Ostoja Rajic, inventor and owner of Genijalac In - Innovations can create jobs for thousands of people in Serbia

(Ostoja Rajic)

Only a small number of inventions in Serbia are protected although the innovation potential in the country is constantly growing, and there are no competitive products in the market without the application of innovations. Why is it that domestic patents draw more attention abroad than in Serbia, and why do they stay hidden from the public for years, and sometimes even for decades? Does the state find it complicated to deal with innovations although it could benefit from them on many different levels? Is it maybe because we think that everything coming from abroad is better than ours, or because we find it difficult to accept something new and unknown? It often happens that certain technical inventions enter our country from abroad although they were offered to the Serbian market few years earlier, but nobody recognized their potential at the time.

One of the inventors who still "fight" for the recognition of their inventions by the Serbian market is Ostoja Rajic. Most of his patents are related to the energy sector - renewable energy sources, electricity generation, turning sea water into drinking water, environment-friendly electrical heaters, gas-saving radiators, etc. His inventions saved millions of schillings and marks to the companies he worked for in Austria and Germany. This mechanical engineer from Novi Banovci has been granted over 200 patents to date, and he plans to present all of them in a book.

- I've been granted many patents for my inventions in the field of energy, primarily for the inventions related to renewable energy sources. Turning sea water into drinking water, and producing salt and electricity in the process, is one of them. That project involves the use of a solar heat battery in the process of turning sea water into steam, thus separating sea salt from drinking water, whereas steam is used to turn a turbine producing electricity - Rajic explains for eKapija.

Our interlocutor points out that he cannot speak much about individual inventions because someone could steal his idea if he told everything he knew.

- It is very difficult to succeed in Serbia by making inventions. I've patented an invention that is now being produced by my company - Genijalac In. It is a very small energy-saving rapid water heater. If the production was bigger, many people would get a job. Also, I have invented a system called Serbian bath – a faucet heating and magnetizing the water, but its mass production has not started yet - Rajic explains.

He has founded the Union of Inventors of Serbia and Diaspora in order to connect our inventors in different parts of the world, as well as to help them make a contact with investors.

- We were first organized as an association, and then we registered with the Business Registers Agency. Our plan is to open an office in each region in Serbia to work on connecting inventors with investors. Not all inventions are patented because taxes are quite high, and if a patent fails to enter the market, the inventor has nothing but costs. I have been advocating free patents for inventions and no tax for the period of 10 years. Inventors are real employers because they always offer new products. Why is it then that the state does not grant incentives to our employers for hiring workers in the same way it gives that money to foreigners.

S.O.