“Mediation in the World of Patents, Trademarks and Copyright”

Created by: DZIV

An expert meeting titled “Mediation in the World of Patents, Trademarks and Copyright”, co-organised by the State Intellectual Property Office (hereinafter: the Office), the Croatian Mediation Association (HUM) and the Croatian Chamber of Patent Representatives and Representatives for Trademarks was held in Zagreb on 23 March, 2026.

In the opening speech, Ljiljana Kuterovac, Director General of the Office, emphasised the role and the importance of amicable resolution of disputes and briefly presented the institutional framework that enables the resolution of disputes in the field of intellectual property through mediation, conciliation or various forms of specialised arbitration, both at the national, European and international levels. It was emphasised that the new Mediation Act (OG 27/2026) has just been adopted, which further creates conditions for amicable dispute resolution in Croatia and facilitates access to mediation as an appropriate and efficient dispute resolution procedure.

This was followed by a panel discussion led by an attorney and mediator, Albina Dlačić, and the discussion was attended by the president of HUM and the judge of the High Commercial Court of the Republic of Croatia, Srđan Šimac, an attorney, mediator and coach of mediators, Mladen Vukmir, and Marija Šiša Hrlić, Head of Section for Copyright and Related Rights and the enforcement of intellectual property rights at the Office.
The discussion highlighted that the Croatian citizens have still not sufficiently recognised the advantages of amicable dispute resolution and that citizens still prefer to turn to regular courts to resolve disputes.

Amicable dispute resolution procedures are based on voluntariness and procedural cooperation of the parties; they are confidential in nature and carried out faster and more efficiently than court proceedings. This method of dispute resolution is applicable in civil, commercial, labour, family and other disputes about rights that the parties can freely dispose of.

By their nature, disputes in the field of intellectual property rights are suitable for resolution in the mediation process, such as disputes related to violations of contractual relationships related to the use of trademarks, industrial designs or copyrights, disputes related to license agreements in the field of patents, protection of trade secrets, etc.

Mediation enables the parties to reach an amicable solution to the dispute with the help of a mediator as a neutral person who leads the process and helps the parties to reach a solution. At the same time, the mediator does not have the authority to resolve the case, and the parties themselves voluntarily define the full scope of the mediation, so it can include other business relationships that have become disputed between the parties, all in one single procedure. This significantly reduces litigation costs and avoids complex and lengthy court proceedings.

When contractually regulating relations, the parties may enter into an agreement in advance whereby they undertake to resolve all or some future disputes through mediation.

The importance of mediators' specialisation in the field of intellectual property rights was emphasised, regardless of whether it is judicial or out-of-court mediation, given that these are often very complex cases that require special technical knowledge (for example, in the field of patents), as well as the importance of continuously informing right holders and users of the IP protection system about the advantages of amicable resolution of disputes arising in the field of intellectual property rights.

More details about the conclusions of this expert meeting can be read here.    

Datum novosti: 27/03/2026