INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY: AN OVERVIEW OF PROTECTION IN THE REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA

Faton SHABANI, Beisa SELIMI

Abstract

Industrial property law constitutes one of the two pillars (the other being copyright) of the broader entity known as intellectual property law. According to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (1883) “Industrial property shall be understood in the broadest sense and shall apply not only to industry and commerce proper, but likewise to agricultural and extractive industries and to all manufactured or natural products, for example, wines, grain, tobacco leaf, fruit, cattle, minerals, mineral waters, beer, flowers, and flour” (Article 1(3)). Industrial property is considered to give identity and add value to products in the market. Thus, creativity and innovation expressed by people and business entities through visionary institutions, laws and policies provide prerequisites for a stable platform for economic development. This highlights the main function of this branch of the legal system, the transformation of ideas into products and services that will improve our lives and realize the process of transformation into knowledge based economy. In the Republic of North Macedonia, industrial property is mainly regulated by the Law on Industrial Property (2009), while the issues related to the acquisition and protection of industrial property rights is carried out by the State Office of Industrial Property (SOIP). In addition to the empirical, descriptive and normative treatment, the authors through the methods of analysis, synthesis and statistical method processes the official data from the SOIP to give a clear overview of the trends in providing protection of individual industrial property rights for the period of eleven years (2011-2021) in North Macedonia.

Pages: 102 - 112