"Ideas and knowledge are an increasingly important part of trade. Most of the value of new medicines and other high technology products lies in the amount of invention, innovation, research, design and testing involved. Creators must be entitled to protect their inventions so that nobody else can use their intellectual property", stated Johann Hesse, Head of Section for Economic Development, Trade and Natural Resources of the European Commission Delegation to BiH, at the Final Conference of the EU funded CARDS Project "Capacity Building in Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina" which took place on 9 September 2009 in Sarajevo.

The project was launched on 17 September 2007 and lasted for two years with the local expert team situated at the facilities of the BiH Institute for Intellectual Property in Mostar. The European Union provided 1.5 million € for this project.

Mr. Hesse underlined that the project focused on the capacity building of the BiH Institute for Intellectual Property as well as improvement of the intellectual property legislation.

Results achieved during the implementation of the project were presented at the Final Conference, as well as the Development Strategy of the BiH Institute for Intellectual Property.

"We have prepared the Strategy until 2015 and it will be adopted by the BiH Council of Ministers. This Strategy includes both short-term and long-term tasks and it is our obligation to implement them. The first thing that we are going to implement is the establishment of a Council which will consider issues related to intellectual property. This is the best way to achieve a faster communication between the Institute and all other related subjects and institutions. It will enable us identify the problems in the institutions and resolve them within the Council" stated Lidija Vignjević, Director of the BiH Institute for Intellectual Property.

Slobodan Marković, Team Leader of the EUIPR project underlined the importance of the regional cooperation.

"The Project was implemented with assistance and cooperation of the Institutions for Intellectual Property in Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia. The study trips enabled us solve the problems in a faster manner and their support was necessary in the implementation of this project ", stated Marković.