November 8, 2007

European Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn presented in Brussels on November 8th, 2007 the Progress Report of Serbia in the Stabilization and Association Process for 2006. On that occasion, he stressed that in this period there occurred an encouraging development in Serbia, indicating in particular the advance of macroeconomic situation and the quality of Serbian administration. Serbia made a progress in 2006, according to this adopted Report of the European Commission, in all domains of economy, politics, administration, legislation and security, but it shall have to solve a whole serial of problems if it wishes to speed up the progress in the process of European integration.

The chapter 4.1.7 Intellectual Property Law of the Report states the following:

“Some progress has been made in the area of intellectual property rights. Through the new Law on Ministries, adopted in May 2007, the status of the Intellectual Property Rights Institute has been clarified, following a year-long institutional stalemate resulting from the dissolution of the State Union. The Intellectual Property Rights Institute has become a separate institution, with expanded responsibilities that include dissemination of information and awareness-raising. Concerning industrial property rights, the Intellectual Property Rights Institute published a trademarks database on its website, thereby substantially increasing the efficiency of the institute as well as improving cooperation with other state bodies, such as the customs administration.

In line with the Law on the organization and responsibilities of the state bodies for the fight against high-technology crime, a special prosecutor was appointed and a separate unit of the Belgrade District Court for combating high-technology crime became operational in April 2007.
Good progress has been made in the field of enforcement, especially in the customs area, where the customs administration has been more active in the protection of intellectual property.

However, the destruction of seized goods infringing intellectual property rights has still to be addressed. The Intellectual Property Rights Institute has limited human resources and training facilities. Administrative capacity and cooperation between the various state institutions have to be further strengthened. Overall, Serbia's preparations in the area of intellectual property rights are relatively advanced to meet the requirements of the SAA. However, sustained efforts are needed in order to improve implementation and enforcement.”