Institute celebrated World Intellectual Property Day in Mostar: "Building our common future with innovation and creativity"

Mostar, April 26, 2024 – Institute for Intellectual Property of Bosnia and Herzegovina marked the World Intellectual Property Day on April 26 in Mostar, which is celebrated every year with the aim of raising awareness of the role that intellectual property rights have in encouraging innovation and creativity. 

In addition to experts in the field of intellectual property, representatives of the academic community, researchers, innovators, legal experts and representatives of various industries dealing with this topic, Siniša Šešum, UNESCO Head of Office, Antenna Office in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, joined the celebration in order to, on behalf of the United Nations in BiH, bring the concept of intellectual property and the UN Sustainable Development Goals closer to the audience, which is also the theme of this year's event. 

"This day has been celebrated at the initiative of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) since 2000, and 26 April was chosen as the date of commemoration, since on that day in 1970 the Convention establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization came into force. This year, the emphasis is on the relationship between intellectual property and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, under the slogan "Building our common future with innovation and creativity", said Josip Merdžo, Director of the Institute for Intellectual Property of BiH and emphasized that, through the project "EU support for intellectual property rights in BiH", the European Union helps our country to strengthen the management of intellectual property rights,  and that the EU and the Institute are working together to raise awareness, but also to strengthen the entire intellectual property system.

In order to present the links between the Sustainable Development Goals and intellectual property, a panel discussion was held in which Ajla Karajko, founder of a large number of startups and expert in the field of business development, Ajla Subotić from VRX Immersive Museum Sarajevo and Josip Merdžo, director of the Institute, participated, while the panel was moderated by Dr. Luka Novak, a key expert of the EUSIPR project.

This year, the Institute for Intellectual Property of BiH invited BiH innovators (company, start-up or individual) to participate in a public tender and present their project, which they believe best reflects the relationship between intellectual property and the Sustainable Development Goals (green patents, sustainable trademarks, etc.), so that on this occasion the annual awards of the Institute for Intellectual Property of BiH were awarded.

The winners of the awards are Boris Trogrančić from the Association for the Development of Rural Tourism in BiH – Alterural, Ana Lojić from the Association of Innovators of the City of Banja Luka and Borko Babalj from the Association of Innovators of BiH. 

This year's conference was organized as part of the project "EU support for intellectual property rights", which the European Union finances with 1.8 million euros for the improvement of the intellectual property protection system in BiH in accordance with EU standards.

On this occasion, Miodrag Marković, project team leader, said that spreading awareness of the importance of intellectual property is one of the components of the project, and that he is extremely pleased that the academic community, for the first time, has independently engaged to bring this important topic closer to its students. 

"This was yet another opportunity for the project to briefly present to the general public what has been done in cooperation with the Institute for Intellectual Property so far. The most important result is certainly the drafts of nine laws in the field of intellectual property, making maximum possible harmonization with the relevant regulations of the European Union, which is one of the important components of BiH's path to the European Union," Marković concluded.