In the period 15-17 February this year, there took place the working visit to Chisinau of the external expert of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Gift Huggins Sibanda.
The expert was on a mission of documentation and assessment of the implementation in Moldova of the WIPO Project “Improvement of National, Sub-Regional and Regional IP Institutional and User Capacity” within the WIPO Development Agenda. Under this project, Moldova has benefited from the assistance of WIPO in developing the National Intellectual Property Strategy until 2020.
During the three days of visit, Gift Huggins Sibanda has undertaken a series of meetings with experts from institutions involved in implementing the National Intellectual Property Strategy, including the Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Education, Academy of Sciences of Moldova, Agency for Innovation and Technology Transfer, Chamber of Commerce and Industry and University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Nicolae Testemitanu”.
The evaluation report of the WIPO Project will be submitted to the Member States of the World Intellectual Property Organization in the General Assembly to be held in October this year.
At the same time, the external expert of WIPO also met with members of the Observatory on Intellectual Property Rights: AGEPI, Customs Service, Police General Inspectorate and Prosecutor General’s office. They discussed issues related to the enforcement of intellectual property rights in the Republic of Moldova, prevention and counteraction of offences in the IP field, issues and challenges facing the authorities and society at the present stage.
At the end of the mission, the WIPO expert expressed satisfaction over how the Republic of Moldova, and in particular AGEPI, manages the system of protection of intellectual property and recommended the national authorities to further promote the reforms in the field so that intellectual property may serve for economic development of the country. Given the results achieved by Moldova in building a modern system of intellectual property, Moldova can and should also serve as a source of best practices for the Member States of WIPO concerned, especially for the developing and less developed countries, said the international expert.
The last mission of assessment of the economic impact and implementation of the National Intellectual Property Strategy until 2020 took place in October 2014.