Bosnia Updates IP Legislation

On 16 June 2025, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Council of Ministers approved six draft laws in the field of intellectual property, including the draft Law on Trade Marks, the draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Industrial Designs and the Draft Law on Patents.

The drafts are currently available for public consultation after which they will enter the parliamentary procedure, with the final adoption expected by the end of the year.

The drafts align with EU directives and international treaties while also introducing modern procedural and substantive reforms to improve legal certainty, administrative efficiency, and enforcement.

Draft Trade Mark Law

The new draft is aligned with Directive (EU) 2015/2436 and Directive 2004/48/EC. Key updates include:

• Expanded scope of protection to include non-traditional trade marks such as color arrangements, packaging, and 3-D shapes;
• Separate definition and regulation of certification marks, which must be administered by independent entities not engaged in the trade of the certified goods or services;
• Unified, electronic, publically accessible register of all trade mark data—applications, registrations, assignments, licenses— with extracts available upon payment;
• Amendements to the absolute and relative grounds for refusal, granting broader protection to well-known and reputed marks (TRIPS Article 16.3), even across dissimilar goods/services; and
• A novel provision allowing parties to mark documents as confidential and enabling the IPO to restrict their access or reproduction, if justified.

Draft Design Law Amendments

The draft amendments include substantive and procedural enhancements:

• The IPO may request multiple types of technical drawings to be included in the application—orthographic, exploded, perspective—clearly illustrating the design’s appearance and functionality;
• The IPO may suspend proceedings for up to six months to allow parties to attempt amicable settlement, upon joint request;
• When a single application includes multiple designs, it is possible to file an opposition to one design, if the challenged design is appropriately identified;
• Franchise registration has been excluded due to its limited applicability and the absence of a harmonized regulatory framework; and
• Design disputes must be initiated within one year of the administrative decision and concluded at first instance within six months, while interim relief decisions have to be rendered within 30 days.

Draft Patent Law

Key changes include:

• Alignment with Directive 98/44/EC (on biotech inventions), Regulation 469/2009 (SPCs for medicinal products), Regulation 1610/96 (SPCs for plant protection products), and Regulation 816/2006 (compulsory licenses for pharmaceutical exports);
• Introduction of SPCs for pharmaceuticals and plant protection products, including provisions on pediatric extensions;
• Compulsory licenses for the manufacture of patented medicines for export to countries with insufficient manufacturing capacity;
• Simplified registration-based system for utility models, without substantive examination, analogous to German and Turkish practice; and
• Paris Convention and exhibition-based priority rights, along with a possibility of restoring priority rights under strict conditions, if deadlines were missed despite due care.

Once the new rules take effect, the system will be clearer, more reliable, and better aligned with international practices, helping to attract investment, support trade, and encourage innovation. IP rights holders active in the region or managing global IP portfolios are strongly encouraged to review the proposed changes and prepare accordingly.

Prepared by: Berina Prolaz

For more information, please contact Berina Prolaz at our Bosnian office.