On June 12-13, in Sarajevo, CLDP held the second phase of programming on judicial IPR enforcement in coordination with the Center(s) of Judicial and Prosecutorial Training of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) and the Republika Srpska.  This activity is part of a series of workshops on IPR development and enforcement, targeting local tech companies, law firms, universities, government officials and judges and aiming to strengthen IP capacity of local ICT industry and improving enforcement of IPR.

The first phase of the program held on May 14-18, focused on negotiating international software agreements for local IT companies and took place in both Sarajevo and Banja Luka. They came about after an earlier assessment with several leading software development firms in Sarajevo and Banja Luka had shown that these firms had developed proprietary software and were interested in expanding internationally through joint development agreements but needed to understand how to best address key IP issues that they were encountering.  CLDP addressed these challenges through its workshops in May by providing training to these firms on how software IP can be protected and key IP issues that arise in the negotiation of international software agreements. The workshops also included mock negotiations sessions led by internationally renowned IP partner from O’Melveny Meyers LLP, with specific focus on drafting and negotiating term sheets. Additionally, CLDP experts discussed how to effectively utilize open-source software, and to develop and protect IP for Google and Apple app stores. 

Strengthening intellectual property rights will help BiH to develop as a knowledge-based economy, improving employment opportunities and economic stability, and will protect the IP of both Bosnian and U.S. companies.