Offices & Countries / Belarus

The Patent System of Belarus

By the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus dated April 9, 1992, there was formed the State Patent Office of the Republic of Belarus (Belgospatent) under the supervision of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus.

On February 5, 1993, the Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus adopted three main laws:

• the Law on Patents for Inventions
• the Law on Patents for Industrial Designs
• the Law on Trademarks (Service Marks)
  

as well as the regulations for compilation and filing of applications for these industrial property subjects.

During 1995-2000 the laws on protection of plant varieties, utility models, topologies for integrated circuits came into force, the law on protection of trademarks and service marks was issued in a new edition, the mechanism for realizing the laws adopted was elaborated.

By the decree of the President, dated September 24, 2001, Belgospatent was transformed to the State Institution "National Center of Intellectual Property" in the structure of the Committee for Sciences under the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus. Since March, 2001, the Center has been in the structure of the newly created Committee for Science and Technologies under the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus.

The Republic of Belarus is a party of the following multilateral agreements within the framework of WIPO:

• Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (1967)
• Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (1883)
• Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) (1970)
• Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks (1891)
• Nairoby Treaty on the Protection of the Olympic Symbol (1981)
• Nice Agreement Concerning the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (1957)
• Locarno Agreement Establishing an International Classification for Industrial Designs (1968)
• Strasbourg Agreement Concerning the International Patent Classification (1971)
• Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure (1977)
• Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks (1989)