Protection of endangered intangible assets specific insight into the role of the law

• Main Author: Stajić Ljubomir
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Law 2011-01-01
• Series: Zbornik Radova: Pravni Fakultet u Novom Sadu
• Subjects: security; protection of property; corporations security; business
• Online Access: http://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/0550-2179/2011/0550-21791103239S.pdf

There will always be states and corporations that will want and try to appropriate possessions of others without any intellectual or financial investments. Such a 'theft' is made easier by the fact that the owners of a certain property either have no awareness of its significance or tend to neglect the threats of a potential theft. For those, who naively believe that they don't possess property which will be 'attacked' by someone, and they don't want to know that it should be protected, and how to protect it, but the moment of sobering will be the moment of destruction. It is often wrongly assumed that intangible assets includes only brands, patents, information and similar. According to modern interpretations the intangible assets includes also the summary of knowledge, skills and experiences of the employees. In the Republic of Serbia also much more attention is paid to physical and technical protection of the material than of the intangible assets. In percentage terms the protection of employees, proprietors and owners as well as protection of business is so small that it is almost nonexistent. By analyzing historical data it has been decided that protection had always been behind the theft methods. It can also be concluded that the protection used to be efficient only for a limited and relatively short period of time. The problems of protection today lies in the fact that, being non-material, intangible assets does not actually need to be physically stolen so that the number of modalities of thefts and appropriation in different ways has considerably increased. Its protection today means adoption of such a massive protective system which, quite often, exceeds the capabilities of the owner. The significance of the intangible assets protection is best confirmed by the fact that is has been regulated in numerous multilateral as well as bilateral conventions and agreements. The law, actually, emerges as the basis, method and limitation of the intangible assets protection. Therefore, apart from being a special method, the law has been incorporated into many other methods of protection. This paper includes principles, pre-requirements of prevention end methods of protection of intangible assets as well as a specific insight into the role and significance of the law.