New laws harmonized with EU standards for greater legal certainty of intellectual property rights holders
Sarajevo, October 14, 2024 – Institute for Intellectual Property of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in cooperation with the project "EU Support to Intellectual Property Rights in BiH", funded by the European Union, held a seminar on October 14 in Sarajevo, where draft new laws in the field of copyright and related rights, as well as industrial property rights, were presented.
The last in a series of seminars, before the finalization of the project "EU Support to Intellectual Property Rights in BiH", was intended for representatives of organizations for collective management of copyright and related rights, as well as representatives for the protection of industrial property.
"This seminar is the crown and presentation of our work on improving legal system for the protection of intellectual property in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We are proud of the progress made and we are pleased that we had the opportunity to present new draft laws that will enable better management and protection of authors, innovators and holders of intellectual property rights," said Miodrag Marković, head of the project team.
Director of the Institute for Intellectual Property of BiH, Josip Merdžo, thanked the Project for its help, as well as IP protection representatives and representatives of collective organizations for participating in the preparation of draft new laws, and expressed hope that the new laws will be adopted in the Council of Ministers of BiH and in the legislative procedure. He also emphasized the importance of Bosnia and Herzegovina's accession to the European Patent Organization (EPO), recalling that BiH received an official invitation for membership in the EPO a few days ago.
The seminar program included two key thematic units. In the first part, a draft of the new law on copyright and related rights was presented. These changes are particularly important in the context of the protection of content in digital media, such as newspaper articles, photographs and other types of intellectual work that are often used without the author's permission. The new law on the collective management of copyright and related rights brings new rules for collective organizations, which will ensure fairer remuneration to authors for the use of their works. In this way, BiH raises the standards of intellectual property protection to a level that is harmonized with EU standards, which is especially important for increasing the legal certainty of authors.
In the second part, new laws in the field of industrial property were presented, which include draft laws on patents, topographies of semiconductor products, trademarks, industrial designs, geographical indications, trade secrets as intellectual property rights, and the law on representatives for the protection of industrial property. The law on patents is harmonized with European standards and enables Bosnia and Herzegovina to become a full member of the European Patent Organization (EPO), which achieves better protection of domestic innovations at the international level. The new trademark law protects the visual identity of products and services in the digital environment, while the industrial design law allows for effective protection of product designs, important for industries such as the fashion and furniture industries. In addition, new law on trade secrets protects business information that is crucial for competitiveness, such as business strategies and know-how, while the law on representatives provides professional support to rights holders in the process of intellectual property protection. New law on indications of geographical origin aligns with the new Regulation EU2024/1043 and introduces the concepts of protected designation of origin, protected geographical indication, traditional speciality guaranteed and mountain product. These measures provide additional legal certainty for companies, thus encouraging investment in innovation and strengthening competitiveness in the market.
Two laws have passed all the envisaged procedures and are expected to be adopted soon by the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the other laws are in the final phase of being referred to the procedure of the Council of Ministers.
