Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights

Organization and competences of the body

The Customs Administration, as the administrative body in the composition of the Ministry of Finances , performs tasks of government administration and expert tasks referring to the : payment of customs duty, customs supervision and other tasks of control of passengers and circulation of goods and services with foreign countries, as well as other tasks determined by the legislation.

The Customs legislation includes the Customs Law, Law on Customs Tariff and International Agreements as well as the legislation for their implementation.

The Customs body consists of the Customs Administration, Custom Houses and their organizational units competent for the implementation of customs and other regulation, as well as the empowered Customs Officers.
More information about the organizational structure and competences about the Customs Administration can be found, at the link http://www.carina.rs/dokumenti/informator-o-radu.html

Tasks about the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement

The Customs Law (“Official Gazette RS”, no 95/2018, 91/2019 and 144/2020), Chapter II – Measures for the protection of intellectual property rights at the border, with the provisions of articles 250 to 258 and the Regulation on the conditions and manner for implementation of measures for the protection of IP Right at the border (“Official Gazette RS”, no 38/2019) define the role, scope an competences of the Customs in the enforcement of measures for protection of intellectual property rights.

According to the stated regulations, during the declaration of goods for placing into free trade, export or repeated import, entry of goods into the Customs area of the Republic of Serbia or leaving that area, placing goods into special procedure, measures for protection are implemented with relation to the following IP rights: trademark, industrial design, copyright and related rights, right of the recognized user of the indication of geographical origin, patent and petty patent, certificate on the supplementary protection for medications or plant protection substances, plant breeder’s right and right to the topography of semi-conductor products. Measures of protection are not implemented with regard to goods produced with the agreement of the holder of rights; goods produced by the person authorized by the holder of right to produce a certain quantity of goods, but which has been produced in a larger quantity in comparison to the agreed amount between that person and the holder of right, goods obtained for non-commercial purposes placed in the personal baggage of the traveler; goods placed in the free trade for the sake of final use for special purposes.

Procedure at the request of the holder of intellectual property rights

When the Customs body identifies goods, for which it doubts that it infringes IPRs, and it is included in a decision on acceptance of the request for the undertaking of measures, it stops as a rule the release of goods or temporarily keeps such goods under Customs supervision. The person declared or the holder of goods and the holder of the approval are immediately informed about the keeping of goods. With the double confirmation that the goods infringes IP rights and with the double agreement for the destruction of goods, in the prescribed time limits, the goods are destroyed under the Customs supervision. Otherwise, the establishment of the intellectual property rights infringement is conducted in the court procedure.

The holder of right files the request for the undertaking of measures to the Customs Administration, in the paper or electronic form (by e-IPR application), at the forms that are the constituent part of the Regulations. At least 30 days before the expiry of the previously approved request for the undertaking of measures, the holder of approval can file the Request for the extension of the time limit under the same conditions, at the prescribed forms, in the Central of the Customs Administration.

Procedure ex officio

Goods seen as suspicious from the aspect of the possible infringement of IP Rights, but not included in the valid approval of request for the undertaking of measures, the Customs body can also keep or may suspend the release of such goods ex officio. The person from the declaration or the holder of goods and the person who has the right to file the request must be informed about it. The request must be filed in the time limit of four working days, because otherwise the release of goods is approved or the keeping of goods is terminated. The Customs body informs the person filing the request about the decision concerning request in the time limit of two working days. In the case the request has been approved, further procedure is identical as the procedure at the initial request of the holder of intellectual property rights.

Contact

The Customs Administration / Sector for the Control of Implementation of Customs Regulations / Department for the Protection of Intellectual Property

Phone: + 381 11 2015-885
Fax: + 381 11 319-41-64
E-mail: IPR-customs@carina.rs

Website: http://www.carina.rs/servisi/e_servisi/zastita-intelektualne-svojine.html

Scope of authorities and manner of procedure in the Market Inspection Sector

The Market Inspection Sector, as a part of the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, performs inspection supervision over the production and circulation of goods infringing Intellectual Property Rights (trademark, design, patent, petty patent, geographical indication of origin, topography of semi-conductor products, copyright and related rights).

Apart from the general authorization, prescribed by the Law on Government Administration, for all the bodies, which perform tasks of inspection supervision, and apart from the general authority of the market inspectors prescribed in the Law on Trade and Law on Inspection Supervision and implemented in the procedure initiated ex officio, the Market Inspection Sector also has:

– special authority for the purpose of the efficient protection of IP rights undertaken ex officio or at the request of the holder of IP rights;
– rights and duties in the framework of the inspection supervision under the enforcement of the Law on Optical Discs, implemented in compliance with that Law.

Implementation of special authorities for the purpose of efficient protection of intellectual property rights

The Law on Special Powers for the Purpose of Efficient Protection of Intellectual Property Rights (“Official Gazette RS”, no 46/06, 104/09 and other laws), the ex officio procedure and the procedure at the request of the holder of IPR are prescribed.

The holder of IP rights is the original holder of IPRs or his legal follower in title, including professional associations, or organizations for the collective management of rights (CMO) in compliance with the legislation regulating IP rights.

Procedure ex officio

If by direct insight, the violation of IPR is established, the market inspector has the authority to temporarily seize the goods infringing the right, as well as to pass the measure of temporary prohibition of the performance of activities infringing IP right. He immediately informs the IP holder inviting him to initiate the procedure for the protection of his right before the competent court in the term of 15 days from the date of the receipt of the information. In the same term, he has the obligation to inform the Market Inspection about the initiated procedure or the temporary measure passed by the court. If the IPR holder does not inform the Market Inspection about the initiated procedure or does not furnish the decision of the court passing the temporary measure. If there are no reasons for the final seizure and destruction of the goods, the temporarily seized goods are returned to the person from whom they have been confiscated and the act temporarily prohibiting the performance of activity is no longer valid.

In addition to the mentioned temporary measures, when acting ex officio, the Market Inspection has the possibility to take the samples of goods in order to examine the existence of the infringement of IP right and secure evidence about it. It has the authority to file the application to the competent public prosecutor`s office, or the misdemeanor court, and to present other evidence necessary to establish the infringement of intellectual property rights. At the request of the Market Inspection, when the goods have been temporarily seized for establishing the IP infringement, the holder of IP right shall offer assistance, including technical expertise, equipment and premises.

Procedure at the request of Intellectual Property Rights holder

The Market Inspection acts in compliance with the written request of the IP right holder, that can be filed at the address: Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, Market Inspection Sector, 11000 Belgrade, 22-26 Nemanjina Street.

The request can be individual, if it refers to one particular shipment /certain quantity of goods, or general, if it refers to all quantities of certain goods in the proposed time.

The request contains in particular: the description of goods; data on the basis of which infringing goods can be recognized; proof that the person filing the request is the holder of IP rights in relation to those goods; and proposal of the term in the course of which the undertaking of measures is demanded. In addition, the request can contain data on the basis of which the shipment or package can be recognized; data on the place where the goods are stored or its supposed destination; name of the producer, importer, owner or holder of goods; supposed data of arrival or dispatch of goods; data on the vehicle used for transport; samples or photographs of goods; record of the copyright protected work or the subject matter of related rights.

Decision is passed about the filed request, and decision on the adopted request is furnished to the departments of Market Inspection for further proceedings.
Based on the decision on the adopted request, the temporary seizure of goods corresponding to the description from the request can be performed, inviting the person that filed the request to initiate procedure for the protection of his right before the competent court in the term of 15 days. In that term, he should inform back the Market Inspection Sector about the initiated procedure, or the temporary measure determined by the court. If the holder of right does not furnish the decision of the court determining the temporary measure, temporarily seized goods will be returned to the person from whom they have been confiscated, except in the case when there are reasons for the final seizure and destruction of goods.

Rights and duties in the framework of the inspection supervision prescribed by the Law on Optical Discs

Based on the Law on Optical Discs (“Official Gazette RS”, no 52/11), Market Inspection has the right and duty to:

– Check the licensee’s premises and perform control of activities taking place in them;
– Check the issued license;
– Check optical discs, production parts (stamper), production equipment and raw material for the production of optical discs and make their listing;
– Check recordings, business books, contracts and other documents, as well as proof on the right of reproduction, or recording of the material protected by the copyright or related right on optical discs or production parts (stamper);
– Check and establish if the production parts (stamper), or molds, including spare parts and production equipment, are adapted for the placing of production codes contained in the license;
– Check and establish if the optical discs and production parts (stamper) are marked by a suitable production code;
– Check if the records are kept as prescribed by the law;
– Temporarily keeps, till the decision of the Court, optical discs, production parts (stamper), raw material or equipment for production, or multiplication of optical discs, if doubt is expressed that the Law has been infringed which is described as a transgression or violation of some other law, that is described as the economic transgression or criminal act of IP rights infringement, and to inform about it the holder of IP right, or organization (CMO);
– Take certain number of samples of optical discs, or production parts (stamper) necessary for the proof in the procedure before the competent court;
– Order by a decision the destruction of confiscated optical discs, or production parts (stamper), when apart from the undertaken activities for the location of the owner, the owner or holder remains unknown;
– Take samples of optical discs for checking and dispatch of data to international organizations for the protection of intellectual property rights.

Contact

Market Inspection Sector

Lidija Stojanović, Assistant Minister – Chief Market Inspector

https://mtt.gov.rs/sektori/sektor-trzisne-inspekcije/
trzisna.beograd@mtt.gov.rs

Role and Competence

Department in Sector for Medicines and Medical Devices, Psychoactive Controlled Substances and Precursors in the Ministry of Health, prevents the transport of fake medicaments and medicaments out of the regular chain of supply in compliance with the authorities from the Law of Medicaments and Medical Devices.

Ministry of Health, through the health inspection and sanitary inspection, according to the provision of article 6 of the Law on Special Powers for the Purpose of Efficient Protection of IP Rights, is authorized for the efficient protection of intellectual property rights on medicines and medical devices. By the provision of article 14 of the same law, it has been prescribed that the competent body undertakes actions and passes acts, ex officio or at the request of the holder of right. The Law on Inspection Supervision and the Law on General Administrative Procedure, additionally prescribe the performance of inspection supervision in the field of medicines and medical devices.

Procedure of inspection supervision

In compliance with the legal authorization, the sampling of medicines is performed for the out of turn control of quality in the National Control Laboratory of the Medicines and Medical Devices Agency of Serbia (ALIMS) for the identification of the active pharmaceutical substance and the determination of the contents of the active substance. At the request of the Public Prosecutors Office, in the premises of the Ministry for Interior, or in the joint inspection supervision with the Police covering field tasks, in the Official Minutes, the state of affairs is noted down with regard to the temporarily seized medicines. For further proceedings, the prosecutor is provided with information on the status of seized medicines and the obtained control results (ALIMS Certificate), as well as with the information obtained from the manufacturer whether the manufacturer produced a series of temporarily seized drugs and for which market in Europe it was released for sale.

Organization and competence of the bodies

All police employees of the Police Directorate, which is part of the Ministry of Interior, have an obligation to conduct investigation regarding criminal acts against intellectual property.

There are two organizational units in the framework of the Police Directorate, Criminal Police Directorate, which have special competences in the framework of intellectual property. Those are: the Unit Intellectual Property Protection in Department for the Suppression of Hi-Tech Crime of the Sector for Fight Against Organized Crime, and the Department for the Suppression of Fraud in Business and Intellectual Property of the Sector for the Suppression of Crime.

High Technology Crime and Infringement of Intellectual Property Rights

High Technology Crime includes various criminal acts where the object of performing the criminal act and the means for performing the criminal act includes computers, computer networks, computer data as well as their products in material and electronic form.

This definition includes a large number of cases, which imply misuse of information technologies, as well as a misuse in the domain of radio-diffuse technologies. So it is possible to distinguish criminal acts where computers are means for performing crime – Computer Related Crime and the cases where they are the object of execution of the criminal act – Computer Crime, as well as the criminal acts where elements of illegal use of internet are found in the manner of performing the crime.

Number and kinds of criminal acts from the domain of High Technology crime, as well as the economic damage resulting from the execution of these criminal acts is very difficult to evaluate. The manner of the performance of the criminal acts, due to the very nature of the modern information technologies, is diverse and keeps on becoming more and more sophisticated.
Among other criminal acts, this domain includes also criminal acts against intellectual property assets and legal trade, providing the object or means of performing crime are computers, computer networks, computer data as well as their products in the material or electronic shape, if the number of copies of copyright-protected works exceeds 2000, or the material damage amounts exceeds 1,000,000 RSD.

The actions of police officers may be upon the request of the damaged party or acting ex officio.

For the acting in the cases of criminal acts, as stipulated in the Law on the Organization and Competence of the Government Bodies for the suppression of high technology crime, the Higher Public Prosecutors Office in Belgrade is competent for the territory of the Republic of Serbia.

Contact:
Department for the Suppression of High Tech Crime: vtk@mup.gov.rs

Criminal acts having material goods for the object of the execution of crime:

In the Criminal Police Directorate, Sector for the Suppression of Crime – Department for the Suppression of the Economic Crime, Sector for the Suppression of Fraud and IPR Protection, coordination of work is performed in the 27 police administrations on the territory of the Republic of Serbia. This is done within the framework of economic crime and in connection with criminal acts categorized, as stipulated in the Criminal Code, in the field of criminal acts against intellectual property, in particular when the object of the execution of the criminal act is material goods. In the framework of this coordination, measures and acts are undertaken for the suppression and discovery of the criminal acts and their executors in the field of IPR in connection with the material assets.

Role and Competence of the Body

Public Prosecutor`s Office is an Independent Government Body that prosecutes perpetrators of criminal acts and other prohibited acts and undertakes measures for the protection of constitution and legality and it performs its functions on the basis of the Constitution, law, ratified international agreement and regulation passed on the basis of the law.

Criminal acts having for the subject matter the violation of intellectual property rights

Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia, the Chapter 20, prescribes five criminal acts against intellectual property rights, incriminating illegal behavior at the expense of the moral rights of the authors and performers, copyright and related right, inventor`s rights and design, while Chapter 22 prescribes criminal offenses against the economy, the unauthorized use of another person`s business name, brand and other special signs that distinguish goods and services.

Authority for the criminal prosecution of perpetrators of criminal acts against intellectual property

When the criminal prosecution of the perpetrators of criminal acts against intellectual property is the issue, the competence of the 58 basic public prosecutor`s offices has been established. Bearing in mind that in the existing public prosecutor`s offices , no specialized departments have been established for the acting in the criminal cases against the violation of intellectual property rights, all public prosecutors and the deputies of the public prosecutors in the basic public prosecutor`s offices act in cases from this field.

In addition to basic public prosecutor`s offices, the criminal prosecution of the perpetrators of criminal acts against intellectual property is also in the competence of Special public prosecutor`s office for fighting against high technology crime, when the objects or means of performance of criminal acts are computers, computer systems, computer networks and computer data, as well as their products in the material or electronic shape. The competence of this public prosecutor`s office covers the entire territory of the Republic of Serbia.

Criminal prosecution of perpetrators of criminal acts against the intellectual property rights is initiated ex officio.

Website: Republic Public Prosecutor’s Office

The Tax Administration performed the control of violations of intellectual property rights in relation to computer programs and databases until October 6, 2022, after which the responsibility for the same passed to the Market Inspection Sector of the Ministry of Internal and Foreign Trade.