This field of Intellectual property is regulated by The Patent Law (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia“, no. 99/2011, 113/2017, 95/2018 and 66/2019 – hereinafter referred to as: the „ Patent Law“), the Agreement between the Federal Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the European Patent Organization on Cooperation in the field of Patents — Co-operation and Extension Agreement (“Official Gazette of Serbia and Montenegro – International Agreements“, no. 14/2004), Law on the Ratification of the Strasbourg Agreement Concerning the International Patent Classification (Strasbourg, 1971, as amended in 1979) (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia – International Agreements”, no. 42/2009, Law on the Ratification of the Patent Law Treaty (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia – International Agreements”, no. 19/2010), Law on the Ratification of the Convention the Grant of European Patents (European Patent Convention) from October 5th, 1973, with the amendments of article 63 of the European Patent Convention from December 17th, 1991, and amendments from November 29th, 2000 (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia – International Agreements”, no. 5/2010).
A patent is a right granted for an invention in any field of technology, which is new, involves an inventive step and is susceptible of industrial application. A patent shall also be granted for an invention of a product consisting of or containing biological material, or the process of which biological material is produced, processed or used, including: (i) a biological material isolated from its natural environment or produced by means of a technical process, even if it previously occurred in nature; (ii) plants or animals, if the technical feasibility of the invention is not confined to a particular plant or animal variety; (iii) a microbiological or other technical process or a product obtained by means of such a process.
Within the terms of Patent Law, biological material means any material containing genetic information and capable of reproducing itself or being reproduced in a biological system. The following, in particular, shall not be regarded as inventions, within the terms of Patent Law: (i) discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods; (ii) esthetic creations; (iii) schemes, rules and methods for performing mental acts, playing games or doing business; (iv) computer programs, and (v) presentations of information. Subject matter or activities referred to in this paragraph shall be excluded from patentability only to the extent to which the application for a patent relates to the subject matter or activity as such.
The human body, at any stage of its formation and development, and the simple discovery of one of its elements, including sequences or partial sequences of genes, shall not be regarded as an invention that can be protected by a patent. An element isolated from the human body or produced using of a technical process, including the sequences or partial sequences of genes, may be patentable, even where the structure of that element is identical to that of a natural part. The industrial application of a sequence or partial sequence of a gene must be disclosed in the patent application on the day of its filing.
A patent or a petty patent shall not be granted in respect of: (i) inventions whose commercial use would be contrary to public order or morality providing that the use would not be considered contrary to public order or morality only because it is prohibited by law or any other regulation, particularly in respect of: (a) processes for cloning human beings; (b) processes for modifying of the genetic identity of germ cells of human beings; (c) uses of human embryos for industrial or commercial purposes; (d) processes for modifying the genetic identity of animals which are likely to cause them suffering without any substantial medical benefit to man or animal, and also animals resulting from such processes; (ii) inventions concerning methods for treatment by surgery or diagnostic methods or therapy practiced directly on the bodies of humans or animals, provided that this provision shall not apply to products or substances and compositions for use in any of these methods; (iii) a plant or animal variety or an essentially biological process for the production of a plant or animal, provided that this provision shall not apply to microbiological processes or the products obtained by means of such process.
Essentially, a biological process for the production of plants or animals is a process that consists entirely of natural phenomena such as crossing or selection. A microbiological process is any process involving or performed upon or resulting in microbiological material. Plant variety referred to in item (iii) means any plant grouping within a single botanical classification of the lowest known rank, which grouping, irrespective of whether the conditions for the grant of a plant breeders’ rights are fully met, can be: (a) defined by the expression of the characteristics that results from a given genotype or combination of genotype, (b) distinguished from any other plant grouping by the expression of at least one of the said characteristics, (c) considered as a unit concerning to its suitability for being propagated unchanged;
An invention shall be considered to have been made in the course of employment if it constitutes: (i) an invention which the employee creates performing tasks established by an employment contract concluded between the employee and the employer or which have been created in compliance with the separate act of the employer regulating tasks of the research and development; (ii) an invention created during the duration of the working contract or in the period of one year from the date of the termination of the contract, if that invention has been created in connection with the activities of the employer or the use of the material and technical facilities, information and other working conditions secured by the employer, or created as the result of the professional training that the employer secured for the employee.
The right to protection of an invention belongs to the inventor or their legal successor, or in cases prescribed by the Patent Law, to the employer or their legal successor. If an invention is the result of the joint effort of a number of inventors, they have a joint right to protection. A person rendering technical assistance to an inventor shall not be considered to be an inventor.
A foreign natural and legal person who has no seat or residence in the Republic of Serbia, shall, in relation to the protection of invention in the Republic of Serbia, enjoy the same rights as domestic natural and legal persons, where such treatment derives from international treaties binding the Republic of Serbia.
The owner of a patent or petty patent shall have the exclusive right to: (i) use the protected invention in production; (ii) place products made by the protected invention on the market; (iii) dispose of the patent or petty patent.
In exercising their exclusive right to the commercial use of a protected invention, the owner of a patent or petty patent shall have the right to prevent any third party not having their explicit consent from: (i) making, offering for sale, placing on the market or using the product made by means of the protected invention or from importing or storing the product for such purposes; (ii) using the patented process; (iii) offering the patented process for sale; (iv) producing, offering for sale, placing on the market, using, importing or storing for such purposes a product directly obtained by the patented process; (v) offering for sale or supplying products that constitute essential elements of an invention to parties unauthorized to use such invention, if the bidder or supplier knows or has demonstrable grounds to know that such products are intended for the use of an invention owned by someone else.
The right holder or holder of an exclusive license shall be entitled to infringement action against any person infringing their right using any unauthorized act.
The assignment of the right to file the application, rights arising from the application, right on patent or petty patent may be either in whole or in part the consequence of an assignment-license agreement, a change of status of the applicant or right holder, as well as inheritance, court or an administrative decision.
A patent or petty patent shall be obtained on publication of the mention of its grant in the Official Gazette issued by the competent authority and shall effect as of the filing date of the application.
The difference between a patent and a petty patent lies in the following: (i) the subject matter of an invention protected by a patent may be a product, a process, use of a product or use of a process. The subject matter of an invention protected by a petty patent can exclusively be a solution relating to the structure of a product or the layout of its components, (ii) the duration period: the term of patent shall be 20 years from the filing date of the application, while the term of the petty patent shall be 10 years from the filing date of the application, (iii) the grant procedure: a petty patent application will not be published, a search report will not be drawn up and the subject matter of the invention claimed in the application shall not be examined as to novelty, inventive step or susceptibility to industrial application.
The protection of the invention outside the territory of the Republic of Serbia can be accomplished by filing only one international application with the Intellectual Property Office of the Republic of Serbia. Protection can be requested in many countries that are part of the PCT treaties (total of 144 countries) in which the applicant intends to protect their invention.
This field of Intellectual property is regulated by The Law on Trademarks (“Official Gazette RS”, No. 6/2020 – hereinafter referred to as: the „ Trademarks Law“), Regulation on the content of the registers of trademark applications and registered trademarks, of the requests that are filed in the procedure of trademark registration and data which are published in the official gazette of the competent authority ( “Official gazette of the Republic of Serbia” , No. 43/2010 and 44/2018), International classification of goods and services (Nice Agreement), International classification of the figurative elements of Marks (Vienna Agreement), Madrid Agreement on the International Registration of Trademarks, Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks, Nairobi Treaty on the Protection of the Olympic Symbol, Trademark Law Treaty, Singapore Treaty on the Law of Trademarks, Methodology of Intellectual Property Office Procedure for the grant of Trademarks and for the Procedure Concerning the Registered Trademarks.
Sign protected by a trademark may consist of any signs, in particular words, including personal names or of drawings, letters, numerals, colours, three-dimensional shapes, the shape of goods or the packaging of goods, combination of those signs or sounds.
A trademark can be protected as an individual, collective or certification trademark. An individual trademark is a trademark owned and used by a trademark holder (owner). A collective trademark is a trademark owned and used by a legal person representing a certain type of association of manufacturers and/or service providers, which may be used by members of such association. A guarantee trademark serves to distinguish goods and/or services certified by the proprietor of the trademark from the same or similar goods and/or services of another natural or legal person. Guarantee trademark used by several persons under the supervision of the proprietor of a trademark is used as the guarantee of quality, material, manner of production of goods or the supplying of services, correctness or other common characteristics of goods or services protected by trademark.
A trademark shall not be used to protect a sign: (i) which is contrary to public order or to accepted principles of morality; (ii) which has a general appearance not fitting for the distinguishing of goods and/or services in the channels of commerce; (iii) which consists exclusively of the shape or another characteristic which results from the nature of the goods themselves or shape or another characteristic of goods which is necessary to obtain a certain technical result or of the shape or another characteristic which gives substantial value to the goods; (iv) which consists exclusively from signs or indications which may serve, in trade, to designate the kind, quality, quantity, intended purpose, value, geographical origin, time of production of the goods or of rendering of the services or other characteristics of the goods and/or services; (v) which consists exclusively of signs or data which have become customary in everyday language or in the bona fide and established practices of the trade for the marking of certain goods and/or services; (vi) which, by its appearance or contents can bring into confusion and deceive the participants in the channels of commerce, for instance, as to the nature, quality or geographical origin of the goods or services, or other characteristics of the goods and/or services; (vii) which contains official signs or hallmarks for the control or guarantee of quality or supports them, except with the written approval of the competent authority; (viii) which does not meet the requirements for protection pursuant to Article 6 of the Paris Convention for Protection of Industrial Property, except with the authorisation by the competent authorities; (ix) which includes or imitates title, abbreviation of the title, coat of arms, flag or other state sign of the Republic of Serbia, except with the permission of the competent authority; (x) which represents or simulates the national or religious symbol; (xi) which contains or consist of the indication of geographical origin which is in effect on the territory of the Republic of Serbia and which relates to the same kind of goods or services; (xii) which consists of earlier registered plant variety denomination or reproduces it in its essential elements and which is in respect of plant varieties of the same or closely related species. The exceptions are signs from points (ii), (iv) and (v) which can be protected by a trademark if the applicant proves by serious use of the sign that it became capable for distinguishing in the channels of commerce of goods and/or services that it refers to.
Also, trademark cannot be used to protect a sign which has one of the following characteristics: (i) which is identical with the previously protected sign for the same kind of goods and/or services; (ii) which is identical with the previously protected sign of another person for the similar kind of goods and/or services or is similar to the previously protected sign of another person for the identical or similar kind of goods and/or services if there is a likelihood that due to that identicalness or similarity confusion may be caused in the relevant part of the public, which includes also the likelihood of bringing that sign in connection with the previously protected sign; (iii) which is identical or similar to the same or similar kinds of goods and/or services of another person known in the Republic of Serbia in the meaning of the article of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (henceforward referred to as well-known trademark); (iv) which, regardless the goods and/or services it refers to, is identical or similar to the previously protected sign of another person which those participating in the channels of commerce in the Republic in Serbia without a doubt recognize as a sign of high reputation (henceforward referred to as famous trademark), if the use of that sign would take unfair advantage of the acquired reputation of the famous trademark or be detrimental to, the distinctive character or the repute of the famous trademark; (v) which by its appearance or contents infringes copyright or other industrial property rights. A sign that contains the image or personal name of a person can be protected only with the written approval of that person. The sign which includes an image or a personal name of a deceased person can be protected only with the written consent of the parents, spouses or children of the deceased. The sign that contains the image or the personal name of the historical or some famous dead person can be protected with the permission of the competent authority and written consent of the spouse and relatives up to the third degree of kinship.
Also, based on the opposition of the company, registered before the date of filing of the trademark application, or before the priority date, the trademark shall not be registered if the title of the company or its essential part is identical or similar to the sign from the application and the goods and services from the scope of activities of that company are identical or similar from those in the trademark application and are used in the channels of commerce. An exception shall apply if the applicant asking for the grant of a trademark at the moment of filing of the application had the company with an identical or similar title.
Foreign natural and legal persons in the Republic of Serbia shall enjoy the same rights concerning the trademark protection as domestic natural and legal persons if such rights derive from international agreements or the principle of reciprocity. The person claiming reciprocity shall have to prove its existence.
The trademark holder has the exclusive right to use a sign protected by a trademark for designating the goods and/or services.
The trademark holder is entitled to prohibit other persons the unauthorized use of: (i) a sign identical to his previously protected sign for goods and/or services identical to the goods and/or services that the trademark is registered for; (ii) a sign identical to his previously protected sign for the similar goods and/or services or a sign similar to his previously protected mark for identical or similar goods and/or services if there is a likelihood that due to that identicalness or similarity confusion may be caused in the relevant part of the public, which also includes the likelihood of bringing that sign in connection with the previously protected sign. Also, the trademark holder has right to prohibit following: (i) affixing the protected sign to the goods, its packaging or labelling instruments (labels, stickers, bottle stoppers, and the like); (ii) offering the goods or putting them on the market, or stocking them for those purposes, under the sign, or offering or supplying services thereunder; (iii) import, export, reload, storage or transit of the goods under the protected sign, regardless the fact if the goods are intended for the domestic market; (iv) use of the protected sign on business papers and in advertising; (v) use of the protected sign in comparative advertising in a manner contrary to the legislation.
Any unauthorized use of a registered trademark or the sign applied for registration by any economic operator within the meaning of the above stated shall constitute an infringement of a right.
An infringement action may be brought by the trademark holder, applicant, licensee, user of collective trademark, with the consent of the collective trademark holder, and user of guarantee trademark, with the consent of the guarantee trademark holder. The licensee may bring proceedings for infringement of a trademark only if its proprietor consents thereto unless otherwise stipulated in the license contract. Also, The licensee, user of the collective trademark or the guarantee trademark is entitled to intervene in infringement proceedings, brought by the proprietor of the trademark or the applicant, to obtain compensation for damage suffered by him.
A trademark and/or any rights arising from the application may be assigned to another person in respect to some or all the goods or services that are registered or applied for. The assignment of a trademark and/or rights arising from the application may be the consequence of an assignment-license agreement, a change of status of the trademark holder and/or the applicant, or a court or administrative decision.
Trademark is acquired when it is entered in the Trademark Register, it is valid for 10 years from the filing date and could be renewed unlimitedly.
The trademark holder and/or the applicant may file an application for the international registration of a trademark.
An international trademark holder may file a request with the competent authority for the territorial extension of the international trademark.
This field of Intellectual property is regulated by Law on Legal Protection of Industrial Design (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia”, No. 104/2009, 45/2015 i 44/2018), Regulations on the content of the register of applications and register of industrial designs, the content of requests filed in the procedure for the grant and protection of rights on industrial designs and data published in the official gazette of the competent body ( “Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia”, No 43/10 and 44/2018), The Hague Agreement Concerning the International Deposit of Industrial Designs (of 29 November 1960), The Geneva Act (of 2 July 1999), and The Locarno Agreement Establishing an International Classification for Industrial Designs (of 8 October 1968).
An industrial design shall mean the three-dimensional or two-dimensional appearance of the entire product or a part thereof, defined by its features, in particular the lines, contours, colors, shape, texture and/or materials of the product itself or its ornamentation, as well as their combination. A product shall mean any industrial or handicraft item, including, inter alia, parts intended to be assembled into a complex product, packaging, get-up, graphic symbols and typographic typefaces, but excluding computer programs. A complex product shall mean a product which is composed of multiple components which can be replaced, and which permit disassembly and reassembly of the product.
An industrial design shall be protected by the exclusive right (industrial design right) to the extent that it is new and has an individual character. An industrial design shall be considered new (i) if no identical industrial design has been made available to the public before the date of filing of the application for registration or, if priority is claimed, (ii) or if there is no application for industrial right protection previously filed and subsequently made available to the public. Industrial designs shall be deemed to be identical if their features differ only in immaterial details. An industrial design shall be considered to have individual character if the overall impression it produces on an informed user differs from the overall impression produced on such a user by any other design which has been made available to the public before the date of filing of the application for registration or, if priority is claimed. In assessing individual character, the degree of freedom of the designer in developing the industrial design of a specific product shall be taken into consideration.
The industrial design applied to or incorporated in a product which constitutes a component part of a complex product shall be considered to be new and to have individual character, only if: (i) the component part incorporated in the complex product remains visible during regular use of such complex product; and (ii) visible features of the component part themselves meet the requirements concerning novelty and individual character.
Industrial design right shall not subsist concerning features of appearance of a product that is solely dictated by its technical function. Industrial design right shall not subsist with respect to features of appearance of a product that must necessarily be reproduced in its exact form and dimensions in order to permit the product to be mechanically connected to or placed in, around or against another product, so that either product may perform its function except in case when design enable multiple assembly or connection of mutually interchangeable products within a modular system. An industrial design cannot be used to protect the external look of the product, the publication of which or the use of which is contrary to the public order or the accepted moral principles.
The right to the industrial design protection has the designer, or their legal successor, or the employer in cases defined by the Law. Foreign natural and legal persons shall have rights concerning industrial design protection equal to national natural and legal persons if it results from international agreements or the reciprocity principle. Proof of the existence of reciprocity shall be provided by the person invoking reciprocity.
The industrial design right shall be acquired by entering into the Industrial Design Register and shall last for a period of 5 years from the filing date to the competent authority. Industrial design protection may be renewed for periods of 5 years each, up to a total term of 25 years from the date of filing of the application.
Assignment of industrial design rights and/or rights arising from the application may be the consequence of an assignment-license agreement, change of status of the holder of the industrial design right and/or the applicant, or based on the court or administrative decision.
The holder of rights concerning industrial design has the exclusive right to use the protected industrial design and to deny that right to every third party. The use of industrial design implies, in particular, the manufacturing, offering, marketing, import, export or use of that product, implying that design is embedded there or applied for that or stored for the mentioned purposes.
Any unauthorized exploitation of a registered industrial design within the meaning of the above stated and unauthorized publication of the subject matter of the application shall constitute an infringement of a right.
Legal suit due to the infringement of right can be applied for by the applicant, holder of a right to industrial design and the acquirer of the exclusive license. The holder of an exclusive license can also file an infringement action for the infringement of right if it has not been prescribed otherwise by a license contract.
The owner/holder of design right that is the applicant for the registration of the design right, can submit a request for international registration of a design through the Intellectual Property Office of the Republic of Serbia, to obtain protection on the basis of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs in the countries which are party to that Agreement.
This field of Intellectual property is regulated by the Law on Indications of Geographical Origin (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia”, No. 18/2010 and 44/2018), the Regulation on the content of the application for registration of indications of geographical origin and applications for recognition of the status of the authorized user of indication of geographical origin (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia”, No. 93/2010 44/2018), Lisbon Agreement on the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registration, Madrid Agreement for the Repression of False or Deceptive Indications of Source on Goods.
Indications of geographical origin shall be used to mark natural, agricultural, food and industrial products, traditional handicrafts products and services.
An appellation of origin shall be the geographical name of a region, locality, or country used to designate a product originating therein, the quality and specific characteristics of which are due exclusively or essentially to the geographical environment, including natural and human factors, and such product is produced, processed and prepared entirely within a specific geographical area.
Geographical indications shall be indications which identify particular goods as goods originating from the territory of a specific country, region or locality within such area, where a given quality, reputation or other characteristics of such goods can be essentially attributed to their geographical origin, and such goods are produced and/or processed and/or prepared within a particular geographical area.
Exceptionally, a product may be protected by the appellation of origin, even where the raw material for the production of such product originates from an area different from or broader than processing area, in case the area of production has special requirements for production of such raw material, as well as an inspection system ensuring supervision of meeting such special requirements. With regard to agricultural and food products, raw materials shall only be live animals, meat and milk.
Protection of the indication of the geographical origin unites two different procedures: procedure for the establishment of the indication of the geographical origin and procedure for the recognition of the status of the authorized user of the indication of the geographical origin.
If the indication of the geographical origin is being established for the first time before the Intellectual Property Office as a completely new right which has not been registered so far, the interested party shall initiate the procedure for the establishment of the indication of geographical origin.
If the indication of the geographical origin has already been established and recorded in the appropriate register, and if somebody wants to acquire the right to use that indication in the channels of commerce, they must initiate the procedure for the recognition of the status of the authorized user of the indication of the geographical origin.
Any unauthorized use of appellation of origin or geographical indication by any economic operator shall be deemed to constitute an infringement of registered appellation of origin or geographical indication.
This field of Intellectual property is regulated by the Law on the legal protection of Topography of Semiconductor Products (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia”, No. 55/2013 and 66/2019).
The topography shall be protected by an exclusive right if it is the result of its creator’s intellectual effort and is not commonplace in the semiconductor industry.
Topography consisting of the combination of elements, which are well known in the industry of semiconductor products, can be the subject matter of protection only if the combination of these elements observed as a whole fulfills conditions for protection.
The exclusive rights enjoy the part of the protected topography that can be used separately, as well as the device (the main thing) that includes semiconductor product contains protected topography, if such semiconductor product cannot be separated from the main thing without its damage or destruction. The exclusive rights of the topography of semiconductor products shall not apply to any concept, process, system, the technique of production of the topography, or any information embodied in the topography, but to the topography as such.
Right to protection shall apply in favor of a natural person who is the creator of the topographies. Where several persons have jointly created a topography, the right shall jointly apply in favor of all of them. Where topography is created in the course of the creator’s employment, the protection shall apply in favor of the creator’s employer unless otherwise stated in the employment contract.
The holder of exclusive rights (here and after: right holder) shall include the right to prohibit any third party without the authorization of the right holder any of the following acts: (i) reproduce the protected topography as a whole or its essential parts in any manner or in any form; (ii) commercially exploit or import topography, protected for the sake of commercial exploitation, or commercially exploit semiconductor product containing topography protected for the sake of its commercial exploitation.
The exclusive right to topography may be, in whole or in part, subject of an assignment based on an assignment contract, the status change in ownership, as well as inheritance, court and administrative decisions.
This field of Intellectual property is regulated by The Law on Copyright and Related Rights (Official gazette of RS no. 104/2009, 99/2011, 119/2012, 29/2016 i 66/2019), The Law on Optical Discs (“Official Gazette RS”, No. 52/2011), Regulations on the conditions to be fulfilled the copies of copyright protected works and subject matter of related rights which are deposited, entry in the register and deposition of copyright protected works and subject matter of related rights and the contents of the registration of deposited copyright protected works and subject matter of related rights with the competent authority (“Official Gazette RS”, No. 45/2010), Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms Against Unauthorized Duplication of Their Phonograms (1971), The WIPO Copyright Treaty (1996), The WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (1996), The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (of 9 September 1886), Universal Copyright Convention (of 6 September 1952), The International Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations (“the Rome Convention”) – of 26 October 1961.
A work of authorship is an author’s original intellectual creation, expressed in a particular form, regardless of its artistic, scientific or some other value, its purpose, size, contents and way of manifestation, as well as the permissibility of public communication of its contents.
The following shall be deemed works of authorship in particular: (i) Written works (e.g. books, brochures, articles, translations, computer programs with supporting technical and user documentation in any form of their expression, including their preparatory design material and other); (ii) Spoken works (lectures, speeches, orations, etc.); (iii) Dramatic, dramatic-musical, choreographic and pantomime works, as well as works originating from folklore; (iv) Works of music, with or without words; (v) Films (cinema and television); (vii) Fine artworks (paintings, drawings, sketches, graphics, sculptures, etc.); (vii) Works of architecture, applied art and industrial design; (viii) Cartographic works (geographic and topographic maps); (ix) Drawings, sketches, dummies and photographs; (x) The direction of a theatre play; (xi) Database.
An unfinished work of authorship, parts of a work of authorship, as well as the title of a work of authorship, shall be deemed a work of authorship.
Modifications of works of authorship shall also be deemed works of authorship. A work of modification shall be a work in which the characteristic elements of the modified (original) work (musical remixes, arrangements, adaptations and other) are recognizable.
A collection of the works of authorship, which in view of the selection and arrangement of its integral parts, (an encyclopedia, collection of works, anthology, selected works, music collection, photograph collection, graphic map, exhibition and the like), shall also be deemed a work of authorship. A collection of folk literary and artistic creations, as well as a collection of documents, court decisions and similar materials and database, shall also be deemed a work of authorship. The protection of a collection shall in no way restrict the rights of authors of the works constituting an integral part of the collection.
Any author shall enjoy moral and pecuniary rights concerning his/her work of authorship from the moment of its creation.
An author is a natural person who has created a work of authorship (hereinafter: the work). An author is considered a person whose name, pseudonym or mark stated on copies of the work or is referred on the publication of the work, until proven contrary. Exceptionally, the legal or natural person whose title and/or name is in the usual way displayed on the film work shall be considered as the producer of that work, until proven to the contrary. The author of the work shall be the holder of the copyright. Besides the author, the holder of the copyright may also be a person who has acquired the copyright.
The author’s work of the foreign citizens shall be protected the Republic of Serbia under the condition that: (i) the author is a person who whose copyright is recognized on the basis of an international agreement ratified by the Republic of Serbia and that there is (ii) reciprocity between Serbia and the author’s country.
The infringement of the copyright or related rights is (i) the unauthorized performance of any act encompassed by the exclusive rights of the holder of copyright or related rights, (ii) not paying remuneration prescribed by the law or contract, as well as (iii) inobservance of other obligations due to the holder of copyright or related rights.
Any holder of the copyright, performer, producer of a phonogram, producer of a videogram, producer of broadcast, producer of a database, acquirer of exclusive license for copyright and related rights and organization for collective management of copyright and related rights, may file a lawsuit and request particularly the following: (i) determination of the infringement of a right, or serious threats that the right will be violated; (ii) prohibition of the infringement of a right, or serious threats that the right will be violated, as well as a prohibition on repeating of such or similar actions; (iii) confiscation, destruction or alteration of the objects or material instrumental to the infringement on rights, including copies of the subject-matter of protection, their packaging, stencils, negatives and the like; (iv) compensation concerning material and non-material damages; (v) publication of the court decision at the defendant’s expense; (vi) providing information on third parties who participated in the violation of rights.
Pecuniary rights of an author shall last for the life of an author and 70 years after his/her death. Moral rights of an author shall last even after the expiration of his/her pecuniary rights.