Under the slogan "Designing the future" in Copenhagen, Denmark, from 15-th to 18-th of June, 40th annual conference of ECTA was held which and the representative of Berin Vanco Damjanski was one of the attendiies.
After one skipped as well one held under hybrid regime, in the land of advanced Nordic design, over 670 professionals in the field of trademarks, industrial designs and designation of origin, attended this important jubilee conference.
In addition to the regularcommittees meetings and the procedural report on the past working year of the organisation , the conference began with an address by the Director of the Danish Patent and Trademark Office Sune Sorensen and an introduction to current developments in WIPO and EUIPO. Educational sessions followed in which participants had the opportunity to learn about current issues in terms of data protection and usage, alternative approaches to resolving disputes and tips and tricks in protection in the fashion industry.

Additional topics that were covered and discussed at panels and educational sessions included: food and restourant bussines IP protection, as well as, the challenges and  IP considerations in drafting of cooperation contracts and of  the intellectual property rights of startups and spin-off companies in cooperation with academic institutions.
Apart from the educational part, the networking between the colleagues took place at the social events organized in several venues.
Also for the first time special event was introduced for the participants who are attending the conference for the first time in order to get acquainted with the possibility of participation in the work of the organization.
The conference ended with passing of the Presidential Medal, by the current President Mrs. Annette Rasmussen to the new President, o[Mladen Vukmir, which took place in the first European circus building Axeltorv.

The 11th Convention and Intellectual Property Fair (IF) which took place from 21-24 November 2021 in Munich (Germany) was attended by the Berin Agency with two representatives, prof. Dr. Gjorgji Filipov, EP and MK patent attorney and B.Sc. eng. Kristina чоaвскаovska, MK patent attorney. The convention was held in accordance with the measures against the spread of Covid-19. About 650 colleagues from 55 countries participated in 75 exhibition stands and in three panel sessions, of which 350 on the spot and the rest online. Over 30 speakers spoke in parallel panels, and more than 20 roundtable sessions were held.

Topics covered were: "Strengthening the culture of innovation", "Cooperation agreements - collaboration between competitors", "Patenting of artificial intelligence", "Technological monitoring in a diversified global economy", "Non-patent literature - hidden treasury", "Use machine learning and artificial intelligence in patent search and categorization "," Transformation of IP into business success", "Patent, scientific and business databases, strategic decision assistant", "State of the art in IP services: Technological differences", "The Future of IS" and many others. The Berin representatives were ones of the few from the region of Southeast Europe.

At the panel session "New Paradigm for a New Decade: "Integrated Management for the Life Cycle of IS" and at the round table" End-to-End IP Management - an Insight into Integrations, APIs and Cloud Based Blended Analytics", with its oral presentation ( intervention) participated and prof. Filipov. In the first session, he highlighted the fact that interest in the add-on (SPC) certification is growing rapidly, hence the IP lifecycle management software needs to undergo the patent quadrant "Low attractiveness of the technology area / Obsolete protection" of the patents, which should be abandoned if they are in the field of "pharmacy". In the second session, Filipov stressed the need to give time for the transformation of IP management software in the classical sense (own server, computer, CD or USB) and the insistence of the latest generation of engineers, everything to be based on the Cloud (Google, Amazon, Microsoft and so on). He believes that a hybrid cloud should be used first, where it is allowed to store certain (important for the company and its customers) data in its physical IT infrastructure, while using the services of public "clouds" mentioned earlier.

The Convention was attended by IP directors from BMW, Siemens, Vodafone, CeramTec, Infineon Technologies, Philips, Rheinmetall ABP, Hitachi, Atlas Copco, Danish Patent And Trademark Office, Nordic Patent Institute, Swiss Federal Institute of IP, Hoffman-La Roche and others. companies, as well as representatives of the largest IP companies in the world (Clarivate, Dennemeyer, Questel). The highlight of the event was the performance of Mrs. Ellen Lohr, a fast car racer, participant in the Rally Dakar, former German DTM champion, who spoke on "Successful coping with permanent crises", alluding to the crisis in which we are all forced to work , and we in the field of IP, often repeating the statement - "Success is not a random product."

From November 8-10, 2021 The 42nd edition of MAKINOVA was held, the International Exhibition of Inventions, Innovations, New Technologies and Products, Technical Advances, Industrial Design, Trademarks, Youth Research and Creativity, as well as the 19th edition of ECONOVA, International Exhibition of Innovations, inventions and ideas aimed at promoting environmental innovation.

The Intellectual Property Agency BERIN has traditionally taken part in both events. Namely, B.Sc. Eng. Kristina Chachovska from the Patent Department of the BERIN Agency, was a member of the jury, which this year evaluated the exhibits on line (virtually).

The awards ceremony took place on November 17, 2021. in hotel Continental, where the two representatives from BERIN, Kristina Chachovska and Bogoljub Ilievski, presented the special awards from BERIN for the most successful participants in the category "young participants".

In the category "MAKINOVA 2021" - Young participants, the award from BERIN was taken by Martin Milchevski and Luka Damjanov from SETUGS "Mihaljo Pupin" - Skopje, under the mentorship of Professor Daniela Sandeva, for the project "LUMA-Ergonomic chair".

In the category "EKONOVA 2021" - Young participants, the award from BERIN went to Gala Arsovska from OSTU "Natse Bugјoni" - Kumanovo, who under the mentorship of Professor Slavica Karanikic, developed the project "Natural protection of bees from parasites".

The organizer of the two manifestations "Narodna Tehnika" awarded Acknowledgments to BERIN, for the long-term support of both manifestations, and to Kristina чоaвскаovska, for participation in the jury.