Navigating the Eurasian patent system: a view from Kazakhstan
The Eurasian market is becoming increasingly important in a tectonically changing world economy, creating a bridge between West and East, North and South, connecting and uniting economies, peoples and cultures.
Kazakhstan, being an indispensable part of this market, covers substantial territory of it. IP protection in this region should not be underestimated. Although current statistics show that patentees are still mainly interested in Russia, recent tendencies have added to the growth of filings and pending patents in Kazakhstan.
Single unitary patent
In each country of the region, including Kazakhstan, national systems for IP protection are valid and developing. However, IP practitioners, as well as the business entities seeking to cover at least several countries in the region, should take into account the most effective way to protect IP in this territory—the Eurasian patent system, which is tailored as a kind of pattern of the European patent system. The Eurasian patent system may substantially facilitate the protection of inventions by filing a single Eurasian application and getting a single Eurasian patent covering a significant part of the area. This would avoid filling multiple national applications in different languages, encountering different patent procedures and using different national patent attorneys, sometimes in completely unfamiliar environments.
The basis for the Eurasian patent system is the Eurasian Patent Convention, which encompasses Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. Five of these countries (Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan) are also members of the Eurasian Economic Union, where there are no customs borders between them.
The most important thing to mention is the fact that participating countries have agreed to ensure the protection of exclusive rights by Eurasian patents equal to those by their national ones.
