On September 21, a regular technical visit of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the Latvian Patent Office (LPO) took place online, during which the management and experts of LPO informed EUIPO about the current projects and their implementation status, and EUIPO gave an overview of the new developments in cooperation activities. The Authenticity project, implemented jointly by LPO and the city of Liepāja, as well as the SME Fund project received a particularly high appreciation from EUIPO.
In February this year, Liepāja municipality and LPO signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the European Network of Authenticities. The project foresees organisation of various informational and educational events and activities with the aim of drawing public attention to the importance of authentic products and services and to the ability to recognise counterfeit goods.
"The public has appreciated our joint activities with the city of Liepāja in the Authenticity project - a large number of visitors attended our interactive stand in Liepāja. They not only took the opportunity to learn more about the damage caused by counterfeit items, but also thanked us for raising this issue. The high assessment expressed by EUIPO at the technical meeting confirms that the next steps must be taken - we must think about expanding this city network in Latvia," emphasizes LPO Director Agris Batalauskis.
In turn, the Ideas Powered for business SME Fund project aims at helping small and medium-sized enterprises in the European Union identify and protect their intellectual property rights, as well as to support the economic recovery of the European Union. The EUIPO representatives commended LPO on the project activities due to which the number of new applications has increased by 60% as compared to 2022.
The EUIPO experts also positively assessed other numerous projects being implemented by LPO, including Back Office, Decision Desktop, TMview and DesignView. As LPO Director Agris Batalauskis noted during the meeting, the projects are being carried out in accordance with the established time schedule.
The LPO director also introduced the EUIPO representatives to other events organised this year – Trademark of the Year and Visionary competitions, as well as a seminar for judges held in Liepāja at the beginning of September.
The participants from LPO were Director Agris Batalauskis; Deputy Director/ Director of the Administrative and Finance Department Ēriks Rēķis; Director of the Trademarks and Industrial Designs Department Baiba Graube; Leading Examiner of the Trademarks and Industrial Designs Department Ilze Korte; Examiner of the Trademarks and Industrial Designs Department Regīna Voiteka-Raginska; Director of the Development and International Cooperation Department Terēze Vētra; Deputy Director of the Development and International Cooperation Department Inguna Gruntiņa; Leading Officer of the Development and International Cooperation Department Vineta Sondore.
The EUIPO participants were Sandris Laganovskis, Director, Institutional and Cooperation Department; Aleksandr Maksimenkov, Country Coordinator; Jose Manuel Rives, Cosme Ruiz, and Samantha de la Cueva from European Cooperation Service; Vladimir Silin, Deployed Project Manager; Juan Amoros, Interim Deployed Project Manager.