Science Technology Park Belgrade (STP Belgrade) signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Intellectual Property Office of the Republic of Serbia with the aim of providing further support to innovative companies and teams in the field of legal protection of intellectual property, exchange of experience and information, and raising awareness of the importance of this area in the process of innovation development.

According to Gordana Danilovic Grkovic, Acting Director of STP Belgrade, the good cooperation between the two institutions so far has been raised to a higher level with this Memorandum.

A special type of support will be provided to companies and teams under the project “Technopark Serbia 2 – Boosting Exports through Technoparks”, which Science Technology Park Belgrade implements with the support of the Swiss Government, in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding between: the Government of the Republic of Serbia (on behalf of the Government: Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development) and the Swiss Government (on behalf of the Government: State Secretariat for Economic Affairs – SECO). The component of this project that covers aspects of intellectual property rights envisages the support of the Intellectual Property Office of the Republic of Serbia and the Swiss Federal Institute for Intellectual Property, IPI, on capacity building of science and technology parks in Belgrade, Nis and Cacak, to provide support to businesses in the field of intellectual property rights.

As Danilovic Grkovic pointed out at the event marking the Intellectual Property Day (26 April), organized by Intellectual Property Office of the Republic of Serbia, in addition to strengthening the capacity of science and technology parks in this area, support in the field of intellectual property rights will be provided to startup teams and companies in the earliest stages of development, to the participants in the Raising Starts program, which is implemented under this Project with the aim of establishing and developing new startup companies and encouraging the export of innovative products and services. The teams participating in the first cycle of the Raising Starts program have already completed training in the field of protection of intellectual property rights, and it is expected that next year we will have the first protected patents under this program.

Cooperation between the two institutions under the Memorandum, will include support to teams and companies in the project “Tehnopark Serbia 2” in terms of information and professional services in searching publicly available databases of patent documentation and other intellectual property rights, identification and protection of relevant rights in this area, and organization of training, seminars and educational events related to capacity building of science and technology parks in this area. Under the established cooperation, the two organizations will exchange good practice and experience, and organize conferences, seminars and other educational events related to intellectual property and encouraging innovation in companies, especially startups.