The role of higher education institutions in the intellectual property system

Organized by the Institute for Intellectual Property of BiH and the Faculty of Information Technologies of the University "Džemal Bijedić" in Mostar, on December 7, 2017, a seminar on the topic "The role of higher education institutions in the system of intellectual property and ways of regulating intellectual property rights" was held at the University "Džemal Bijedić" in Mostar. The seminar was attended by the Vice-Dean for Scientific Research of the Polytechnic Faculty of the University of Zenica, Acting Prof. Dr. Samir Lemes.

The goal of the seminar was to raise awareness of the importance of intellectual property and to introduce participants to the protection of certain innovations. With the participation of expert lecturers from the Institute for Intellectual Property of BiH, presentations were held on three topics: "The importance of defining intellectual property policies at universities and R&D institutions", "Methods and ways of protecting inventions in the field of information technology" and "Monitoring the state of the art in certain areas and searching databases".

Although patents and innovations are an integral part of research work, this field is underrepresented at universities in BiH, so that to date no BiH the university does not have a single patent filed, except for a few individual patents filed individually by researchers, but as natural persons. Out of 9 public and 37 private universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, only one has developed and adopted an Intellectual Property Policy. During the next year, it is necessary to establish cooperation between the University of Zenica and the Institute for Intellectual Property of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in order to give this very important area the necessary attention at the University of Zenica.