Strategy of the intellectual property development for the period of ...

organized propaganda campaigns, and weaker motivation to change the acquired habits.That, of course, does not mean that the adult population should be neglected in this task.But raising awareness of that population must be founded on the connection ofintellectual property and promotion of certain practical interests of those people (forexample, in the form of the protection of consumers and the similar).In the promotion of technical culture and innovations, the important role is played by theexhibitions of inventions. There are such exhibitions in the Republic of Serbia. However,due to the lack of unified criteria and the lack of cooperation among the associations ofinventors, there is no competition in the form of an exhibition for inventions of thehighest rank – on the state level. The existence of the arranged system of competition, aswell as such exhibitions, would attract attention of the media and represent a considerablecontribution to the raising of public awareness on intellectual property.Education, unlike raising public awareness, is a systematic and institutionalized activityof the transfer of knowledge to those who have specific (actual or potential) professionalinterests with regard to intellectual property. Depending on the target group, kind andlevel of knowledge which is being passed, the education in the field of intellectualproperty can be performed in the framework of the accredited curriculums at the faculties(as a separate subject or as a part of a specific subject) or at the universities(interdisciplinary groups), but also in other institutions which have expert andorganizational capacities for the task.With regard to the training at the faculties, the situation in the Republic of Serbia isvaried. While at the majority of legal faculties, the intellectual property right is studied asa compulsory or optional subject at the certain level of studies, at the technical and artfaculties, that is not the case. The particular problem lies in the fact that the futuretechnical intelligence in the Republic of Serbia, as a rule, has no opportunity to get anykind of knowledge in the field of intellectual property while attending university.The important step in the direction of improvement of education was made by the recentopening of the Education and Information Centre in the Office. Its opening, and the firsttwo years of work are the subject matter of a project financed by the European Union.The aim is to offer shorter educational programs to the interested audience in theexcellent premises and with outstanding technical conditions- programs which areprimarily being directed to the expert qualification of people to practically applyknowledge from the field of intellectual property. It has been planned that the curriculumand the manuals should be adapted to the needs of the specific groups of users(representatives of economy, scientific and development institutions, judges, inspectors,public prosecutors, representatives of the media, artistic associations, etc.) Foreignexperts will be included in the elaboration of the education manuals and curriculum fortraining.The described situation leads to the conclusion that it is necessary to undertake a serial ofmeasures with the aim to raise the public awareness and improve education in the field ofintellectual property. This is particularly the case because the high quality of information38