OUR TEAM

FORINPRO’s team will assist you in using appropriate kinds of intellectual property rights for protecting your creations, providing you with the exclusive rights of exploitation of your creations as your most valuable assets.

The staff at FORONPRO have an extensive individual and collective experience in providing services in the field of intellectual property rights not only in Croatia, but also internationally.

In the present reputation of FORINPRO the extraordinary achievements as well as wide expertise and long experience in the field of intellectual property rights of Mr. Nikola Kopčić, MSEE, have been built in for more than a decade.

 

Nikola Kopčić

More than 35 years of his professional life Mr Kopčić has devoted to intellectual property rights, not only assisting clients during the past decade while working in FORINPRO, but also establishing and developing the national IPR System, for which his basic engineering education and experience in the intellectual property rights acqisition and exploitation, have been an ideal combination. 

 

Specific professional experience of Mr Kopčić covers a fine collection of elements, such as follows.




Before engagement in FORINPRO, Mr Kopčić was Director General of the State Intellectual Property Office of the Republic of Croatia, in the period 06/1992 to 01/2003;

  • In the capacity of the Director General of the State Intellectual Property Office of the Republic of Croatia, Mr. Kopčić created the Office from scratch, organised the Office, recruited staff, defined procedures and established approximation of the Office to self financing.
  • Designed the national IP System, harmonised with TRIPS and EU directives/regulations, based on 6 new laws (Patent; Trademark; Industrial Designs; Protection of Layout - Designs of Integrated Circuits; Protection of Geographical Indications of Products & Services; Copyright) adopted by the Croatian Assembly in 1999.
  • Managed and coordinated legal drafting of the above-mentioned laws and regulations.
  • For drafting and implementation of the legal framework, organized regular consultations and exchanges of views with relevant enforcement institutions (customs authorities, inspection bodies, law enforcement organizations), as well as potential right holders.
  • Presented the new patent law to the specialised IPR enforcement organisations in Croatia, with a view to raise their capacities in performing their activities.
  • Managed the Office staff (nearly 100 persons), supervised and co-ordinated the Office's technical work, organised and monitored administrative & logistic activities;
  • Participated in the Diplomatic Conferences organized by WIPO in the period.
  • Participated in all the government bodies and committees dealing with intellectual property organized by WIPO.
  • As member of Croatian delegation participated in accession negotiations of the Republic of Croatia to the WTO;
  • Delivered a number of presentations on the establishment and functioning of the Croatian IP System and visited many national IP Offices: Australia, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Macedonia, Moldova, Russian Federation, Singapore, Slovak Republic, USA;
  • Active participation with presentations in the work of the series of WIPO Symposia on development of management of industrial property or intellectual property offices in countries of transition, being held in Berlin, Dubrovnik, and Kishinev.

Since 01/2003 to date Mr Kopčić has been working for FORINPRO in the capacity of IPR consultant and Office team leader, but at the same time, on contract bases, was working for implementation of some IPR-Project in various countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina (twice), Saudi Arabia and Kosovo.
In the period: 02/2013 – 01/2015, EU – funded IPR Project in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the capacity of Deputy team leader;

Within the actual EU-funded 2-years IPR project: “Support to the institutions within the System of the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina”started in April this year, Mr. Kopčić has been engaged in the capacity of the deputy team leader performing three components:

  • Strengthening capacities of IPR enforcement authorities in BiH;
  • Improving cooperation among institutions within the system of IPR enforcement, and
  • Awareness raising activities.

In the period: between 06/2009 to 04/2010 one mission in Saudi Arabia, in the capacity of IPR Consultant;

Within the project “Further Support to the General Directorate of Industrial Property (GDIP) of Saudi Arabia” regularly met with GDIP's higher management as well the Heads of all Directorates and provided advice in the following topics:

  • Strategic advice to the GDIP's higher management;
  • Human resources management and development;
  • Review of the GDIP organisation and further development;
  • Management policies, procedures and instruments;

In the period: 09/2007 to 09/2009, EU funded IPR Project in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the capacity of Deputy Team Leader & Enforcement Expert;

Within the EU-funded project: “Capacity Building in Protection of IPR in BiH” project, Mr Kopčć was directly active as a Deputy Team Leader in performing with the Team Leader all project tasks and activities, which included:

  • Providing assistance in building Institute’s managerial capacity, including: assistance to the management of the BiH IP Institute in drafting a Policy Paper/Strategy; implementing the functional analysis of the Institute; identifying training needs; preparing and providing tailored introductory and advanced training and study tours on IP to the Institute's management and staff;
  • Providing assistance in upgrading the existing legal framework; drafting new laws in order to meet TRIPS and SAA requirements: Law on Copyright and Related Rights, Law on Collective Management of Copyright and Related Rights, Law on Patents; Law on Trademarks; Law on Industrial Designs; Law on Geographical Indications; amendments to existing Criminal law;
  • Drafting internal directives for the BiH IP Institute; establishing a data room and PATLIB Centre; publishing the BiH IP Journal with electronic access, and a website for the BiH IP Institute.
  • Implementing awareness raising activities;

In the period of 01/2003 to 06/2004, EU – funded Project, in Kosovo 6 short-term missions, in the capacity of Intellectual Property System Expert;

Within the “Support to the Prime Minister’s Office in Kosovo” project (component “Development of a modern IPR System compatible with EU and international standards” ):

  • Provided advice to the top-government officials on the establishment of the Intellectual/Industrial property protection system in Kosovo.
  • Prepared the Industrial Property Strategy for Kosovo. (Legislation, Institution/Office, Local Beneficiaries/Users);
  • Drafted the Patent Law . including enforcement norms (later adopted by the Kosovo Assembly);
  • Delivered training and capacity building . to the ad hoc Working Group on various topics including the concept of new patent law. to be drafted and tailored to the needs of Kosovo. The presentation covered patent application, publication, granting, maintenance and enforcement. The Working Group was composed of representatives of all the institutions in IPR protection and enforcement).

In the period 09/1980 to 03/1991, head of Industrial Property and Technology Transfer (IPR&TT) Department in Institute of Electrical Engineering of KONČAR company (approx. 25.000 employees at that time), Zagreb, Croatia;

Managed the Department in charge of the company’s Industrial Property Rights Portfolio as well as acquiring and granting technology for the whole company. In addition:

  • Participated as Deputy - representative of the Republic of Croatia to the Federal Council of the Federal Industrial Property Office (FIPO) of the former Yugoslavia.
  • Acquired, maintained and enforced the company’s IPR Portfolio, and liaised with FIPO.
  • Participated in publicly opened discussions on the Federal Industrial Property Law.
  • Delivered IPR-support by taking part in initiating, performing and implementing R&D projects and providing advice on patent searches and studying patent literature.
  • Drafted patent applications together with inventors and filed them for national and international protection;
  • Supervised technology transfer for the company (acquiring and granting). Personally in charge of IPR aspects.
  • As the member of the negotiation teams for granting KONČAR – technology, Mr. Kopčić visited companies in Alger (lifts), Argentina (power transformers) Brazil (mining equipment), Egypt (household equipment) GB (welding equipment), USA (asynchronous motors);

In the period 09/1970 to 09/1980 03/1991, R&D processes in the KONČAR – Institute of Electrical Engineering;

  • Research and development in the field of electrical low-voltage appliances in many R&D projects.
  • Used industrial property in the R&D processes, first of all patent information, to be aware of the Competitive technical solutions in the world and for protection of company’s technical processes through patents;
  • Patent searches and patent literature studying so as to avoid infringements of existing patents, to get informed on ideas for new solutions and to prepare requests for patents protection.
  • Participated and giving patent expert advice in cases of attacking and cancellation of patent licences.