Our Founding Partner Bogdan Gecić and Partner | Head of Corporate/M&A Ognjen Colić spoke with the Managing Editor of the preeminent regional legal publication CEE Legal Matters which invited Gecić Law as a leading regional law firm to take part in its featured interview published in the December edition dedicated to the Western Balkans. They talked about the importance of ESG in the region, the firm’s new practice area and its unique approach to advising clients in the field. Gecić Law recently became the first independent law firm in the region to expand into the area of Environmental, Social & […]
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“Business, after all, is nothing more than a bunch of human relationships.” Lee Iacocca Whenever people talk about Environmental, Social & Governance (’’ESG’’), the environmental part always seems to draw all the attention. The importance of the “S” element is often neglected. However, it looks like COVID-19 along with the Great Resignation phenomenon have changed that, making social issues increasingly relevant. The “S” stands for the social part of the ESG concept and simply put, it deals with businesses’ relations with employees, suppliers, customers, and communities in which it operates. Basically, the “S” is all about the way businesses treat […]
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The National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia adopted the Amendments to the Patent Act (“Amendments“) on December 8, 2021. The Act seeks to harmonize local protection of inventions regulations with those of the European Union. It also looks to eliminate certain shortcomings that have been identified in the application of the existing Patent Act. Therefore, the most important changes relate to the supplementary protection certificate and the protection of inventions through a utility model system. The changes will have a significant impact on the Serbian pharmaceutical industry and potentially incentivize investments by domestic entities. These changes seek to eliminate […]
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We were honored to take part in the conference titled “Economic Integration of the Western Balkans – Economic Relations between Serbia and Slovenia”, organized by the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and the Slovenian Institute for Strategic Solutions (slo. Inštitut za strateške rešitve), held on Wednesday, February 2 at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Belgrade. The main topic of the event was improving business cooperation in the region, especially between Serbia and Slovenia. Representatives of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, the Institute for Strategic and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia addressed the delegates and analyzed the key indicators which […]
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Our Senior Associate Miodrag Jevtić had a live guest appearance in the central news program of Euronews Serbia yesterday. He was invited to speak about class action lawsuits and their specific status in Serbian law, especially as they could apply to the protection of consumer rights, an area that has lately seen significant public interest in a number of different instances. Miodrag explained the concept of class action lawsuits and their potential advantages, particularly in leveling the playing field for consumers facing large companies who have infringed upon their rights. He also pointed out that class action lawsuits could help […]
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The European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly stated on Friday that text messages between EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the CEO of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer are documents the public should have access to. O’Reilly’s opinion indicates that the Commission mishandled a request for public access to these messages, which concern the EU’s purchase of COVID 19 vaccines from the manufacturer. The European Commission had earlier denied a request made on 4 May 2021 via Access Info’s AsktheEU.org platform by Alexander Fanta, a journalist with netzpolitik.org. Access Info’s platform enables citizens of the EU direct access to public information. The […]
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Environmental awareness has been a pressing topic for decades. In the past, international treaties were signed to put words into action. One of these key treaties was the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The reasoning behind this protocol was evident; countries needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (“GHG”). Back in 2008, Serbia had ratified this agreement and prescribed mandatory targets for the reduction of harmful emissions in the period between 2008-2012. The Amendment from Doha confirmed the second binding period of the Kyoto Protocol, between 2013-2020, including new obligations in GHG emissions reduction. However, perhaps the most crucial treaty was the Paris […]
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The Global Gateway initiative was unveiled on December 1, 2021, as a strategy of the European Union (“EU”) to support sustainable infrastructure development around the world. The EU is planning to invest EUR 300 billion over five years. The European Commission pitched the Global Gateway as a template for how Europe aims to build more resilient connections across the globe. The Global Gateway is about increasing investment, promoting values and high standards, good governance and transparency, partnerships based on equality, green, clean, secure infrastructure, but also catalyzing and supporting private sector investment in new markets as part of the Global […]
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We recently won the Oscars of the legal world! Gecić Law was named the top legal firm in the 150-million-strong SEE market at The Lawyer European Awards 2021, placing our firm among the crème de la crème of the European legal market. Gecić Law was the only law firm from the former Yugoslavia and the Western Balkans to be shortlisted for the award and the first firm ever to be awarded the coveted prize in the new category covering the dynamic regional market. This is a truly remarkable achievement for our team. The news of the award going to a […]
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Technological development influenced capital markets far more than expected in the last decade. Decentralized currencies, central bank digital currencies and digital tokens are all huge news in the world of finance. And so are stablecoins. What are stablecoins and how do they “work”? Stablecoins are a unique kind of decentralized digital assets, developed to “bring the best of both worlds”. They have all the characteristics of decentralized currencies but also solve the problems of volatility and uncertainty. That makes them similar to centralized currencies. Stablecoins are unique because they are backed by real reserves. They are either backed by fiat […]
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