Pursuant to Article 156 of the Law on Industrial Property in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of BiH", numbers 3/02 and 29/02) and Article 14 of the Decision on the Requirements for the Entry in the Register Kept by the Institute for Standards, Measurements and Intellectual Property of Bosnia and Herzegovina ("Official Gazette of BiH", number 5/03), the Acting Director of the Institute for Standards, Measurements and Intellectual property of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopts the following

RULE BOOK

ON THE QUALIFYING EXAM FOR AGENTS FOR THE PROTECTION OF INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY

FIRST PART – GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1

(Scope of application)

This Rule Book defines the manner, requirements and programme of the qualifying exam for the persons acting as agents in the process of acquiring, maintaining, sale and revocation of the industrial property right (hereinafter: protection of industrial property) before the Institute for Standards, Measurements and Intellectual property of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Article 2

(Authorisation to conduct the qualifying exam)

The qualifying exam is conducted by the Institute for Standards, Measurements and Intellectual Property of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: Institute).

CHAPTER I – QUALIFYING EXAM

Article 3

(Types of the qualifying exam)

(1) The qualifying exam shall be taken by patent agents and agents for industrial design trademarks.

(2) The qualifying exam referred to in the previous paragraph of this Article shall be taken by persons who meet the requirements related to the professional degree defined in Articles 4 and 5 of the Decision on the Requirements for the Entry in the Registers of Agents for the Protection of Industrial Property Kept by the Institute for Standards, Measurements and Intellectual Property of Bosnia and Herzegovina (“Official Gazette of BiH”, number 5/03).

Article 4

(Scope of knowledge assessment at the qualifying exam)

The qualifying exam serves to assess the level of knowledge in the area of the protection of industrial property and administration law that is necessary to act as agent.

Article 5

(Content of the qualifying exam)

(1) The qualifying exam encompasses: administrative procedure, administrative dispute, protection of patents, protection of trademarks, protection of industrial design, registration of geographic indication, sale of industrial property right.

(2) The programme of qualifying exam for persons who act as agents in the process of the protection of industrial property (hereinafter: programme) contains the content, legislative sources and literature for each area referred to in the previous paragraph of this article.

(3) The programme referred to in the paragraph 2 of this article shall be attached with this Book of Rules and it shall be its integral part.

CHAPTER II – EXAMINATION COMMISSION

Article 6

(Examination commission)

(1) The qualifying exam shall be taken before the examination commission of the Institute (hereinafter: Commission).

(2) The Commission referred to in paragraph 1 of this article shall consist of four members out of whom one shall be from the Faculty of Law, one from the Ministry of Justice and two from the Institute.

(3) The expert and administrative work for the needs of the Commission shall be performed by the secretary of the commission who is permanently employed with the Institute.

(4) The decision on the appointment of the members and the secretary of the commission shall be made by the director of the Institute within 30 days from the entry into force of this Rule Book.

(5) The members of the commission and the secretary shall be given a compensation for their work. The decision on the compensation shall be made by the director of the Institute within the deadline defined in the previous paragraph of this article.

Article 7

(Mandate of the Commission)

(1) The members of the Commission and the secretary shall be appointed for a period of four years with the possibility to be reappointed after the expiry of this period.

(2) If a member of the Commission or the secretary resigns or is permanently prevented from participating in the work of the Commission, the director of the Institute shall appoint his/her replacement for the same period that the member or the secretary was appointed.

Article 8

(Competencies of the Commission)

(1) The Commission shall prepare questions for the qualifying exam for patent agents and agents for industrial design and trademarks in accordance with the programme, conduct the written and oral exam and make decision whether the candidate was successful or not.

(2) Minutes shall be taken from the qualifying exam.

SECOND PART – CONDUCTING OF THE QUALIFYING EXAM

CHAPTER III – APPLICATION FOR TAKING THE QUALIFYING EXAM

Article 9

(Applying for the exam)

(1) The application for taking the qualifying exam shall be submitted to the Institute in writing.

(2) The application for taking the qualifying exam shall contain the following information:

a) name and surname, occupation and address of the applicant (preferably contact phone, fax, e-mail);

b) evidence on completed higher education (certified copy of the diploma);

c) indication of the qualifying exam, in accordance with Article 3, paragraph 1, of this Rules Book for which the application is submitted.

Article 10

(Decision on admissibility for taking the exam)

(1) The Commission shall decide on admissibility for taking the exam, or rejection of the application, on the basis of submitted documents, and shall notify the candidate in writing.

(2) The candidate, who is admitted to take the exam, shall pay special expenditures for taking the exam, as defined, and submit the evidence on the payment at latest prior to taking the exam.

(3) The decision on rejection of the application for taking the qualifying exam shall be elaborated.

(4) An appeal may be submitted to the Commission against the decision on rejection of the application within 15 days after the day of the receipt.

Article 11

(Notification of the candidates)

(1) The notification on taking the qualifying exam shall be delivered to the candidate in writing.

(2) The notification referred to in the previous paragraph of this Article shall contain date, time and venue of the exam.

(3) The date of taking the qualifying exam shall not be shorter than a month, or longer than three months after delivery of the notification to the candidate.

Article 12

(Reasons for postponement of the exam)

The qualifying exam may be postponed because of sickness of the candidate or other justified reasons, upon the written request by the candidate, what shall be decided by the Commission.

Article 13

(Other reasons)

If the candidate on the specified day does not take the qualifying exam, does not submit the written exam, or gives up during the oral exam, he/she shall be considered not to pass the qualifying exam.

CHAPTER IV – HOW TO TAKE THE QUALIFYING EXAM

Article 14

(Written exam)

(1) The written part of the exam for patent agents and for agents for industrial design and trademarks shall be in the form of a test, so the candidate, for instance, drafts a patent application, a trademark application, or an application for industrial design, drafts response to the results of a survey conducted by the Institute, drafts a proposal to declare a decision on grant of the right null and void and similar.

(2) The written part of the exam for patent agent shall consist of drafting one document from the field of patent right and one document from the field of trademark right, right to industrial design, or registration of geographic indication.

(3) The written part of the exam for agent for industrial property and trademarks shall consist of drafting one document from the field of trademark right, right to industrial design, or registration of geographic indication.

(4) The time available for the written part of the exam is four hours for the exam referred to in paragraph 2 of this article, and two hours for the exam referred to in paragraph 3 of this Article.

(5) During the written exam, the candidate shall be allowed to use laws and international classifications of patents, trademarks and industrial design.

Article 15

(Oral exam)

(1) The oral exam shall be taken after the written part of the exam. At the oral exam, the candidate shall answer questions from the exam material defined by the programme.

(2) The candidate who was successful at the written exam shall be entitled to take the oral exam.

(3) The oral part of the exam shall last not more than 30 minutes.

Article 16

(Use of scripts and language)

At both written and oral part of the exam, the candidate shall freely decide on the use of the script and language that are officially used in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Article 17

(Preparation of exam questions)

The Commission decides content of the written part of the exam and questions for the oral part of the exam at earliest 24 hour before the exam. 

Article 18

(Evaluation of candidates)

(1) A separate mark shall be given for each thematic field of the programme. An overall candidate success at the exam shall be assessed by the Commission on the basis of separate marks.

(2) The candidate’s success at the exam shall be assessed by the marks “passed” or “failed”.

(3) The candidate who is assessed by the mark “passed” in all thematic fields shall pass the exam.

(4) The candidate who is not given satisfactory mark from one thematic field shall be asked to take a make up exam.

(5) The candidate who is does not satisfy in at least two thematic fields shall be assessed by the mark “failed”.

(6) After the candidate has completed both written and oral part of the exam the Commission shall by majority vote decide whether he/she shall pass the exam. In case the decision cannot be taken by majority vote, the opinion of the president of the Commission shall prevail.

Article 19

(Make up exam)

(1) The candidate may take the make up exam within the deadline specified by the Commission, that may not be shorter than 30 days or longer than three months since the day the oral part of the exam took place.

(2) If the candidate does not get a satisfactory mark at the repair exam, it shall be considered that he/she has not passed the qualifying exam.

(3) The candidate may take the qualifying exam not more than three times, in the manner and under the conditions as defined by this Rule Book.

Article 20

(Certificate on passed exam)

(1) The Commission shall issue a certificate on passed qualifying exam to the candidate who passed the qualifying exam.

(2) The candidate who passed the qualifying exam shall acquire the right to entry in the register of patent agents or the register of agents for industrial right and trademarks under the conditions defined in the Decision on the Requirements for the Entry into the Registers of Agents for the protection of Industrial property Kept by the Institute for Standards, Measurements and Intellectual Property of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

(3) The Institute keeps a register of all persons who passed the qualifying exam for patent agents and agents for industrial design and trademarks.

CHAPTER V – FINAL PROVISIONS

Article 21

(Cessation of validity of other provisions)

The Rule Book on Taking the Qualifying Exam for Persons Who Act as Agents in the Process of the Protection of Inventions and Distinctive Signs (“Official Gazette of the RBiH, number 51/95) shall cease to be valid on the day of the entry into force of this Rule Book.

Article 22

(Entry into force)

This Rule Book shall enter into force on the eighth day following its publication in the “Official Gazette of BiH, and it shall be published in the official gazettes of the Entities and the Brcko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Number IP-1229/05-01TE 17 March 2005 in Sarajevo

Acting Director of the Institute Esad Tuzović, signed

ANNEX PROGRAMME OF THE QUALIFYING EXAM

For agents for the protection of industrial property

I – GENERAL PART

A) Administrative procedure and administrative dispute

1) Notion of the administrative procedure

2) Basic principles of the administrative procedure

3) Competencies (actual and topical)

4) Client and his/her representation

5) Communication between bodies and clients

6) Delivery of notifications

7) Deadlines and return to the former status

8) Procedural expenditures

9) Initiation of the procedure and clients’ requests

10) Procedure prior to adoption of the decision

11) Argumentation

12) Acts by administrative bodies

13) Regular legal remedies

14) Annulment, cancellation and revision of decisions

15) Execution of decisions and conclusions

16) Notion of the administrative dispute

17) Competencies and legal means

18) Initiation of the administrative dispute

19) Obligatoriness of decisions (in the administrative dispute)

II – SPECIAL PART

B) Protection of inventions

1) Notion of industrial property

2) Justifiability of the legal protection of industrial property

3) Patent right

4) Scope of the application of the right – territorial principle

5) Representation of legal entities and natural persons before the Institute

6) Registers kept by the Institute

7) Subject matter of patent protection

8) Priority right (priority)

- union and market priority right

- multiple priority right

9) National treatment

10) Requirements to grant protection for an invention

- novelty

- inventive level

- industrial applicability

11) Elimination from patentability 

12) State of technique

13) Patent duration

14) Short-term patent – subject of the protection, procedure

15) Material and moral rights of the inventor

16) Patent granting procedure

17) Manner of acquisition of the right to a patent in Bosnia and Herzegovina

- national application

- application submitted in accordance with the Agreement on Cooperation and Enlargement of the European Patent

18) Content of a patent application

19) Date of the submission of an application

20) Additional changes to the application

21) Union of an invention

22) Application of addition, patent of addition

23) Formal examination of a patent application

24) Rejection of application, suspension of procedure, refusal of application

25) Publication of an application – deadlines

26) System of granting a patent

27) Conversion of a patent application into an industrial design application

28) Evidence for granting a patent

29) European patent

30) Patent application filed in compliance with the patent Cooperation (PCT)

31) Secret inventions (of interest for state security and defence)

32) Content of patent rights – exclusive rights conferred by a patent

33) Limitation of exclusive rights

34) Right of the prior use

35) Exhaustion of the exclusive rights

36) Acquisition of the patent right

37) Scope of the right to a patent

38) Maintenance of the patent right

39) Renouncement of the patent right

40) Lapse of a right

41) International patent application filed in compliance with the patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)

42) Procedure for declaration of nullity of the decision on the grant of a patent

43) Inventions related to working relations concession

44) Sale of rights

- transfer of rights

- contractual concession (license, type, duration)

- compulsory license

45) Protection of a patent holder, an applicant

- civil legal protection – temporary measures

- criminal legal protection

- administrative legal protection

46) International Patents Classification - structure – application of the International Patents Classification for classification and search in the patents’ fund.

C) Protection of goods and services trademarks

47) Notion of industrial property

48) Justifiability of the legal protection of industrial property

49) Registers kept by the Institute

50) Right to a trademark

51) Priority right (priority)

- union and market priority right

- multiple priority right

52) National treatment

53) Representation of legal entities and natural persons in the proceeding before the Institute

54) Unfair practices – salesmen’s activities

55) Forbidden elements of a firm (for the registration of an economic association)

56) Scope of the application of a right – territorial principle

57) Manner of acquisition of the right to a trademark in Bosnia and Herzegovina

- national application

- international application, on the basis of the Madrid Agreement on the International Trademark Registration

58) Subject matter of the trademark protection – trademark unity (principle of specialty)

59) Types of trademarks (according to the holder of the right, the appearance of the trademark and other criteria)

- individual trademark

- collective trademark – requirements for the protection

60) Grounds for exclusion of trademark protection

- absolute ground

- relative ground

61) Well-known trademarks

62) System of trademark protection in Bosnia and Herzegovina

63) Procedure for the grant of a trademark

- content of the application

- classification of goods and services

- filing date of the application

- subsequent changes to the application (legal action)

- examination of the correctness of a trademark application – formal examination (content)

- examination of the requirements for the grant of a trademark (basics) – result of the examination

64) Rejection of application, suspension of procedure

65) Refusal of claim

66) Acquisition of the right to a trademark

67) Division of an application

68) Division of a trademark

69) Exclusive rights of the trademark holder

70) Temporary rights on the basis of an application – legal action 

71) Scope of the right of a trademark holder

72) Duration of rights

73) Maintenance of the right to a trademark

74) Use of a trademark

75) Lapse of a trademark

76) International registration of a trademark in compliance with the Madrid Agreement on International Trademark Registration – principles, legal action

77) Procedure for declaring the decision on the grant of a trademark null and void

78) Procedure for the lapse of a trademark for non-usage

79) Re-registration of a trademark – requirements

80) Sale of rights

- transfer of rights

- contractual concession (license, type of license, duration)

- sale of collective trademarks

81) Civic legal protection – temporary measures

- criminal legal protection

- administrative legal protection

82) International classification of goods and services established by the Nice Agreement (Nice Classification)

- structure – the application of the Nice Classification for the classification of the goods and services and search in the trademark fund

D) Protection of industrial design

83) Justifiability of the legal protection of industrial design

84) Right to industrial design

85) Registers kept by the Institute

86) Scope of the right application – territorial principle

87) Subject matter of the industrial design protection

- novelty

- particularity

88) Priority right (priority)

- union and market priority right

- multiple priority right

89) National treatment

90) Procedure for the grant of industrial design right

- content of the application

- classification of industrial design

- filing date of the application

- subsequent changes to the application (legal action)

- examination of the correctness of the application – formal examination (content)

- examination of the requirements for the grant of industrial design

(basics) – result of the examination

91) Rejection of an application, suspension of a procedure

92) Refusal of a claim

93) Conversion of the industrial design application into a patent application

94) Acquisition of industrial design right

95) Exclusive rights

96) Limitation of the exclusive right

97) Duration of rights

98) Expiration of rights

99) Declaring the decision on the grant of an industrial design null and void

100) Sale of rights

- transfer of rights

- contractual concession (license, type of license, duration)

101) Civic legal protection – temporary measures

- criminal legal protection

- administrative legal protection

102) Locarno Agreement on the establishment of an international classification for industrial design

- structure – the application of the Locarno Classification for classification and search in the industrial design fund

E) Registration of geographical indication

103) Subject matter of geographical indication registration

104) Grounds for exclusions of registration

105) Procedure for the registration of geographical indication

106) Content of the application

107) Filing date of the application

108) Examination of the correctness of the application

109) Rejection of an application, suspension of a procedure

110) Rights conferred by a geographical indication

111) Unauthorised use of the geographical indication

112) Duration of rights

113) Sale of rights – limitations

114) Civic legal protection – temporary measures

- criminal legal protection

- administrative legal protection

LEGAL SOURCES – LITERATURE:

- Paris Convention on the Protection of Industrial property;

- Madrid Agreement on International Trademark Registration;

- Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) ("Official Gazette of the RBiH" number 14/96);

- Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Patents (Agreement on Cooperation and Enlargement) ("Official Gazette of BiH – International Agreements", number 2/04);

- Locarno Agreement on the Establishment of International Classification for Industrial Design;

- Nice Agreement on International Registration of Goods and Services for the Purpose of Trademark Registration;

- Law on Administrative Procedure ("Official Gazette of BiH ", number 29/02);

- Law on Administrative Disputes of Bosnia and Herzegovina ("Official Gazette of BiH", number 19/02);

- Law on Industrial Property in Bosnia and Herzegovina ("Official Gazette of BiH", number 3/02) – available at the website of the Institute (www.basmp.gov.ba);

- Rule Book on the Procedure for the Grant of a Patent (“Official Gazette of BiH”, number 22/02 and 29/03) – available at the website of the Institute (www.basmp.gov.ba);

- Rule Book on Trademarks ("Official Gazette of BiH", number 22/02) – available at the website of the Institute (www.basmp.gov.ba);

- Rule Book on Industrial Design (“Official Gazette of BiH”, number 22/02) – available at the website of the Institute (www.basmp.gov.ba);

- Rule Book on geographic Indications ("Official Gazette of BiH”, number 22/02) – available at the website of the Institute (www.basmp.gov.ba);

- Law on Trade (FBiH, RS) – unfair practices;

- Law on Economic Associations (FBiH, RS) – forbidden elements of the firm for registration of an economic association;

- Law on the Work in the Institutions of BiH ("Official Gazette of BiH", number 26/04) (article 57 – inventions and technical promotion of employees);

- One of the textbooks about the industrial property right.