Obtaining protection of topographies of integrated circuits

The certificate of registration of the topography of the integrated circuit shall grant the owner the exclusive right to exploit the topography of the integrated circuit for its entire duration of protection. The certificate shall give the owner the right to prohibit third parties who do not have his consent from carrying out, on the territory of the Republic of Moldova, actions such as manufacturing, offering for sale, selling, using, transporting, importing, another way of putting into circulation or storing for these purposes of the product that is the subject-matter of the patent, etc.

Any natural person or legal entity may request the protection of the topography of the integrated circuit by filing a request with the AGEPI. A request in this sense may be filed by several applicants.

The standard application form can be found at: https://www.agepi.gov.md/ro/formulare/topographies, F-01-TC-001-E-02-0293, the guide to completing then application can be accessed at - chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.agepi.gov.md/sites/default/files/formulare/ghid/gh-840.pdf.

Natural persons and legal entities having their residence or principal place of business in the Republic of Moldova shall act before AGEPI personally or through a representative, empowered by power of attorney.

Natural persons or legal entities not having their residence or principal place of business in the Republic of Moldova shall be represented by an authorized professional representative and act through him.

         In the process of examining the application, AGEPI shall carry out its formal examination and the examination of the regular national application from the point of view of complying with the requirements necessary for topography registration. The formal examination shall, within one month from the date of entry of the application at AGEPI, organize a record of applications for registration of topographies, in which all applications that have the document of payment of the filing and registration fees are entered. Applications for which the filing and registration fee have not been paid shall be returned to the applicant, accompanied by a notification communicating the grounds for the return. AGEPI shall keep, as a witness, a copy of the application. If, following the formal examination of the application, it is found that the requirements for the establishment of the regular national application have been satisfied, the data on the application shall be entered in the National Register of Applications for the Registration of Topographies of Integrated Circuits and the applicant shall be notified of such fact. If the requirements of the Regulations have not been met, AGEPI shall, within 15 days from the date of submission of the application, notify the applicant of the documents that are missing and that must be filed within 2 months from the date of notification. In this case, the date of the regular national application shall be the date of filing of the required documents. If the required documents have not been filed within the indicated period, the application shall not be deemed to have been filed.

 If the formal examination result is positive, the regular national application shall be sent to the examination section, which within 2 months from the date of its entry into the section shall carry out the examination of the regular national application from the point of view of satisfying the requirements necessary for topography registration. If, following the examination of the regular national application, it is found that the legal requirements for granting protection have been satisfied, the topography registration decision shall be issued and the applicant shall be notified. If the applicant’s responses to two repeated notifications do not contain the requested additions and corrections, without giving grounds, AGEPI shall have the right to ask the applicant to act subsequently only through the representative. If the applicant fails to present to AGEPI arguments and, where appropriate, relevant documents or the necessary additions, to prove that the legal topography registration requirements have been satisfied, AGEPI shall issue the decision to reject the application, notifying the applicant in writing of the grounds for the rejection. The decision to register the topography shall be entered in the National Register of Topographies of Integrated Circuits. The official date of registration of the topography shall be the date on which the regular national filing of the application for registration was constituted.

 The topography registration certificate shall be drawn up on the basis of the decision of registration of the topography. The topography registration certificate, signed by the Director General of AGEPI, shall be issued to the owner within 3 months from the date on which he was notified of the decision of registration of the topography.

 AGEPI shall publish the data on the registration of the topography in the Official Bulletin of Industrial Property in the Section “Topographies of Integrated Circuits”. The publication shall be made within 2 months from the date of issuance of the registration certificate.