SYNOPSIS

The Estonian Act on Patent Attorneys was adopted by the Estonian Parliament on 21 February 2001 and put into force on 20 April 2001.

It is our pleasure to advise you that Estonia is the first of the countries of the former Soviet Union where the full complex of problems connected with the professional activities of Patent Attorneys as the representatives of a free profession, has been legally regulated on the level of the highest legislative document.

While drafting the Act, the working group led by Mr. Jaak G. Ostrat, the Chairman of the Estonian Association of Patent Attorneys, has abandoned the classical continental approach to the profession in question, basing on the principles of a closed professional society, according to which new members of the profession can be nominated only with the acceptance of the "guild". It has been the belief of the authors of the draft that contemporary conception of patent attorneys as "those rendering services to the owners of industrial property" shall base on a more modern and competition-encouraging position and namely: firstly, any person meeting the requirement of the Act on Patent Attorneys and passing the respective examination, shall obtain the rights and obligations of the profession; secondly, the decision of conferring to a person the qualification (profession) of a patent attorney shall not be made by their professional society but by an independent governmental institution.

Pursuant to the Act, only a person who has been entered into the State Register of Patent Attorneys may act as a patent attorney (§ 2). For being entered, the candidate must meet the requirements provided by the Act and must pass the examination in writing. Thus the profession of Patent Attorneys is under control and supervision of the state which in our opinion is the requisite guarantee for the necessary professional qualification of patent attorneys.

The above regulation practically repeats the one valid from 1992, i.e. all the Estonian patent attorneys have been examined as to their professional knowledge. Therefore, after enactment of the Act, the so-called "old attorneys" will be re-registered in the register established on the basis of the Act in the same areas of activities in which they had the right to act prior to enforcement of the Act.

The professional requirements to a candidate for the profession are stipulated by § 14 of the Act. It is our belief that they are rather stern and will ensure the necessary level of the services provided by our attorneys.

The Act legalizes the so-called client-attorney privilege (§ 6 and § 7 of the Act) which should be one of the effective legal means for guaranteeing confidentiality of the relations between an attorney and a client. Even in the case if the state supervision is exercised over a patent attorney, the data which is made available for the supervisor, will remain undisclosed for public.

The Act excludes the possibilities for comparative advertisement (§ 12). Although the comparative advertisement is not prohibited according to the respective documents of EU, it is our deepest belief that the profession of patent attorneys, being to some extent "conservative", shall not be subject to this kind of advertisement.

§ 10 and § 11 of the Act stipulating the conditions of proprietary and professional liability, should be also of interest. Of course, the subject provisions are still too "fresh" for our insurance authorities and their implementation will take some time. For your information, 1.000.000 Estonian Kroons (our national currency) is equal to 125.000 DEM.

The Act does not regulate the exclusive right of a patent attorney to represent clients before the Patent Office. Pursuant to Section 4 of § 2 of the Act, the situations mentioned are subject to being regulated by law, i.e. by other Acts belonging to our industrial property legislation.

As to the approach of our industrial property legislation to the problem above, then it is unambiguously clear and namely:

i) the citizens of any country having permanent residence in Estonia as well as the companies registered in Estonia, are not obliged to use the services of patent attorneys for executing actions before the Patent Office;

ii) the citizens not having permanent residence in Estonia as well as the companies registered in foreign countries, have the right to directly initiate the filing procedures before the Patent Office (provided, of course, that they are capable of filling out the necessary documents in Estonian) but for continuing the prosecution in the matter they will have to authorize an Estonian patent attorney.