The non-material damages for trademark infringement: Compensatory or punitive damages?

In 2020, the Parliament of the Republic of Serbia adopted the new Law on Trademarks. One of the biggest changes that occurred on that occasion was the introduction of compensation for non-material damages due to trademark infringement. Ever since the adoption of the Law on Trademarks in 1996, there has been a dispute between legal theorists, who advocate the traditional restitutive nature of compensation for trademark infringement, and the legislation of the Republic of Serbia, which, under pressure from multinational companies, seeks to introduce punitive damages into the law of the Republic of Serbia. The author tries to contribute to this discussion by analyzing the newly introduced compensation for non-material damages due to trademark infringement, trying to check whether the punitive damages are actually awarded through compensation for non-material damages. In this paper, the author investigates the arguments pro and con compensation for non-material damages due to trademark infringement, using historical and comparative methods. After that, he tries to explain the object of trademark protection, in order to determine whether it is really non-material in nature. The results of this investigation should explain whether it is justified to award compensation for non-material damage due to trademark infringement, as well as whether the nature of the newly introduced compensation for non-material damage due to trademark infringement represents yet another form of punitive damages.