INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFICE

On February 12, 2008, in the Intellectual Property Office, 5.Kneginje Ljubice Street, a Round Table was held under the title How Can the Intellectual Property Office Better Serve Serbia? With this first Round Table the Office starts the regular practice of meetings that will be held traditionally at the beginning of the year, in order to take into consideration the work of the Intellectual Property Office in the past one year period and analise the current short term and long term directions of development of the Office with the main aim to strengthen the role of the Office in the stimulation of innovations, enforcement of intellectual property rights in our country, attraction of foreign investments and the marketing of domestic technology in foreign countries.
During the first event of this kind, on February 12th, more than one hundred attendees were present, the representatives of all the groups interested in intellectual property rights in our country. The attendees included the representatives of ministries, republic inspection, chambers of commerce, associations of inventors, commercial enterprises, university and institutes, the representatives of the Delegation of EU Commission in Serbia, foreign trade representatives from the embassies, patent representatives, just like all the members from the Nathan Team from Arlington who work on the Project of the Government of the USA for operational and technical assistance to the Office. Apart from the outside guests, the majority of the

The program of work of the Round Table was the following:

1. Introduction and Welcome
The Report of the Activities of the Office in 2007 and Perspectives of Further Development, Mrs. Branka Totic, Acting Director
2. Technical Assistance to the Intellectual Property Office, Dr. Judy Winegar Goans, Program Manager, Intellectual Property Office Organizational and Operational Technical Assistance Project of the USTDA,
3. Best Practices in Intellectual Property Office Management: Are there useful models for Serbia? Dr. Judy Winegar Goans
4. Questions
5. Plenary sessions: We want your views!

Moderator: Mrs. Jelena Popovic, Head of the Patent Documentation
Services: Who are our “stakeholders”? What should be the priorities of the Office? How can the IPO become a center to serve the needs of SMEs, entrepreneurs, investors? How can the Office provide better outreach to the public on intellectual property protection, counterfeiting and piracy and the amount of damage that outcome for Serbia? What additional services should we provide? How can we cooperate better with you?

Moderator: Mrs. Biljana Jovicic, Head of the Registers Department
Fees and Finance: What options are available to pay for better or additional services? How should the Intellectual Property Office be financed? What should be the balance between fees and service?

Moderator: Mrs. Zorica Gulas-Gazo, Head of the Department for Copyright and Related Rights
Legal framework: Issues of enforcement –what is successful and what is not? Are changes necessary?
6. Wrap-up and Arrangements for Follow-Up Meetings

At the beginning of work, Acting Director, Mrs. Branka Totic, informed the assembly about the most important results realized in the Office in 2007.
Dr. Judy Winegar Goans, Program Manager of the Intellectual Property Office Organizational and Operational Technical Assistance Project of the USA, briefly informed the attendees about the main goals of the Project and then continued with the examples from the countries where the national offices for intellectual property exist having various forms of self-financing and autonomy. A comparative survey was made including the offices of Great Britain, USA, Switzerland and Romania with the intention to establish if these are useful models for Serbia.

Apart from the fact that a very great number of guests came to this first Round Table dedicated to the work and development of the Intellectual Property Office, it is necessary to underline that almost all of them took active part in the discussions in the framework of all three topics of the plenary session. Many words of praise have been spoken about the Office in general and the work of the employees, but very important suggestions and concrete proposals have been presented concerning the further strengthening of the role of the Office in Serbia and better work on major tasks – strengthening protection of intellectual property rights, shortening the deadlines for the protection of all forms of intellectual property rights, faster and more useful services and information, as well as better raising of public awareness on intellectual property rights.

Documents from the Round Table:
What marked the 2007 (pdf)
Technical Assistance (pdf)
Best Practice (pdf)