PETOŠEVIĆ PEOPLE: Q&A with Vladimir Nika

PETOŠEVIĆ Albania Head of Office Vladimir Nika has been with the firm since 2004 and has over 25 years of IP experience under his belt. With degrees in metallurgy and mechanical engineering, and a long career teaching at the Polytechnic University in Tirana, Vladimir’s practice focuses on patents, while he also counsels clients on clearance, maintenance and enforcement of trademarks in Albania. We asked Vladimir about his work, hobbies, interests, and much more.

1. How did you start your career in the IP field?

   After the 1990s and the political changes in Albania, providing IP services was liberalized and I became an authorized IP agent in order to increase my income, while I was still working as a full-time professor at the Polytechnic University of Tirana. As the time passed, I realized that I really liked IP, so it became my main profession. Teaching at the University became a side job and I stayed there as a guest professor.

2. What is the most challenging aspect of your work?

   Albania inherited a poor IP system from the past communist regime. Raising awareness about the importance of IP rights protection among Albanian entrepreneurs and inciting innovation are real challenges.

3. What do you most enjoy doing at work?

   Advising clients on different possibilities in order for them to choose the most appropriate.

4. What would you be working in, if you weren’t working in IP?

   I would be an engineer.

5. What was the first job you’ve ever had?

   I was an engineer in a mechanical factory.

6. What is your favorite thing to do when you are not working?

   I love playing bridge!

7. What book did you read last?

   While I do not read much, I recently read “The Successor” by Albanian writer Ismail Kadare.

8. What is your favorite song/music at the moment?

   “Dance Me to the End of Love” by Leonard Cohen.

9. What is your favorite dish of all time?

   Beef steak and French fries!

10. If you could meet anyone in the world, from the past or present, who would it be and why?

    I would meet Winston Churchill, who said, among other things, that “a pessimist sees the difficulty in each opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in each difficulty”.

11. What was your favorite subject in school and why?

    Mathematics – I like logic and formulas.

12. What did you want to be when growing up?

    I wanted to be an engineer.

13. Tell us three things most people don’t know about you.

    I have been married to my wife since 1979, I like mechanical clocks and I like cooking.

14. If you could learn to do anything, what would it be?

    Cooking — I would like to improve my skills.

15. What is your biggest frustration about the world around you?

    I am frustrated by the very regrettable current situation due to COVID-19.

16. What is the most important thing you have learned in the last five years?

    Life is too short, so it should be lived like it ends tomorrow.

17. What do you wish you could have told yourself at age 13?

    Don’t change anything, continue!

18. What cities/countries have you lived in?

    I’ve lived in two Albanian cities — Berat and Tirana. Outside Albania, I’ve lived in France and Canada. I studied mechanical engineering in France and spent 5 years in Bordeaux, Nancy and Lille. As a young professor at the Polytechnic University of Tirana, I obtained a doctoral fellowship for Paris, France, so I stayed in Paris for 4 years. Because of the difficult political and economic situation in Albania, in 1994, I emigrated to Canada with my family. I worked there as an engineer in a foundry. We lived for two years in Toronto, but eventually returned to Tirana.

19. If you could live in another country of the 30+ countries where PETOŠEVIĆ operates, which would you pick and why?

    I would pick Belgrade – I like it!

20. If someone came to your city for 24 hours, where would you take them?

    I would take them to the National Museum of History and the National Museum of Fine Arts. I would also take them to the New Bazaar, where restaurants and bakeries surround a market with a rich assortment of fresh produce. The Dajti mountain and national park on the edge of Tirana would also be my top pick.