NEW AZERBAIJAN PARTY

Q: President Ilham Aliyev declared 2014 as the Year of Industry. What measures did the State Committee for Standardization, Metrology and Patent take under the Year of Industry?

A: The development of industry is conditioned by the creation of state-of-the-art quality infrastructure. So taking this into account President Ilham Aliyev`s decree declaring 2014 the Year of Industry assigns some important tasks on our committee. One of such tasks is speeding up the work to prepare national standards, in accordance with international standards, in order to increase competitiveness of industrial products in the country, as well as the creation of new technical committees for every specific area. As part of this work Technical Committee on Standardization of Industrial Products was created. Fourteen standard projects drawn up by the committee were accepted as state standards. We believe that this technical Committee, created under Sumgayit Technological Park, will further fruitfully work on this front.

We also did considerable work in the field of technical regulation related to the establishment of a new oil and gas and petrochemical complex, which is being created under an agreement signed by the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan Standardization and Certification Institute under the State Committee for Standardization, Metrology and Patent.

Q: From January 1, 2015 Azerbaijan will be represented in General Conference on Weights and Measures and International Organization of Legal Metrology. What will membership of these influential organizations give Azerbaijan?

A: From January 1, 2015 the State Committee for Standardization, Metrology and Patent will represent Azerbaijan as an associate member in the General Conference on Weights and Measures and as a correspondent member in the International Organization of Legal Metrology, which are major international organizations in the field of metrology. Membership of these influential organizations will pave the way for Azerbaijan to sign Metre Convention and a Mutual Recognition Agreement.

Membership of the General Conference on Weights and Measures will allow the Committee on Metrology under the State Committee for Standardization, Metrology and Patent to join the Mutual Recognition Agreement of the International Committee for Weights and Measures.

As far as the International Organization of Legal Metrology is concerned, members of this organization enjoy many benefits.

For example, members may participate in the definition of priorities for the organization`s technical work, highlighting the specific needs of their country or region. This ensures that organization`s publications are relevant to the needs of all of its Members, avoiding the development of requirements specifically addressing certain countries’ needs.

Participating in the organization`s work allows members to receive up-to-date information from other participants concerning new technologies, ways to assess the conformity of instruments, solutions found in other countries to answer specific problems, good practices in legal metrology, experience in the organization of legal metrology activities in different countries, etc.

This participation and the continuous exchange of information allows members to establish direct communication with other countries’ experts, to better know each other, and to develop mutual confidence.

Members may influence the organization`s policy, and provide input to its strategy, so that their needs are taken into account in the organization's work. The strategy deals with the general policy of the organization.

Q: Patent is one of the key area for your committee. What are your plans related to the security of industrial property facilities?

A: The state policy in the field of the legal protection of industrial property objects in the Republic of Azerbaijan is carried out by the State Committee for Standardization, Metrology and Patent and its Patent Department.

Our key priorities in this area include receipt of applications on industrial property objects from the local and foreign, legal and natural persons, registration, carrying out state examination and the issuance of the relevant protection documents; carrying out state registration; registration of the contracts on transfer of ownership rights of industrial property objects and the license agreements relating to the use of industrial property objects; development of the legislative acts in the field of legal protection of industrial property objects, preparation of proposals on improvement of the state activity system; carrying out the works on  improvement of the legislative and regulatory acts in the field of industrial property, analysis of  implementation of  experience of legislation in this field and the legislation in force within its competence and generalization, clarifying its provisions; conduct of the national register of patent attorneys;

information maintenance on the industrial property protection and publishing activities, management of the data sources and development of its organizational and technical support system.

We are studying the best experience in the legal protection of industrial property objects. We maintain close cooperation with the World Intellectual Property Organization on this front.

Q: What about the application of international standards in providing the population with food and non-food products?

A: Providing people with high quality and high standard food and non-food products is one of the key priorities for the Azerbaijani government. In this regard, the priorities of the State Committee for Standardization, Metrology and Patent include ensuring quality and range of products, safety of human life and health in services and processes, protecting interests of the state and consumers in the environmental protection matters, increasing the quality of the product according to the national economy and the needs of the population, and development of science and technology, ensuring conformity and mutual substitution of the product, assisting to save human and material resources, improving the economic indicators of production, ensuring competitiveness of products on world markets and effective participation of the country in international and interstate division of labor by eliminating of technical barriers in production and trade, protecting economic objects taking into account the risk of natural and man-made disasters and other emergency situations.