The European Patent Office on March 1 stopped its coordination with the patent offices in Russia and Belarus, and also stopped working with the Eurasian Patent Organization, which incudes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office cut its own ties with Russia, Belarus and the EAPO on March 4.
Here are five other intellectual property updates you may have missed this month.
USPTO Further Distances Itself From Russia
The USPTO's current leader, Drew Hirshfeld, on Thursday announced that the agency would be ending its Global Patent Prosecution Highway relationship with Russia's patent office — Rospatent — starting Friday.
The GPPH allows for inventors to fast-track patent applications in one participating country when the corresponding application has been approved in another participating country. The USPTO's website claims it participates with 26 countries, along with a coalition of four Central European countries. Russia is no longer on the list.
Any GPPH applications in progress tied to Rospatent will be moved into the queue of regular patent applications, the USPTO said.
"Like so many, we are deeply saddened by the events unfolding in Ukraine," the agency said Thursday. "We hope for the restoration of peace and human dignity"
Russia Allows Unpaid IP Use From 'Unfriendly Countries'
The Russian government on Sunday issued a decree allowing for the use of patents from "unfriendly countries" without compensation or permission from the owner. The change would apply to patent holders who have citizenship in counties on Russia's list or are registered in one if those countries, or if those countries are the patent holders' primary place of business or profit, according to the decree.
Russia's list of unfriendly states includes Albania, Andorra, Australia, Canada, European Union states, Great Britain, Iceland, Japan, South Korea, Lichtenstein, Macedonia, Micronesia, Monaco, Montenegro, New Zealand, Norway, San Marino, Singapore, Sweden, Taiwan, Ukraine and the United States, as of March 5.
The decree applies to the use of inventions, utility models and industrial designs.
Whistleblowers Call for WIPO to Close Moscow Office
A trio of whistleblowers who brought high-profile misconduct allegations against former World Intellectual Property Office leader Francis Gurry while he was still in office, are now urging the agency to condemn Russia's invasion. The trio claim they also blew the whistle on Gurry for opening an office in Russia without telling the other member states.
In a Feb. 28 letter to WIPO Director General Daren Tang, made public on March 1, Miranda Brown, Christopher Mason and Olivier Steele urged WIPO to close its Moscow office. Russia is still one of WIPO's members.
"We believe there is no justification for WIPO to continue providing technical cooperation to Russia, when it may have benefited from this agreement to pursue and develop weapons that are now being used against Ukraine and to kill innocent civilians," the letter states.
In addition to a public rebuke and office closing, the whistleblowers asked WIPO to address the issue of staff who don't feel comfortable raising their concerns about working with Russia and to acknowledge that there is "ongoing retaliation against us as whistleblowers at the WIPO."
"On matters raised in the letter, we are guided by our member states," a WIPO spokesperson told Law360.
Life Sciences Industry Pushes for Cutting Off Russia
While not strictly patent related, those working with life sciences companies should be interested in a letter signed by more than 800 business leaders in the industry asking for "immediate and complete economic disengagement" from Russia.
The signatories pledge to end investments in Russia and in Russian companies, reject investments from Russian funds, end collaborations or agreements with Russian companies and stop trading goods with Russia, excepting food and medicines.
The letter was posted on Feb. 26 by Ovid Therapeutics' chief corporate affairs officer and its chairman and CEO, alongside the CEOs of Nkarta Therapeutics, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Global Blood Therapeutics, and a managing partner of RA Capital Management.
As of Thursday afternoon, there were 865 signatures, including the chair of Biogen's board, a principal at Bain Capital Life Sciences, a senior policy adviser at DLA Piper, the CEOs of Coherus Biosciences and Sarepta Therapeutics, and a vice president at Kite Pharma, among hundreds of others, largely from biotech and investment firms.
"We ask our colleagues in all the industries in the United States, including software, social media, IT, agriculture, legal and financial services, medical devices, medical instruments and minerals, to take the same steps and withhold assistance to oligarchs who enable this war," the letter states.
Ukrainian Patent Office Presses On, With International Support
Just shy of a week after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Institute of Intellectual Property — better known as Ukrpatent — said it was operating full time and "providing all the necessary functions" to protect intellectual property.
"Main divisions of the enterprise carry out the reception and processing of applications for intellectual property ensuring the availability of relevant information resources and state registers," Director General Andrew Kudin said in the March 1 statement. "Our employees make significant efforts for securing the stability in operation of the enterprise."
During March, Ukrpatent has received letters of support from the patent agencies of Lithuania, Finland, Austria, Slovakia, Poland and the European Union.
"We 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," Lina Mickiene, the acting director of Lithuania's patent office, said in a March 7 letter. "We sincerely 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."
Rospatent and Ukrpatent didn't immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.
--Editing by Rich Mills.
Update: This story has been updated with comment from WIPO.
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