Nathan Project — Serbia

Introduction

In 2007 and 2008, PETOŠEVIĆ served as a local subcontractor to Nathan Associates, a consulting organization from Arlington, VA, to help implement a project of operational and organizational technical assistance to the Serbian Intellectual Property Office. The project was financed by the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA).

The main goal of the project was to help the Serbian IPO to restructure and develop new operational protocols for processing patents and trademarks in order to become an efficient and financially self-sustaining agency.

Other goals were the following:

  • Enable the IPO to reach beyond its narrowly defined mission (i.e. primary administrative tasks), and to successfully perform its wider role in promoting awareness, enforcement, initiating and implementing IP legislation, innovation and economic applicability of IP assets;
  • Create an intellectual property office that provides prompt and reliable service and supports Serbia’s economic, scientific, and cultural aims.

Activities Undertaken

During the implementation of the project, PETOŠEVIĆ took part in the following activities:

  1. Evaluating current operations;
  2. Working with the IPO to define the vision, mission, strategy, revised operations, organization, budgeting plan and plan to transition the IPO into a modern, efficient and effective institution;
  3. Assisting the IPO in preparing presentations on the transformation plan;
  4. Providing on-site support implementing the transformation;
  5. Performing background research (reviewing and building on reports of previous technical assistance activities – CARDS, EPO, other expert missions; best practices case studies – practices of other intellectual property offices);
  6. Analyzing IPO institutional and operational set up (establishing a baseline of current operations, workloads, cost of operations, policies and procedures, performance metrics, human resource needs; meeting with stakeholders; recommending improvements, and holding seminars for key stakeholders);
  7. Assisting in preparing presentations on the transformation plan;
  8. Drafting a final report.