Other intellectual property rights

Learn more about other formal intellectual property rights and intellectual property that may be relevant to your business

Topographies of semiconductor products

The topography of the semiconductor product is industrial property right that protect a serial of connected images representing three-dimensional pattern of layers that the semiconductor product consists of in which each picture represents sample or part of the pattern of the semiconductor product surface in any phase of its production, regardless the manner of representing or coding.

The latest Law on the protection of Topography of Semiconductor Products protects the semiconductor product, and provides a broader protection, because it refers to all electric circuits including those made of discrete components. The preconditions have been created for the complete, broad and efficient protection of semi-conducting products, which is especially important for business entities in the field of information technologies.

Plant breeder right

Plant breeder right is the intellectual property right given to the plant breeder (legal person, natural person or their legal follower) who created, discovered or developed new kind of plants that can represent a collection of plants inside a unique botanic classification of the lowest known category, which is:

Defined by expressing characteristics that are consequence of influence of the given genotype or combination of genotypes;
Different from some other collection of plants by expressing at least one of the given characteristics and
Which represents a unit in comparison to the possibility of that sort for the multiplication without changes.

Plant breeder right is realized in the procedure held by the competent Ministry for Agriculture in the Republic of Serbia, through the Administration for Plant Protection.

Trade secret

Trade secret represents form of intellectual property used to protect confidential information, which like other formal rights of intellectual property can be sold or licensed. Trade secret is considered any information:

Which has or might have commercial value because it is not generally known or available to the third parties;
Which is protected by its holder by appropriate measures to preserve its secrecy and
Whose communication to a third party could harm its owner.

Trade secret is also taken to be:

Undisclosed data about tests and other data filed to the government bodies for the sake of obtaining permission for the commercialization of medicines, medical devices, agricultural chemical products and biocide products;
Other data, which, by a special law, other regulation or act of the legal person, are considered a trade secret.

What information is protected by trade secrets?
Various kinds of information can be protected by a trade secret, such as:

Financial, economic, business, scientific, technical, technological, production information;
Studies, results of examination;
Formulas, drawings, plans, projects, models, programs, methods, techniques, information or manuals of internal character, etc.

The following can not be protected as a trade secret:

Information denoted as a trade secret for the sake of covering a criminal act, overstepping of authority or misuse of the official position or other illegal act or the acting of the domestic or foreign natural or legal person, and
Information for which it has been prescribed by the special Law that they can not represent a trade secret.

What are the conditions for some information to be protected as a trade secret?
SECRECY OF THE INFORMATION – Well-known or immediately identifiable information can not be protected as a trade secret.

COMMERCIAL VALUE OF INFORMATION – The information will have a commercial value due to which it will be considered a trade secret if it gives its holder an advantage over the competition.

MEASURS FOR THE PROTECTION OF SECRECY – What concrete measures shall the holder of the confidential information undertake in order to keep it secret depends from the kind, importance and value of the information. Examples: signing agreement on confidentiality, marking with the sign denoting secrecy, introduction of provisions on the trade secret in the contracts with the employees, limiting access to documents or files containing confidential information, etc.

No formal registration or decision to establish a trade secret is required to obtain protection against unfair competition. The holder of a trade secret has the right to:

Transfer to another person the right of use of the trade secret;
Forbid to other persons the unlawful acquisition, disclosure or use of the trade secret in a manner contrary to law or fair practices.

For the protection of trade secrets, no formal protection procedure is initiated, but the holder of trade secrets should regulate the access to and management of information that may be a business secret by an internal act on business secrets (for employers), contractual and physical protection measures.

For the protection of the trade secret, no formal protection procedure is initiated, but the holder (eg. employers) of the trade secret should arrange by internal act on the trade secret, legal and physical measures of protection as well as the access and the management of information that can represent a trade secret.

Know-how

Know-how is an expression closely connected with the trade secret. In general, know-how includes a set of operational, concrete and identified practical knowledge and information gained through experience and testing and which can be applied in practice to perform a technical process for industrial purposes. Such knowledge and information have their economic value for its holder if they are not publically available or patented.

Know-how is often covered by license agreements when granted independently, or with other formal intellectual property rights for use by third parties, most often for a fee. It is up to the know-how holder to define the manner of keeping and transferring the right to use know-how with third parties. In a broader sense, this term encompasses all the knowledge and experience necessary for modern business.

Internet domain name

Internet domain name is your own internet address, which you registered in the framework of some internet domain, national and international (example: internet address in the domain of the Republic of Serbia ends with .rs). It is an integral part of a web address and an email address and thus determines your identity on the Internet and is usually used to find websites. In ordinary speech, the term “internet domain” is often used when referring to “internet domain name”.

With the explosive growth of the use of Internet, the internet domain names became valuable property for the companies serving to identify the companies or other natural or legal persons. Internet domains can be in conflict with the already existing business identifiers (for example: with the registered trademarks, indications of geographical origin, brands, etc.).

The question is whether the domain name represents intellectual property or is it a form of contractual arrangement. It is clear that when companies build their brand, or other business identifier, they seek to register and use domain names that are identical to the verbal part of the trademark or that contain those elements from the trademark.
It should be mentioned that the registration of the internet domain names does not automatically give the owner of the internet domain name the right to use that name as the protected sign – trademark. When registering an internet domain name, no proof is required that the registrant is the holder of the trademark. Internet domain names are registered according to the rule “First in time, stronger in law”. Therefore, it may happen that a person before you registers an Internet address that is identical or similar to your trademark.

However, there are manners of alternative dispute resolution in connection with the domain names and trademarks, which can give the trademark owners a possibility to have success in the case of trademark infringement, if the same is contained in another person`s internet domain name. If it is proven that the person infringing the trademark by the registration of such internet domain name intentionally used the acquired image of the holder of trademark (so-called :”cybersquatting”), that domain name can be terminated or transferred to the trademark holder.

For more information on the registration of the internet domain name, you can read on the internet page Register of the national internet domain name of Serbia.

How to aplly?

Forms & instructions

Here you can find all the necessary forms and instructions.

Laws and regulations

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Link

The Law on the Legal Protection of Topography of Semiconducting Products

“Official Gazette RS”, No. 55/13, 66/19

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Link

Regulation on the Procedure of Protecting of Topography of Semiconducting Products

“Official Gazette RS”, No.8/14, 29/01/14

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Laws and regulations

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The Law on the Protection of Trade Secrets

"Official Gazette RS" no. 53/2021, in force since 28.05.2021

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