INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND MISLEADING ADVERTISING OF DRUGS AND COSMETIC PRODUCTS IN THE REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA
Keywords:
intellectual property rights, misleading advertising, drugs, cosmetic productsAbstract
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the intellectual property rights and misleading advertising of
drugs and cosmetic products in the Republic of North Macedonia. Intellectual property rights are the currency of the
knowledge economy. They give confidence to authors, artists, designers and inventors that they will be rewarded for
successful creations and inventions, and to consumers that they are purchasing genuine products. (European
Commission, 2015). Intellectual property rights protects the work of companies, inventors and researchers .To the
consumers intellectual property provide safe and authentic products (U.S.Chamber of Commerce, 2021).The
advertising industry is sector where individual creativity and intellectual property rights have basic meaning.
Successful advertiser have to follow the legal framework (WIPO, 2005).Protection against unfair competition is part
of industrial property protection. Directive 84/450/EEC concerning misleading and comparative
advertising establishes minimum criteria for harmonizing legislation on misleading advertising, but does not prevent
measures which provide more extensive protection for consumers. Harmonization of the criteria will considerably
increase legal certainty for consumers and business. For the purpose of this study, after literature research, an online
questionnaire was prepared in order to collect information how participants reacts in IPR and misleading
advertising for drugs and cosmetic products. The answers were tabulated using Microsoft Excel®, computed and
evaluated using statistical program IBM SPSS Version 23.0. The majority of the participants in the survey think that
most often they can recognize a misleading advertisement. Only 3.19% of respondents are certain in the truthfulness
of the available advertisements. 45.05% of respondents answered that unfair competitive advertising exists, while
only 8% believe that unfair competitive advertising does not exist. When asked for which type of product categories
they believe that advertisements are misleading, 25.88% of the respondents answered that advertisements for
cosmetic products are most often misleading and 3.19% of the participants think that most often advertisement of
drugs are misleading. The findings of this study indicate the perception of people in the Republic of North
Macedonia concerning misleading and unfear competitive advertising. Further researches will be proceeded in order
to contribute to harmonization of the regulative on an international level.
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