INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
INNOVATION
NOVI SAD, OCTOBER 14, 2013
Fikret Zunic, Patent Examiner
Institute for Intellectual Property of Bosnia and Herzegovina
An outline of the current situation in innovative
policy development in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Generally speaking, each intellectual property legal protection
system has been developed to protect the results of creativity
and the right of its owner to disposal, use and economic gain
from protected intangible property with the assistance of tools
and institutions available within such a legal system. In the
context of today’s globalisation, protection of the intellectual
property rights and efficiency of national intellectual property
rights systems become increasingly important.
During 2010-2011 Bosnia and Herzegovina had a major
Intellectual Property (IP) legislation reform with 7 new
substantive IP laws, adopted together with corresponding
implementing regulations.
All of those laws have provisions enabling civil law protection
of the infringed right, preliminary measures, security of the
evidence, border measures, market-inspection supervision and
minor offenses
On the state level of Bosnia and Herzegovina, there are several
institutions with strong direct impact on the IPR Enforcement.
Those institutions are:
1) The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina,
2) The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina,
3) State Investigations and Protection Agency (SIPA),
4) Indirect Taxation Authority (ITA) of Bosnia and Herzegovina,
in particular its Customs Sector.
Other institutions on the state level of Bosnia and Herzegovina
that have very limited influence on the IPR Enforcement are:
5) Institute for Intellectual Property of Bosnia and Herzegovina,
6) Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices of Bosnia and
Herzegovina and
7) Agency for Food Safety.
The EU awarded EUR 534,460.00 to "INNOVA project",
recognizing the importance of the development of institutional
capacity of the innovation centers in Banja Luka, Mostar and
Zenica, and in the research sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The project began in October, 2012, for the period of 18 months,
and it has been implemented by HD European Consulting
Group and its consortium partners - Lithuanian Innovation
Centre and the Austrian Council for Research and
Technological Development.
The goal of the project "Institutional capacity development of
the three innovation centres and research sector in Bosnia and
Herzegovina" (INOVO) is to increase the institutional capacity
development of the innovation centres in Banja Luka, Mostar
and Zenica, and of the research sector in Bosnia and
Herzegovina.
The Institute for Intellectual Property of Bosnia and
Herzegovina is established as a central administrative body for
the granting of industrial property rights, in accordance with the
Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, but
also has the authority to grant licences for the work of the
Associations of Authors for the Collective Management of
Author’s
Rights
(Collecting
societies).
Through
the
Development Strategy of the Institute for the period 2008-2015,
adopted by the Council of Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina
in July, 2009, the Institute has obtained much broader role then
just granting IP rights; it is defined as a pivotal institution in the
Bosnia and Herzegovina IPR system.
Seminars on European patent system and patent protection in
Europe, organized by the European Patent Academy in
cooperation with the Institute for Intellectual Property of Bosnia
and Herzegovina, were held in the months of April and May this
year in Mostar (on April 16th), Sarajevo (on April 17th) and in
Banja Luka (on May 14th).
European patent system established by the European Patent
Convention and the Community patent system, which will soon
be introduced, were presented at the seminars with the aim of
bringing them closer to stakeholders in Bosnia and
Herzegovina.
Lecturers from the European Patent Office (EPO), European
Patent Academy and the management of the Institute for
Intellectual Property of Bosnia and Herzegovina also talked
about the importance of patents for universities and small and
medium enterprises, intellectual property rights and patent
protection in Bosnia and Herzegovina, use of Espacenet, Patent
Translate and the European Patent Register, and presented was
also a comparison between European patent and unitary patent.
At the end of the seminar participants had the opportunity for
discussion and questions.
Representatives of small and medium enterprises, inventors
associations, universities, industrial property representatives
and employees of the Institute attended the seminars.
Working and educational seminar titled "The European Patent
System – Workshop for Researchers" was held on the 17th of
September in Banjaluka.
The seminar, which was organized by the Institute for
Intellectual Property of Bosnia and Herzegovina in cooperation
with the European Patent Office (EPO) and the Faculty of
Mechanical Engineering in Banjaluka, was intended for
innovators, inventors, scientific workers, staff of the Institute
and other interested parties.
Thomas Bereuter of the European Patent Academy spoke on
the topic „From idea to innovation" and patent examiners of the
Intellectual Property Office of the Republic of Serbia Nataša
Milovanović and Jelena Tomić Keser spoke about reading and
understanding patent documents, structure of patents, ways to
check descriptions of existing knowledge, definitions of
exclusive rights, how to use Espacenet and Patent Translate
and how to search for legal status data.
The key component of the intellectual property information
access system nowadays are information centers (such are
PATLIB centers) that include professional libraries, Internet
access to relevant global databases (patent funds), technical
support and personnel capable to provide answers to users'
questions (posed via telephone, e-mail, fax and in personal
visits) relating to intellectual property protection and use of
information from national, regional and global intellectual
property funds.
The project on the establishment of PATLIB centres, which
would be able to provide all above mentioned services to the
users, in the headquarters of the Institute for Intellectual
Property of Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the branch offices
in Banja Luka and Sarajevo respectively is in a preparatory
phase.
As an incentive measure and encouragement for innovators to
persevere in the protection of their innovations, and eventually
protect them by the patent, the Government of Bosnia and
Herzegovina has significantly reduced the amounts of costs
and fees for the patent application to all the innovators who are
physical persons. The costs and taxes have been further
reduced to the innovators (physical persons) who are members
of the Association of Inventors.
In my opinion, everything that was referred to above, i.e. the
enacted laws, seminars, European and other projects, PATLIB
centres and the like, may help in raising awareness of the
public in this field.
Everyone must understand that innovation is the driving force
behind economic growth and development of every country,
and we must take all necessary steps to achive this goal.
Potential inventors or inventors themselves should be aware of
yet another fact which is that innovations may bring financial
gain to them. So, both the state and the inventors profit from
innovations.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION
Sources:
"Inception Report", a project entitled "Support to the Institutions within the
System of the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights";
www.inovo.ba
www.ipr.gov.ba