The protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights are essential for a country’s capacity to stimulate innovation and compete in the global economy, according to specialists from the international office, the World Intellectual Property Organization. The intellectual property’s importance and role in modern societies are also stipulated in the World Declaration on Intellectual Property adopted on June 26, 2000. In the present age, intellectual property is the one that contributes to economic development, respectively, to enhanced well-being of the population. The Moldovan-Romanian institutional partnership in intellectual property was discussed in IPN’s public debate “Romania-Republic of Moldova, strengthening partnership in the field of intellectual property”.

Eugeniu Rusu, director general of the State Agency on Intellectual Property (AGEPI) of the Republic of Moldova, said that intellectual property, in general, is divided into two sectors. It goes to industrial property that covers trademarks, patents, plant varieties, industrial designs, and also to copyright and related rights. The period since those exclusive rights over intellectual property appear is the big difference between these two sectors. Respectively, in industrial property the rights appear at the moment they are registered, while in copyright they appear at the moment of creation, when a work is finished.

At the same time, the two sectors differ in terms of territoriality, namely where they can be protected. For industrial property, the countries for which the industrial property is to be protected are chosen, while copyright is protected based on the conventions to which the Republic of Moldova is a party. Eugeniu Rusu believes that intellectual property is a basic pillar for both the economy and creativity. In his opinion, intellectual property is the element that supports the economy and maintains the success of a company or a business, because the sales market is differentiated through these intellectual property objects.

Andrei Simion Ijac, director general of the Romanian Copyright Office, said that in Romania the intellectual property system is built through working groups that meet both in Brussels and at the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva. Thus, the legislative framework is adapted so as to stimulate and help the innovative environment and creativity. The experts who form part of these working groups then issue, for example, on behalf of the European Union, those directives that need to be implemented in the national legislation, which will also become an essential component for the Republic of Moldova at some point.

So, he says, this framework is implemented through very, very many debates, through many working groups and a legislative text is ultimately produced and the member states are obliged to implement it in their national legislation.

Lawyer Ion Țigănaș, expert in intellectual property, drew a parallel between the intellectual property that existed in the Soviet Union and the current one. According to him, in the Soviet Union, intellectual property, even if it was regulated, was not properly protected and was in a precarious situation. Things changed diametrically after the country gained independence, when private property, in general, became the basic pillar of the rule of law. Therefore, it was necessary to create a system that protects intellectual creation, which is what the people do with the help of their minds.

Consequently, the process of regulating by laws separate areas began and things evolved spectacularly. Respectively, today the Republic of Moldova has an intellectual property system that is very close to the European one and the legislation is largely harmonized with European directives. The authors, inventors can protect their rights and the private sector has all the levers at hand to register a trademark or a convention or, if someone finds that their rights are violated, they can go to court, to the authorities to ask for protection. It is a system that was created practically from scratch and has developed dynamically.

The public debate entitled “Romania-Republic of Moldova, strengthening partnership in the field of intellectual property” was the eighth installment of the project “Double integration through cooperation and information. Continuity”, which is funded by the Department for Relations with the Republic of Moldova. The content of this debate does not represent the official position of the Department for Relations with the Republic of Moldova.