On 8 February this year, patent attorneys in intellectual property met in a national seminar entitled "Strengthening the Patent Attorneys System in the Republic of Moldova. Best Practices of EU Member States”.

The event was organized by AGEPI with the support of the EU Technical Assistance Project “Support to Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights in the Republic of Moldova”.

The seminar aimed at presenting the Deontological Code for Patent Attorneys, as well as sharing the best practices in the field in the Member States of the European Union.

In the opening of the event, Andrei Popa, Deputy Director General of AGEPI, mentioned the importance of developing the patent attorneys system of the Republic of Moldova, as well as the need to elaborate the Code of Ethics and Conduct for Patent Attorneys, given that this code will lead to a consolidation of the institution of patent attorneys, by establishing the general principles of conduct for patent attorneys, in relations with customers, national and international authorities, nongovernmental organizations, other patent attorneys, the public and, in general, any person with whom it establishes relations of professional nature.

Further on, Project Expert Yuriy Kapitsa spoke about the advantages of being a member of an association or a system of patent attorneys and the requirements for that.

Also, Heinz Goddar, German patent attorney, expert of the project on intellectual property rights, made a comparative presentation of the features of the patent attorneys system in Germany, Great Britain and European Patent Office.

About the patent attorneys system in the Republic of Moldova: the current situation and subsequent developments, as well as about the deontological code for patent attorneys in our country spoke Diana Stici, head of the AGEPI Legal Department. “The rules of the Code of Ethics will ensure that the patent attorney accomplishes his professional mission, which must be based on competence, honesty and morality, so that the Code of Ethics and Conduct for Patent Attorneys will ultimately guarantee competent and qualified assistance to those interested in intellectual property services and advice,” said Diana Stici.

At the same time, Iulian Iorga, patent attorney, IP Consult advocacy network, exposed himself to the particularities of the elaboration of the Deontological Code for Patent Attorneys in the Republic of Moldova.

Subsequently, the participants participated in a roundtable in which they came up with proposals to improve the draft Deontological Code and tried to identify the needs for amending or supplementing the Regulation on the Activity of Patent Attorneys. Also, the mechanism of cooperation between AGEPI and patent attorneys was also brought up for discussion.

At present, according to data from the National Register of Patent Attorneys in Intellectual Property, there are registered 142 patent attorneys, 14 of whom have suspended their activity for various reasons and 5 attorneys have ceased their activity.

The professional activity of patent attorneys consists in representing natural persons and legal entities or rendering the necessary assistance to them in the field of protection of intellectual property objects (geographical indications, appellations of origin and traditional specialties guaranteed, trademarks, inventions, industrial designs, plant varieties, topographies of integrated circuits).