The 18th Annual Meeting on Cooperation with Member States of the European Patent Organization (EPO) took place on May 7, 2024, in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Delegates from the EPO Member States gathered to assess the progress made in cooperation activities and to share experiences and best practices in their implementation. A special emphasis was placed on the discussions regarding ways to strengthen the cooperation between the EPO and the Member States in the context of the new Strategic Plan 2028.

Among the topics of discussion were the impact of artificial intelligence on intellectual property offices, future trends in the development of IT tools and support for start-ups in the field of intellectual property. The involvement of young generations in this field was also an important topic.

This high-level meeting was also attended by the Director General of the State Agency on Intellectual Property (AGEPI), Eugeniu Rusu.

It is important to emphasize that the Republic of Moldova was invited for the second time to participate as an observer at the Annual Meeting on Cooperation with the EPO Member States. This became possible as a result of the historic decision of the EPO Administrative Council of December 13, 2022 to invite the Republic of Moldova to join the European Patent Convention.