EPO congratulates Intellectual Property Office of the Republic of Serbia on its 100th anniversary
17 November 2020
The Intellectual Property Office of the Republic of Serbia celebrated its centenary on 17 November 2020. To mark the occasion, the Serbian IPO hosted a special virtual conference on intellectual property which was attended by representatives from the areas of politics and IP.
In his video statement, EPO President António Campinos congratulated the Intellectual Property Office of Serbia, praised the fruitful cooperation between the two organisations and, in particular, emphasised the Serbian office's excellent track record of reaching out to innovative SMEs with services to make them more competitive.
Mr Campinos further spoke about the current, difficult times facing society and underlined that "everyone in the IP community, whether here in Serbia, or elsewhere, has the possibility to make a real contribution to recovery. Because innovation will not only find solutions to managing the pandemic. It will also fuel the growth needed to pull our economies out of post-Covid recession. In Europe IP-intensive industries generate 45% of GDP, and account for 39% of our employment. Those are pretty impressive figures. But with so much riding on innovation these days, the stakes have never been higher."
In a message to the conference, the Prime Minister of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, underscored that the country's government had recently adopted a strategy that aims to further develop the implementation of intellectual property in the economy. She also added that a key challenge is to support the transformation of Serbian companies.
Serbia's Minister of Economy, Andjelka Atanasković highlighted that "foreign capital does not go where local regulations and state authorities do not guarantee protection of intellectual property rights, such as patents, trademarks, industrial design and copyright. The Republic of Serbia is fully aware of that and committed to improving its legal framework as well as to enforcing of IP rights."
Vladimir Marić, the Director of the Serbian Intellectual Property Office, stated that the jubilee is a matter of pride because "for a whole century, Serbia has protected intellectual property rights in a regulated and institutionalised way". He also remarked that "due to the support of the EPO, our patent examiners implement the same directions in their work and the same tools like the examiners in the EPO, and our holders of rights benefit from it all".
The conference concluded with a panel discussion which focussed on the challenges of the digital age from a Serbia perspective. The panel was moderated by the Director of the Serbian Intellectual Property Office and involved experts from Serbia. The discussion is available to watch via the link below.
Further information:
- European and international co-operation
- Intellectual Property Office of the Republic of Serbia
- Watch the recording of the event