SERBIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Stevan Pajović, Tamara Simić Pajović, Medo Zornić and Jelena Stoljiljković, T-S Legal
both material and non-material damages. Further- more, upon establishing a likelihood of infringement, the court may grant preliminary injunctions to imme- diately prohibit acts that constitute a violation or a serious threat to the right, ensuring prompt protection before the final resolution of the dispute. 7.4 Enforcement Against AI-Enabled Infringement Status of Judicial Precedent in Digital Matters The judicial landscape in Serbia regarding complex digital rights and the liability of online platforms is still in an early stage of development. While the Law on Copyright and Related Rights and the Law on Elec- tronic Commerce provide a basic legal framework, there is a notable lack of consistent and highly spe- cialised judicial practice concerning emerging tech- nologies. Serbian courts have limited experience in dealing with nuanced disputes involving automated content recognition systems, the specific liability of hosting service providers for AI-generated infringe- ments, or the enforcement of rights in decentralised digital environments. Challenges in Practical Application The current approach of the judiciary remains large- ly traditional, focusing primarily on classic forms of copyright infringement. Consequently, legal certainty for businesses operating in the digital sphere is often sought through conservative interpretations of existing statutes rather than established case law. This under- developed practice means that many legal questions regarding the intersection of intellectual property and new digital services have yet to be tested in higher courts, leading to a reliance on legal theory and com- parative regional perspectives rather than domestic precedents. Future Outlook and Legal Certainty As the Serbian market continues to integrate into the European digital economy, it is expected that the number of disputes involving digital assets and plat- form liability will increase. However, until the domes- tic courts establish a more robust body of case law, businesses must navigate a landscape where legal outcomes can be difficult to predict. This environment underscores the importance of preventive legal strat- egies and meticulously drafted contractual terms to
mitigate risks that have not yet been clearly addressed by the Serbian judiciary.
8. Intersections and Overlaps 8.1 Choice of Protection and Strategic Considerations In Serbia, the choice between different forms of intel- lectual property protection, especially patents and trade secrets, is mainly a strategic business decision. A patent is typically preferred when an invention can be disclosed without losing competitive advantage, when a strong exclusive right for up to 20 years is needed, when the invention is likely to be easily reverse-engineered, or when an IP asset is required for investors, licensing, or valuation purposes. Trade secret protection is more appropriate when the value lies in secrecy itself, when the information is difficult to independently discover, when access can be effectively controlled through confidentiality meas- ures, and when the right holder prefers potentially unlimited protection without disclosure. The most important factors influencing this choice include the risk of reverse engineering, speed of market entry, cost and complexity of patenting, the requirement of disclosure in patents versus secrecy in trade secrets, and industry practice, where phar- maceuticals usually rely on patents, software often relies on trade secrets, food recipes are kept secret, and mechanical inventions are commonly patented. 8.2 Cumulative and Overlapping Protection Serbian law allows a significant degree of cumula- tive and overlapping intellectual property protection over the same subject matter. This means that a single product or feature may be protected simultaneously under different IP regimes, such as patents and trade secrets at different stages, trademarks and industrial designs, or copyright and design protection in cases of applied art. Trade dress protection is usually achieved through a combination of trademark law and unfair competition rules.
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