engleski

Intellectual Property Law in the EU Accession Negotiations: Croatian Experience and Montenegrin Perspective

Western Balkan countries have for more than a decade repeatedly proclaimed that the accession to the European Union is one of the most important goals of their foreign policy. However, the accession to the EU entails significant changes in the political, legal and economic system of a country. In regards to the legal system, it is required from the candidate country to bring its law in line with the entire body of the EU law, the so-called acquis communautaire and to ensure the proper level of the enforcement of these laws. This includes inter alia harmonization of the intellectual property law, which was not particularly developed in the Western Balkan countries, and the laws were poorly implemented if at all. Western Balkan countries’ progress in the process of accession to the EU varies significantly from country to country, at the time some of the Western Balkan countries became Member States of the EU, the others were only starting the talks on beginning the negotiations on Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), and since the problems they encounter in this process are often similar, especially in regards to the reform of legal systems, since most of the countries of the Western Balkan share the same legal history, the experiences of one country in the accession process can be used as a road map to the other countries of the region. Additionally some of these countries share the same language which not only helps when the interpretation of the acquis, but also significantly reduces the costs of the process of accession negotiations. As the newest Member State, Croatian experience in the negotiation process is especially useful to the current candidate countries like Montenegro which are only at the beginning of the lengthy process of negotiating the accession to the EU. Therefore, this thesis analyses Croatian experience in the Chapter 7 of EU accession negotiations – Intellectual property and presents the experience and problems which Montenegrin intellectual property law encounters as the negotiations in this chapter continue.

Intellectual property, accession to the EU

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