On 26th September 2019 the Law on Amendments to the Serbian Law on Patents came into force.

At the Fifteenth extraordinary session in the Eleventh convocation, on July 26th, 2019, the National Parliament of the Republic of Serbia rendered the Act on amendments of and supplements to the Act on execution and ensuring settlement (“RS Official Journal”, No. 54/2019, hereinafter referred to as: „the Act“). The Act shall become effective as of the 8th (eighth) day following its publication in the Official Journal, and shall be applicable as of January 1st, 2020.

BDK and Clifford Chance advised the EBRD, IFC, and the Development Bank of Austria on financing for a waste management public-private partnership project in the Vinca district of Belgrade. The City of Belgrade was advised by Hogan Lovells and Karanovic & Partners, with Karanovic & Partners also advising the IFC on the matter.

Motieka & Audzevicius has advised Petstart UAB on its exit from a joint venture with a Romanian PET packaging waste company. The buyer was advised by Karanovic & Partners.

Former Zivkovic Samardzic Partner and Deputy Head of Dispute Resolution Marko Trisic has left the firm to establish his own.

Bojanovic & Partners has advised Barry-Wehmiller on the acquisition of 60% of the shares in Serbia's STAX Technologies. DLA Piper advised Barry-Wehmiller on the transaction as well.

Former JTG Law Partner Nikola Gvoic has joined Bojanovic & Partners as Partner and Head of Labor and Employment.

Bojanovic & Partners has helped GTT Communications obtain a license to perform electronic communications activities in the area of public communications networks and Internet services from the regulatory telecommunications agency of Serbia.

JPM is assisting Serbia's Institute for Molecular Genetics and Genetics Engineering with its implementation of the Balkan Genome Project.

IT company AIGO has hired Milica Topic as its Manager of Department for Legal and Personnel Affairs in Belgrade.

CMS has advised the Slovenian branch of Sberbank on the financial restructuring of loans to Serbian companies Dijamant AD and Kikindski Mlin AD amounting to EUR 20 million.

Prica & Partners Co-Head of Competition, Tijana Lalic, has been promoted to Partner at the Serbian firm.

Zivkovic Samardzic has helped Halkbank a.d. Beograd, a subsidiary of Turkish Halkbank, harmonize its operations with the new Law on Personal Data Protection, including reviewing relevant internal documents and policies and drafting new ones, where necessary.

BDK Advokati has advised Tvornica Duhana Rovinj, a member of the British American Tobacco Group, on the sale of its 25% stake in Veletabak, a Serbian tobacco products wholesaler, to Authoritas, giving Authoritas full ownership of the company. Marovic Law firm advised Authoritas on the deal.

When it first appeared, the compliance field seemed little more than “regulatory” in new clothes – a fancy name for making sure a company stayed within the ambit of provisions set out in the laws of a country. As time passed, however, more and more companies started treating compliance as a practice in its own right, and as a field of law … that is much more than just law. Compliance became an area of interest not only to seasoned lawyers, but also to scholars, consultants, and in-house counsels – all levels of legal practice became aware of its significance.

At the beginning of April 2019, the Serbian Parliament adopted the new Law on Healthcare Protection (the “Law”), with the aim of improving the legal framework and facilitate better functioning of the healthcare system in Serbia, aligning it more closely to EU standards in this field.

According to JPM Senior Partner Jelena Gazivoda, Serbian law firms are doing well these days. "We are all very busy these past few months, which is good,” she says. "Notwithstanding the fact that there are different comments in newspapers, we are not really feeling any bad signs. In fact, we are all participating in some significant transactions, making us really busy.”

JPM Jankovic Popovic Mitic has advised C.D Holding Internationale SAS on its entrance into a partnership with the current owners of Serbia's Emergo Sport d.o.o.