As a culmination of its ongoing program of judicial capacity building and IP enforcement for Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH), CLDP published the first Judicial Intellectual Property Benchbook for BiH. In 2011, CLDP began to develop the BiH Judicial Intellectual Property Benchbook in coordination with the Public Institution Center for Judicial and Prosecutorial Training of FBiH. With guidance and assistance from the U.S. Federal Judicial Center and a US Federal Judge, a team of 7 BiH judges were selected to take the lead in developing this novel manual for use by BiH’s judiciary. Throughout 2012, the team of BiH judges collectively volunteered their time and wrote the BiH IP Benchbook, covering all intellectual property rights protected in BiH.

This Benchbook is intended to be a practical guide for judges as well as prosecutors and can be used for training purposes by the Judicial and Prosecutorial Training Centers in FBiH, Republika Srpska, and Brčko District. The Judicial IP Benchbook addresses both civil and criminal procedural aspects of IP cases and provides one access point which encompasses procedural laws, intellectual property protection laws, forms, judicial practice, and references to rules and regulations. This Benchbook will assist judges who do not have much experience with intellectual property cases and its development will serve as model methodology on which to base future judicial publications.

On March 27, 2013, CLDP held a Launch Event to formally introduce the Benchbook in Sarajevo, with remarks provided by U.S. Ambassador Patrick Moon, the Director of the FBiH Center, CLDP, one of the BiH Judges and Benchbook authors, and a member of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of BiH. The Launch was attended by BiH IPR Institute officials, judges, FBiH Center staff, IP lawyers, US Embassy officials, and other interested stakeholders.