On the occasion of the World Intellectual Property Day, the Centre for Civic Education (CCE) is pointing out that the development of every society, especially a small one such as the Montenegrin, is based on promoting intellectual property, while commitment to intellectual work, science and innovation must be institutionally supported.
We are witnessing for more than a year the arduous process of finding coronavirus vaccine, which proves that without the development of science, humanity would be seriously jeopardized. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we became aware of the importance of intellectual property and its development. Scientists and innovators need to be developed, fostered and stimulated in various manners for better results, because the results of their work are crucial in developmental change.
In this context, the academic community should be a pillar of the development of an intellectual society that opens space for true scientists and develops mechanisms for enforcing sanctions against all forms of dishonour. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Montenegro, so we have a situation where some members of the Ethics Committee of the state university are charged by students for violating academic honour and violating academic integrity, instead of preventing such phenomena or prosecuting them urgently. The CCE reminds that the first criminal prosecution on determining the plagiarism of the Professor at the Law Faculty of the University of Montenegro, Bojana Lakićević Đuranović, which could be a lesson to the academic and scientific community, has not been terminated yet.
The fact that we have not had a single professor emeritus from a state university for almost a decade is worrying and should be one of the indicators of the quality of higher education in Montenegro. The question arises as to how the university can be better ranked in the world rankings without solid stuff that has not deserved this title for so long. On the other hand, we have the creation of an illusory academic authority through manipulative manners of creating an image of an extraordinarily quoted cadre.
The silence of the academic community about fundamental problems and running away from public discourse lasts too long, thus leaving intellectual property marginalized. The media often justifiably complain that members of the academic community avoid being interlocutors, which calls into question the quality of such an academic community.
CCE will continue to critically address these issues, in the hope that it will have a positive impact on the academic community, authorities and the public, because without respect for academic integrity, there is not and cannot be the improvement of education and science nor the protection of intellectual property.
World Intellectual Property Day is marked annually on 26 April, as established by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 2001, to raise awareness of the importance of intellectual property and contributions made by creators and innovators to the development of mankind.
Snežana Kaluđerović, Senior Legal Advisor