On March 18, 2026, on the sidelines of the meeting of the Board of Directors of the European Patent Office in Munich, an agreement was signed by Mr. Panagiotis Kanellopoulos, Director General of the Hellenic Industrial Property Organisation (OBI), and Ms. Rudina Bollano, Director General of the Albanian General Directorate of Industrial Property (GDIP).
The Offices agreed to expand their cooperation in the field of Patents. Prior art searches and patentability studies will be conducted by OBI from April 1, 2026, upon request from interested users in Albania.
The agreement falls under the Memorandum of Understanding concluded between the Offices in 2021 and reflects their commitment to promoting innovation and strengthening the Industrial Property ecosystem. It is expected that the prior art searches will facilitate the filing of Patent applications by leveraging technological information from Patents and reducing the risk of infringing existing patented technologies, while the patentability studies will add value to the national Patent system by supporting the granting of Patents.
