Over the last week, the Ukrainian Institute of Intellectual Property (Ukrpatent) has been posting letters of support that it has received from other European patent offices. Among the offices from which Ukrpatent has received such letters are the European Patent Office (EPO), the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland, the Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic, the Austrian Patent Office, and the Finnish Patent and Registration Office (PRH).
Today, Ukrpatent posted a letter of support that it received from the State Patent Bureau of the Republic of Lithuania. In the letter, Acting Director Lina Mickiene begins by "express[ing] complete solidarity with you on behalf of me and my colleagues in the Lithuanian patent office," and declaring that "[w]e are shocked and appalled by the unjustified and illegal military aggression against your nation, your institutions, and people that is carried out by Russian Federation." The Acting Director offers the State Patent Bureau's "sincere[] hope that these unjustified military actions by Russia, grossly violating not only international law but the principles of humanity itself, that are unimaginable in our times, will be stopped as soon as possible." The letter also notes that the State Patent Bureau will make "all efforts to take any actions that are possible in the realm of our activities including those to avoid the loss of IP rights by the Ukrainian applicants and right holders," including an offer from State Patent Bureau employees to "contribute to any help they are able to provide in this situation." The letter concludes by stating that the "Lithuanian office firmly stands with you in these unprecedented times, and our hearts go to your colleagues and all the Ukrainian nation," closing with the message: "Слава Україні!" (Glory to Ukraine!).
Ukrpatent also posted a letter of support that it received from the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), which is the EU agency responsible for registration of European Union trade marks (EUTM) and registered Community designs (RCD). In the letter, Executive Director Christian Archambeau notes that "[t]he EUIPO stands with the Ukrainian people in this heart-breaking situation and supports them in their heroic efforts in fighting for democracy, their freedom and sovereignty." In order to help safeguard Ukrainians' right to protect their IP, Executive Director Archambeau indicated that the EUIPO would grant Ukrainian applicants with a one-month extension of time, as of February 24, and will "review the need for further extensions and additional measures as we move forward." The EUIPO also announced that it would "discontinue any international collaboration held in the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding signed on July 2017 with the Federal Service for Intellectual Property of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation (Rospatent)," and "suspend any international collaboration held in the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding signed on March 2019 with Eurasian Patent Organization (EAPO), intergovernmental oragnisation with the participation of Russia and the Republic of Belarus." Executive Director Archambeau closes the letter by reiterating that "the EUIPO stands with Ukrainian people and, like millions of our fellow Europeans, the desire of our staff community to do something tangible, is strong." One tangible action taken by EUIPO staff has been to collect donations to be sent to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), which are "currently on the ground and working hard to provide help to refugees."
The EUIPO also issued a separate statement in which it outlined the measures (discussed in its letter of support to Ukrpatent) which the EUIPO adopted "in response to the unprovoked and unjustified military aggression carried out by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, as well as to the disinformation and information manipulation actions by the Russian Federation and its associated outlets against the EU and its member states." The EUIPO statement closed by declaring that:
[T]he EUIPO joins the European Union in condemning, in the strongest possible terms, the Russian Federation's unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against Ukraine, and in demanding that Russia immediately ceases its military actions, unconditionally withdraws all forces and military equipment from the entire territory of Ukraine and fully respects Ukraine's territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence within its internationally recognised borders.
For additional information regarding this and other related topics, please see:
• "USPTO Terminates PPH with Rospatent and Terminates Engagement with NCIP," March 10, 2022
• " Life Sciences Business Leaders Call for Immediate and Complete Economic Disengagement from Russia," March 9, 2022
• "PRH Joins Other Patent Offices in Expressing Support for Ukraine," March 9, 2022
• "USPTO Terminates Engagement with Rospatent and EAPO," March 7, 2022
• "Ukrpatent Continues Normal Operations Despite Russian Aggression," March 6, 2022
