In 1440 Johannes Gutenber from Germany found the printing machine. That event was a spark that ignited the fire of interest in protecting the rights of inventors and authors in general. In 1469 the government of Venice gave the exclusive right to John of Speyer, the first printer, to be the only one allowed to “print letters”. Shortly afterwards, in 1474, the Venetian Law was enacted, which is considered to be the first systematic approach to the protection of an invention in the form of a patent, giving the inventor the exclusive right to dispose of the benefits of its use. The English monopoly law from 1624 was the first law that provided a monopoly on an invention with a limited duration. In 1710 in the United Kingdom, the Anne Act was passed, extending the right to print books to the authors  not just to the printers. The words invention and patent first appeared in a constitution in 1788. Namely, the US Constitution of that year speaks of inventions and exclusive rights for creators. It was translated into the first Patent Law in 1790. Immediately afterwards, as a result of the French bourgeois revolution, in France in 1791 the first patent law was passed. In 1877 Germany adopted the first patent law which precisely defined the conditions for granting a patent.

The refusal of many inventors to attend the first World Exhibition of Inventions in Vienna in 1873, due to the lack of an international system of protection of inventions, initiated the signing of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (1883). It was signed by only 12 countries including the young Kingdom of Serbia. The convention guaranteed  the same rights to the patent owners in all territories that they’d wished to be protected. Industrial property means the ownership of patent rights, trademarks, industrial designs and geographical names. For similar reasons, to guarantee copyrights in different countries, three years later, in 1886 the Berne Convention for Protection of Literary and Artistic Works was concluded. These include works in the field of literature, science, works of painters, performers, phonograms, shows… Works that belong to industrial property and copyright and related works are collectively called intellectual property.

The Paris and Bern Conventions are the base, and today there are more than fifty international conventions and agreements, which specify protection in accordance with the progress in the scientific, technological and artistic development of mankind. Their administration is most often carried out by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

On April 24, 1992, the Ministry of Development of the Republic of Macedonia took over the competencies related to the protection of industrial property and from that date applications for protection of industrial property began to be submitted. The Macedonian Law on Protection of Industrial Property entered into force on 15.07.1993 but the Republic of Macedonia has been considered a member of WIPO since 08.09.1991. The first director of the Institute for Protection of Industrial Property was appointed on November 26, 1993, after which, on December 1, 1993. The Office for Protection of Industrial Property was established. Later, the Office changed its name to the Bureau of IP Protection, and later to the State Office of Industrial Property.

This year, the World Organization WIPO celebrates IP Day with the motto “Helping Smaller Businesses Thrive”.

Happy Intellectual Property Day – April 26!