EPO President Visits Albania, Bulgaria

On February 9, 2011, President of the European Patent Organization (EPO) Benoît Battistelli paid his first official visit to Albania after the country became the EPO member in May 2010, while on March 1-2 in Sofia, Battistelli met with a number of Bulgarian officials to discuss the further development of Bulgaria’s intellectual property system.

In Albania, Battistelli met with Prime Minister Sali Berisha, Minister of Economy, Trade and Energy Nasip Naco, Director of the Albanian PTO Safet Sula and Head of the EU Delegation in Albania Ettore Sequi. Battistelli and the Albanian officials discussed the importance of Albania becoming the EPO member and the country’s IP strategy for the 2010-2015 period, which the EPO will help implement.

In Bulgaria, Battistelli met with the Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism Traycho Traykov to discuss the European Union patent proposal, which would allow applicants to obtain a unitary patent throughout the EU. Battistelli praised the efforts Bulgarian authorities are making to join the new system, which will reduce patent registration and renewal costs and help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and universities protect their inventions more efficiently.

The areas of future collaboration between the EPO and the Bulgarian Patent Office (BPO) were identified during Battistelli’s meeting with the BPO’s President Kostadin Manev. Various activities aimed at raising IP awareness at Bulgarian SMEs and universities were discussed during the meeting, such as the trainings on searching and using EPO’s databases, which provide access to 70 million documents.

Bulgarian universities’ innovation capacities were highlighted during Battistelli’s meeting with Borislav Borisov, rector of the University of National and World Economy in Sofia, and Nikola Sabotinov, president of the Bulgarian Academy of Science. The Bulgarian Academy of Science has received 70 percent of Bulgarian patents in the last ten years, some of which are also filed as European patents.

For more information, please contact Melina Nika or Adelina Slavkova.

Source: EPO, Bulgarian PTO, Albanian PTO