Public institutions responsible for the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR), including the State Agency on Intellectual Property (AGEPI), the Police, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the courts, the Customs Service, the Agency for Consumer Protection and Market Surveillance will make their activity more efficient thanks to an IT system developed by the EU Project “Support to Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights” in the Republic of Moldova. The information system was presented to the representatives of the beneficiary institutions in a series of seminars organized by the EU Project experts from 23 to 26 October this year.

According to the EU Project team leader Maximilian Foedinger, the development of an interinstitutional IP communication platform for process efficiency and data sharing between public authorities is one of the most important components of the Project.

“The ultimate outcome of using this tool is to increase the quality of information exchange, to generate relevant, up-to-date statistics that underpin an effective IPR strategy. In the context of the implementation of the Association Agreement with the EU and the competitiveness in a market with a share of the IP industries of over 40%, the development of an IPR enforcement system in the Republic of Moldova becomes an imperative,” said Maximilian Foedinger.

In turn, the EU Project expert Alexandar Josifoski said that the architecture of the IT platform contains several modules: the AGEPI database, including information on international trademarks; a system of applications for action dedicated to the Customs Service, a module for IPR holders, aggregated statistics available to all institutions. The system will be integrated into the governmental e-Government platform and will be accessible through the web interface.

The integration of this system will take place on the basis of a Government Decision, which will be the official foundation of this cooperation between public institutions. At the moment, the platform is hosted by AGEPI and can be enhanced or developed with other modules.

It should be noted that the IT system development began in December 2017, and its acceptance is expected by November 1, 2018.

The Technical Assistance Project “Support to Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights” in the Republic of Moldova is funded by the European Union and implemented by a Consortium made up of the companies Archidata Srl (Italy), European Profiles S.A. (Greece) and Business and Strategies in Europe S.A. (Belgium). The project has a two-year period and ends in November 2018.