2 September 2005: 5th Co-operation Committee Meeting on Intellectual Property Rights in the Western Balkans, Opatija

The 5th Co-operation Committee Meeting on Intellectual Property Rights in the Western Balkans will take place in Opatija on 2 September 2005 under the EC-funded CARDS Regional Programme on Intellectual Property Rights implemented by the European Patent Office.

Zeljko Topic, Director General of SIPO Croatia, will open the event and welcome representatives from the European Commission (EC, Brussels), the European Patent Office (EPO, Munich), the Office for Harmonization of the Internal Market (OHIM, Alicante), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO, Geneva), and the heads of the other four IP offices in the region (Albania, BiH, FYR Macedonia and Serbia and Montenegro).

The Co-operation Committee meeting will be held in Opatija in a clear call from the EC to promote regional co-operation. The Committee's representatives will take advantage of  this opportunity to enhance their understanding of the situation in the region.

After a review of its recent activities, the CARDS Co-operation Committee will discuss its work programme for the second half of 2005 and gather proposals for activities in the first half of 2006.