Holders of patents for plant varieties and animal breeds can benefit from granting licenses to farming enterprises for using agricultural innovations. The name of a patented variety or breed is also protected and cannot be used for another selection product. Generally, to be granted a patent, a selection achievement should comply with the criteria of novelty, distinctness, uniformity and stability. The validity period of patents for grapes, ornamental trees, fruit crops and forest species can reach up to 35 years.

Examination procedure depends on the variety applied for protection in a particular jurisdiction. For example, the Civil Code of the Russian Federation allows performing the examination based on the data furnished by the applicant in accordance with the national standards or on DUS (Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability​​​​​​​) testing results obtained by a specialized foreign authority. In most cases, the procedures of examination and patent grant do not require submitting plant or animal material. However, variations of procedure for different cases, the absence of facilities for electronic communication and further peculiar requirements of the local regulations in this field may hinder the procedure for an applicant. Patentica’s specialists have extensive experience of patenting a range of varieties and will be glad to assist you with the process.

There are additional local requirements to consider. For instance, in order to grow or propagate a culture in Russia, it is obligatory that it is registered with the National Registry of Allowed Varieties. The procedure of registration includes DUS examination and examination for serviceableness, including examination of the variety for its capacity to be cultivated in regions with different climate conditions. This examination can also be performed based on data provided by the applicant. Our specialists can provide you more details regarding these matters and share their experience to support you throughout the application filing and examination process in the country of the applicant’s interest.

The reason for the patent term extension tool introduction is the complicated and lengthy procedure of clinical trials and obtaining special marketing authorization preceding the actual launch of pharmaceuticals and agricultural goods, which substantially reduces the term of profiting from a patent: it can actually take decades for a drug to pass muster with the federal authorities and be brought to the market. 

Patent term extension is also available under the Eurasian Patent Convention for Eurasian Patents in the following states in addition to Russia: Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkmenistan, the only exception being Tajikistan. 

As for the PCT, we assist clients with filing international applications, responding to the International Search Reports (ISR) and the Written Opinions of the International Search Authority (WOISA) as well as with entering the National Phase, which includes filing formal documents, paying official fees, preparing and submitting a translation of the application to the national office, such as Georgian Patent Office, Russian, Ukranian or Uzbek Patent Office, and handling Office Actions, if any. 

The PCT application can subsequently be entered either into National phase in one or several countries to mature finally into a national or several national patents, or into Regional phase, such as Eurasian regional phase, whereupon as result of examination, a Eurasian patent will be granted to simultaneously cover all EAPC Contracting States including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. It is worth noting that a EA patent does not require translation into several languages, while the renewals fees are payable to the EAPO in amount cumulative of the amount of renewal fees in each country where the patent is intended to maintained. 

We provide the following types of patent search:

Patent databases

Our search strategy produces high-quality results:

Considering the intricacies of the local legal systems, it is always advantageous to have an experienced and dedicated specialist on your side. For example, Russia has a bifurcated system of patent opposition and litigation. A Russian patent for an invention can be challenged by any person anytime during patent validity period in full or in part by submitting a notice of opposition to the Russian Patent and Trademark Office (Rospatent), if:

1. the claimed subject matter does not comply with the patentability criteria (novelty, inventive step, industrial applicability);
2. the essence of the invention is not sufficiently disclosed in the specification;
3. the claims recite features, which were not disclosed in the original specification at the filing date (added matter);
4. there is a patent having the same priority date on an identical invention;
5. the patent does not correctly identify an inventor(s) and/or patent owner;

The latter ground requires an action before the IP Court, while the rest of the grounds can be used for the opposition before the Chamber for Patent Disputes (CPD), which is a special division of Rospatent responsible for carrying out opposition and appeal proceedings.
A Eurasian patent can be challenged before the Eurasian Patent Office within 3 years following a publication date of the granted patent in the EAPO Official Bulletin, or any time before the national authorities of the EAPC Contracting States (patent offices). After expiry of the 3 year period the patent can be challenged only before the national authorities of the corresponding Contracting states. As for Russia, the opposition is considered by he Chamber for Patent Disputes of the RUPTO. If Eurasian patent is challenged before both of the patent offices in parallel the RUPTO postpones the hearing on the merits until the decision is taken by the Eurasian PTO.

A final decision on a given opposition is taken by the IP Court, which is responsible for considering appeals on the Rospatent’s decisions.
While there is no opposition system in relation to pending patent applications, third parties have an option of submitting observations (TPOs) about the patentability of the claimed invention once the application is published. Although there will be no inter parties proceedings, the third party observations will be taken by the patent office into account when making a final decision on grant or rejection of the patent.

Being skilled and experienced in patent opposition work, our patent attorneys conduct thorough prior art analysis regarding the patentability criteria and other grounds to accurately assess the prospects of possible opposition proceedings and are able to provide effective solution and legal assistance to both patent owners and their opponents.

All translators we recruit have additional linguistic training complementing their qualifications in technical disciplines, such as chemistry, pharmaceuticals, biochemistry, mechanics, optics, computer engineering, software, medical equipment and others. Our main working languages are Russian, English, German, Japanese, Ukrainian and Georgian.

We have successfully implemented MemoQ CAT tool into our translation process. This top-notch program allows us to provide competitive prices for our clients along with higher speed and quality of translations based on using client- or subject-specific Translation Memories and trainable machine translation feature.

For ensuring the highest quality, we have developed an efficient algorithm for processing a translation order: each translation is reviewed by a senior patent specialist or a patent attorney in order to ensure proper terminology, style and format. 

Another way to protect rights to a computer program is state registration of the code, upon which you receive a certificate that fixes details of the code, its programming language and purpose. Such registration is a formal, fast and relatively inexpensive procedure, available, for example, at the Russian PTO. A state certificate gives a number of advantages to the IP owners, such as:

The key features of a utility model in many countries are:

The scope of litigation matters we deal with embraces IP infringement, cybersquatting, counterfeit, competition law (unfair competition), unauthorized registration of IP in the name of agents and challenging decisions of the Patent and Trademark Office.

PATENTICA’s legal team is experienced in assisting clients with depositing, representing both plaintiffs and defendants in infringement lawsuits, drawing up transfer and franchise agreements, consulting on applicability of blockchain technologies and overall management of IP portfolio including works qualifying for copyright protection.