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 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, 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 , 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, , 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";