On Thursday, September 22, 2022, in the premises of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia an international seminar lasting for one day was held in the organization of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPО), in cooperation with the Intellectual Property Office of the Republic of Serbia (IPORS), Serbian Games Association (SGA), Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia and supercluster Creative Tech Serbia.
Renowned world and domestic experts from the industry of video games as well as experts from the field of intellectual property rights addressed the audience that could listen to the presentations held in the premises of the hall in the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Industry or via the Internet, over the Zoom platform.
The seminar was opened by Mihajlo Vesovic, Director of the Sector for Strategic Analysis, Services and Internationalization in the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and indicated the great importance that the companies from the sector of information and communication technologies (IKT) have for the development and growth of gross domestic product (GDP) of some country. The value of the market of video games in the World in 2021 reached almost 200 billion USD, and it is expected that in 2026, it will reach the amount of 330 billion USD.
Vladimir Maric, Director of the Intellectual Property Office of the Republic of Serbia, mentioned, in his presentation, that the companies from the sector of creative industries in Serbia have 5% of share in the GDP of the country, half of it coming from the IKT sector. As the key factor in the future development of the video games industry in Serbia, he emphasized the education of business people and creators in Serbia about the possibilities and procedures of timely and correct protection of intellectual property.
Kristina Jankovic from the Serbian Games Association presented the data from the new report of the SGA about the condition in the domestic gaming industry. In Serbia, there are 130 companies from this kind of industry employing around 3000 persons. Their total income in 2021 amounted to the 125 million Euros. Over 30% of employees are women, which makes Serbia special – high above the EU average of 22% (according to the report of the European Interactive Software Federation, (ISFE) for 2022). Only this year, it has been planned to open 450 more working places for experts in this field, and 70% of companies plan broadening their teams with new employees. Even 58% of them work on the games that are their own intellectual property, and only 8% of companies have been engaged as outsourced working force. The whole report is available at the SGA page, here.
Kristina Šarenac (Mad Head Games) and Goran Radošević (Karanović & Partners) shared their experiences as lawyers with the long term experience in this field. The need has been emphasized for the companies, in the course of development, to clearly establish and protect their intellectual property rights over all the elements of video games – as the complex final product (program code, graphics, 3D models, music…).
Dr Gaetano Dimita, renowned Italian expert in the field of international IP law, in his presentation about video games and law, emphasized the necessity of homogenization of international legal protection in the IKT sector, and the industry of video games is at the head of this unification of national legal regulations and practice. The complexity of video games as products emphasizes the complexity of issues of IP protection over them.
Moderator of the discussion, Ryszard Frelek, from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), got the audience acquainted with the planned new project of assistance directed towards the SMEs (small and medium enterprises) from the video games industry – “Level up your IP”. Through the informal approach and connection of companies of the beginners with the successful companies from this industry, the aim of the project is to enable to the companies the access to useful advices expressed by an understandable laic jargon which will be of practical value in the resolution of every day problems characteristic for this branch. The approach includes giving advice about the problems in five phases (phase of game development, from the initial idea to the final phase of the product marketing) and in three ways (through podcasts, mentor clinics and informal on line meetings with the aim of connecting the participants).
The seminar was successfully brought to a close by holding a workshop about the practical problems in the relationship with the editors and investors and the lecture of Ms. Kate Edwards about the sensibility of the multicultural contents in video games on the global market.
