CARDS Regional IPR Project

CARDS in media

Newspaper: POLITIKA
Date: June 21st, 2005

Conference about Intellectual Property Protection

Dangerous Piracy

Serbia and Montenegro found themselves on the American list of the countries which do not offer enough protection to copyright

Palic – Regional protection of intellectual property – practical experiences and challenges for the future, was the name of the three-day conference which started two nights ago on Palic. This issue, which just recently became actual for us, stimulated a large number of the representatives from international and local companies, experts in the field of intellectual property rights, but also prosecutors, judges, customs officers and police representatives, coming from our country and from the region. The Conference was organized by the Committee for IPR of American Chamber of Commerce in Serbia and Montenegro, supported by the Ministry for Internal Economic Relations of S&M, CARDS EU Project, the BSA and some other companies. According to Mr. Nebojsa Momcilovic, chairman of the IPR AmCham Committee, at this conference were present representatives of all stakeholders for IPR in this country.

Dr Danko Djunic, president of American Chamber of Commerce in S&M, said that the organization of such an event should be seen as a form of support to the global business surrounding and influencing the reform process. The reason is that the intellectual property protection assures the basic right and values of every other economic field. Maria Andrews, Commercial Attaché US Embassy, was very clear in her speech: every year the American government makes analysis of IPR in every country. For S&M they made an exception as the piracy represents still a big problem for both state members. According to the Attaché’s words, an Action Plan and specific tasks in this area are beginning to be implemented and this together with the laws promulgated last year, shows great improvements. The International and local community in S&M consist of writers, directors and software companies, all them expect that these laws to be respected, as it is of vital importance for their products, continued Maria Andrews. She also underlined that the expectations are still big, thereof in introducing provisions about copyright and court processing for violation of IPR, in demanding for closing the kiosks selling piracy goods, and in increasing the control of customs and police”.

The presence of three ministers was seen as a clear sign of the commitment of the State Union and the Republic of Serbia to ensure intellectual property protection. Amir Nurkovic, Minister of Internal Economic Relations in S&M, underlined that the state members accepted the proposal for efficient system of protection, while Milan Parivodic, Minister for International Economic Relations of the Republic of Serbia commented that it is particularly important that the steal of the trademark, model or copyright in the minds of people who are decision makers and law drafter must be seen as equal to any other illegal property infringement.

Parivodic said that the Customs have the important role to decrease the large number of imported goods with false trademarks. He supported the idea of giving market inspectors the power to confiscate goods infringing IP rights and the idea that only District courts in Novi Sad, Belgrade, Kragujevac and Nis, because of the specific competence, would be in charge for prosecuting cases of IPR infringement. The lack of respect of intellectual property rights leads to a general spoliation of the society, said Parivodic.

Newspaper: GLAS JAVNOSTI
Date: June 21 2005
Author: J.M.

Piracy is More Profitable than Narcotics

Palic- The Infringements of copyright is more and more connected to the organized crime and it is even more profitable than trade with narcotics, said yesterday Mr. Miha Trampuz, Director of the Slovenian Copyright Agency Legal Department. Speaking at the conference about regional protection of intellectual property, organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Serbia and Montenegro, he especially quoted the EU declaration about copyright protection. All EU members have to adopt this Declaration by April 29th 2006. This document was also taken into consideration by our law professionals when they establish rules in this field.

Trampuz stated that the financial losses in EU, considering copyright infringements are approximately 4.5 billions euro. Hans-Hermann Giese, Director of a CARDS project of the European Patent Office, announced that by the end of this year national (IP) programme in Serbia and Montenegro will start. This programme will consist of new established centers where people will have opportunity to inform themselves about copyright.