent presented a report on one of the areas of cooperation – staff training for BRICS Intellectual Property Offices. At Russia’s initiative, the parties discussed organizing an annual internship for intellectual property experts on industrial design scheduled for October 2020 via videoconference. The Russian delegation informed BRICS partners that the training courses taught by the Russian State Academy of Intellectual Property had been updated based on the countries’ requests.
The meeting participants specifically focused on the activities of the Agencies during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, they highlighted the essential role of digital technologies in communicating with applicants and providing services. The Sides also discussed the measures taken to counter the spread of COVID-19. The list of measures taken by each of the BRICS intellectual property offices during the pandemic is available on the Agencies’ joint website.
Taking into account that digital technologies are a frequently discussed topic at international venues, the Russian representatives proposed to include digitalization as a permanent item on the agenda of the Meetings of BRICS Heads of Intellectual Property Offices, thus launching a new area of cooperation on this matter.
The meeting resulted in several key agreements, including the coordination of common statements of the BRICS countries to be presented during the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) events scheduled for later in 2020, expediting the exchange of information on the applications related to technologies to combat COVID-19 (submitted via the Agencies’ joint website), as well as including digitalization in the field of intellectual property as a new area for cooperation.