The Regional Seminar “Development and Implementation of National Intellectual Property Strategies”, organized by the World Intellectual Property Organization in cooperation with the Patent Office of Latvia, took place during the period 9-10 May, in Riga.
The Regional Seminar was attended by representatives of the intellectual property offices in 14 countries, namely Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovakia, Albania, Georgia and the Republic of Moldova, as well as representatives of some Latvian public institutions and authorities. The Republic of Moldova was represented in the seminar by Maria Rojnevschi, Head of Promotion and External Relations Department of the State Agency on Intellectual Property.
In the opening of the event, welcome addresses to the participants were delivered by the Director of the Patent Office of the Republic of Latvia Sandris Laganovsckis and the Director of the Sectoral Policy Department of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Latvia Olga Zeile.
In accordance with the agenda of the event, 8 workshops were organized during the first day of the seminar, during which practical aspects related to the elaboration of national intellectual property strategies were discussed, focusing on the following topics:
- Overview of the main objectives of the IP Strategies in the Region,
- Efficient IP Governance models, including IPR enforcement coordination mechanisms,
- Role of a modern IP Office,
- Promoting inventive an innovative activity of Universities, Research Institutions and SME’s,
- Current Challenges in managing copyright and related rights,
- New initiatives on IP Awareness Raising and IP Teaching.
The representatives of the States participating in the seminar presented succinct information on the national approach to the topics mentioned above.
In her communication during the first working day of the regional seminar, the AGEPI representative presented the national system of protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights, including the role and attributions of AGEPI, the activity of the National Commission on Intellectual Property, the Observatory on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights of AGEPI, about measures taken to raise the level of culture in society in the field of intellectual property, education and training of different target groups (judges, customs officers, pupils, students, professors, librarians, entrepreneurs, etc.) in the field of intellectual property as well as about the process of drafting and approving the National Intellectual Property Strategy until 2020.
During the second day of the seminar, two working sessions took place, in which particular attention was paid to issues related to effective mechanisms for IP Strategy implementation and monitoring, as well as lessons learned and recommendations for the future/ the way forward. Thus, at the request of WIPO, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia shared with the participants in the event, their own experience and best practices on the implementation of the National Intellectual Property Strategy and the monitoring mechanisms used to assess the achievement of the Action Plans for the implementation of the Strategy, on the basis of the planned performance indicators, while mentioning the need for plenary involvement in the implementation process of all responsible institutions, establishing partnerships, etc.
The participants in the event have positively appreciated the importance and complexity of the issues that have been brought up for discussion, especially for countries that are in the process of developing national intellectual property strategies.
