The Government of the Republic of Moldova approved today, by decision, the Draft Law on the accession of the Republic of Moldova to the Convention on the Grant of European Patents of 5 October 1973, adopted in Munich and revised by the Act of 17 December 1991 and the Act of 29 November 2000. The draft was presented at the Government meeting by Eugeniu Rusu, Director General of AGEPI.
The accession of the Republic of Moldova to this convention constitutes a strategic step for aligning the national system of protection of inventions with European standards and for facilitating access of national applicants to the centralized patenting procedure, which allows obtaining protection of inventions in the 39 Member States of the European Patent Organization (EPO).
The main advantages of accession include:
- direct access to the single procedure for granting European patents, reducing costs and administrative burden for inventors and companies;
- obtaining an internationally recognized title of protection, which provides greater legal certainty and economic value to inventions;
- participation of the Republic of Moldova in the decision-making structures of the EPO;
- strengthening technical and institutional cooperation with the EPO and with the relevant offices in the Member States;
- increasing the economic attractiveness of the country thanks to a robust framework for the protection of innovations, favoring investments and technology transfer.
The approval of the draft law marks an essential stage in the accession process, following the completion of the necessary legislative and diplomatic procedures.
This initiative reflects the commitment of the Republic of Moldova to modernize the national intellectual property system and to fully integrate into the European innovation space. We should note that, on 13 December 2022, the Administrative Council of the EPO officially invited the Republic of Moldova to become a full member state, thus opening a new stage of cooperation and development in the field of intellectual property.
