At the beginning of October, the Czech Republic ratified the agreement on the establishment of the Visegrad Patent Institute (VPI), an authority that will serve as the International Searching Authority (ISA) and International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA) under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). For applicants from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, VPI will provide a search report and a preliminary opinion on the possibility to obtain a patent for their inventions. According to director of the Czech Industrial Property Office Josef Kratochvíl the costs for applicants could be reduced by up to 50%. Read more.

The VPI will also provide its services to applicants from certain neighbouring countries from the region if it secures an application as a recognised ISA and IPEA from respective countries. Should this attempt prove to be successful, the VPI could become an important hub for regional cooperation in the field of patents, said earlier the www.ip-watch.org server in their article.