Besides the national patent, protection of inventions in Belarus is possible according to the Eurasian Patent Convention (EAPC). Eurasian patent system provides a uniform application procedure for physical and legal persons to protect their inventions on the basis of a single Eurasian patent valid in the territory of eight States party to EAPC: Turkmenistan, Republic of Belarus, Republic of Tajikistan, Russian Federation, Republic of Kazakhstan, Republic of Azerbaijan, Kyrgyz Republic, Republic of Armenia. Eurasian patents are granted for inventions created in all fields of science, technology and economy.

To obtain a Eurasian patent with validity in all the Convention's States party to the Convention one Eurasian application is filed.

Eurasian application can be filed in any language with further submission of translation into Russian.

Costs for obtaining a Eurasian patent valid in several countries of the Eurasian region are lower than cumulative costs for obtaining national patents in those countries.

From publication of a Eurasian patent until payment of the first annual maintenance fee the patent holder has an exclusive right to his invention in all countries of the region.

Fees related to obtaining and maintenance of a Eurasian patent are payable to ONE office - EAPO (the Eurasian Patent Office).

Eurasian patent may be obtained on the basis of an international application filed under PCT procedure (РСТ). An international application filed to obtain a Eurasian patent under the PCT can be switched to the regional phase of processing by the EAPO. Having entered the regional phase, an international application will be treated as a Eurasian application, which, from the date of the start of its processing by the EAPO, will be subject to the Eurasian patent law.

 

Legal protection of a trademark in the Republic of Belarus is obtained by its registration under “the first filing”. There is no use requirements at the time of application.

The validity of the trademark registration may be terminated prematurely in relation to all or some of the goods mentioned in the registration due to non-use of the trademark without justifiable reason continuously during period of any three years from the date of registration on the ground of the decision of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus. The request on previous effect of registration of the trademark may be addressed to the Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus by a third party after the specified 3 years on condition that this trademark is not used before forwarding of such a request. The decision on whether or not to terminate the validity of the trademark registration prematurely for non-use may be subject to the consideration of evidence submitted by the owner of the trademark to show that the non-use was due to factors beyond his control.

 The modified Law of the Republic of Belarus "On the trademarks and service marks" went into effect on January 15, 2013.

The Law states that the exclusive right to a trademark shall not be deemed infringed if the trademark is used by other persons in respect of goods that have been introduced in civil-law transactions on the territory of the Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan  (Agreement signed in Moscow on December, 9th, 2010) directly by the right owner or with the consent thereof (The Exhaustion of the Exclusive Right to a Trademark).

The contract for the assignment of a trademark, the license contract and the pledge contract shall be registered with the Patent Office. Unregistered contracts are not valid. By adopting these amendments, the notification control of such contracts by the Patent Office (the National Center of Intellectual Property) is abolished.

Any assignment of the right to the trademark that might have the effect of misleading the consumer as to the goods or the manufacturer thereof shall not be allowed.

The registration of the assignment agreement is requested only in relation to the registered trademarks.  In case of the assignment of a pending application, it will be considered as modification of the application according to the applicant’s name change, but the contract in this case should not be registered. Official fee for the application assignment (modification of the application) is USD 50, official fee for the registration of the contract for the assignment of the registered trademark is USD 200 per each trademark.

The license contract shall contain a clause to the effect that the quality of the licensee’s goods shall not be inferior to that of the licensor’s goods, and the observance of the said clause shall be ensured by the licensor.

 

COMMERCIAL SECRETS

The law of the republic of Belarus “on commercial secrets” was adopted on january 5, 2013. The Law regulates relations arising in connection with the establishment, modification and cancellation of a commercial secret regime, as well as the legal protection of commercial secrets.

The Law determines the conditions of accrual, modification, termination of legal protection of commercial secrets, the requirements to the information on which can be set to the commercial secret regime, establishes an indicative list of information that can not constitute a commercial secret.

The Law makes provisions for the establishment of a commercial secret regime, rights and obligations of the owner of commercial secrets, regulates the access and determines peculiarities of the protection in relation to contractors and employees.

The Law made significant amendments to the provisions of the Civil Code of the Republic of Belarus: undisclosed information is excluded from the objects of intellectual property; the remaining trade secrets (know-how) at the same time are not covered by the exclusive right.

The Law shall enter into force in six months after its publication.