Workshop on the Importance of Intellectual Property Held

The workshop ,,From Idea to Commercialization - Educational Modules on the Protection of Intellectual Property“ was held on 18 June 2019 at the Rectorate of the University of Banja Luka.

While presenting the project, the Senior Associate for Entrepreneurship Development at the University of Banja Luka Predrag Govedarica pointed to its primary purpose: to inform the professors, associates and students about the importance of intellectual property, the process of its protection, and the commercialization of patents and inventions. Further to this, he explained that the existing legislation is not sufficient to regulate all complex issues related to intellectual property, and that a strategy on the protection of intellectual property should be adopted at the level of Bosnia and Herzegovina as soon as possible.

He reminded that the University of Banja Luka is, together with the RS institutions, implementing similar projects, and that it has already established cooperation with the European Patent Organization, and is likely to establish cooperation with the World Patent Organization as well.

Govedarica thanked the Ministry for Scientific and Technological Development, Higher Education and Information Society of the Republic of Srpska and the Minister Srdjan Rajcevic for financial support, without which this project could not be implemented. 

The patent attorney and representative Jovan Sarac, who has been working on intellectual property for 12 years, said that Bosnia and Herzegovina passed the new legal framework in 2010, when the Parliamentary Assembly adopted a set of ten laws governing this area. 

„There are also two laws governing copyright, namely the Law on Copyright and Related Rights and the Law on Collective Management of Copyright and Related Rights. During the drafting of these laws, they were harmonized with all international laws ratified by BiH, and with EU regulations“, Sarac said.

On behalf of the Rector's team, the Vice Rector for Scientific Research and University Development Prof. Goran Latinovic, PhD, welcomed the present at this workshop, organized by the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer of the University of Banja Luka.

Snjezana Stanojevic, the patent examiner at the Institute for Intellectual Property in BiH, Goran Trifkovic, professional associate for industrial design at the Institute for Intellectual Property of BiH, and Djordje Markez, the Secretary General of the University of Banja Luka, also addressed the participants of the workshop.