IT law in Bosnia and Herzegovina (IT Law Business): software contracts, data protection and electronic business

Author: Azur Prnjavorac, attorney at law and mediator · Last updated: 5 September 2026

IT Law Business is a term of recent legal practice, in the world and in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the widest sense the term denotes the sum of the legal institutes and transactions in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT). The popular names that explain it in more detail are computer law, internet law and software law. The work of Law Office Prnjavorac in these modern legal disciplines consists of the legal services that are in practice called IT Law Business: the contracts on which a software or IT-service business rests, the handling of personal data, electronic business and the protection and enforcement of rights in the ICT sector, all within the commercial and corporate law practice of the office.

What IT law covers in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina has no single “IT law”. The legal relations of the ICT sector are governed by the general rules of contract law, by the regulations on personal data, on electronic signature and electronic business, on copyright and trade marks, and on consumer protection, and by the commercial and tax regulations that apply to every company. IT law is therefore a practice rather than a single statute: it consists of applying those regulations to software, data, networks and digital services. The regulations that matter most are:

• the Law on Obligations, which governs software development, maintenance, licence and service contracts as contracts of general contract law, including the licence contract as a named contract,
• the Law on the Protection of Personal Data of BiH (Official Gazette of BiH, nos. 49/06, 76/11 and 89/11), with the Personal Data Protection Agency of BiH as the supervisory authority,
• the Law on Electronic Signature of BiH (Official Gazette of BiH, no. 91/06) and the Law on Electronic Legal and Business Transactions of BiH (Official Gazette of BiH, no. 88/07), together with the entity regulations on electronic document and electronic business,
• the Law on Copyright and Related Rights of BiH (Official Gazette of BiH, no. 63/10), under which computer programs are protected as works of authorship, and the Law on Trade Mark of BiH (Official Gazette of BiH, no. 53/10),
• the Law on Consumer Protection of BiH (Official Gazette of BiH, nos. 25/06 and 88/15) for distance contracts and online sales to consumers,
• the company, tax and foreign-exchange regulations of the entities and the Brčko District, which apply to IT companies as to any other business.

Software and IT-service contracts

Most of the work in IT law is contractual. Because the law does not regulate software contracts specifically, everything that the parties do not write down is governed by the general rules of the Law on Obligations, which were written for other kinds of transactions. A contract for the development of software that does not say who holds the copyright in the result, what “acceptance” means and what happens with the source code when the cooperation ends, leaves the most valuable questions to chance. The office drafts and reviews the contracts listed in the table, for developers and for their clients, in Bosnian and in English, and adapts contracts of foreign partners to the law of Bosnia and Herzegovina where the local company is a party.

Personal data

Every IT business processes personal data: of users, of customers, of employees and of the clients of its clients. In Bosnia and Herzegovina the processing is governed by the Law on the Protection of Personal Data of BiH, which lays down the conditions of lawful processing, the rights of the data subject, the obligations of the controller and of the processor, the registration of data collections with the Personal Data Protection Agency of BiH and the conditions for the transfer of data abroad. The law dates from 2006 and is older than the European rules; companies that work for partners in the European Union therefore usually meet the standards of the General Data Protection Regulation contractually as well, through data processing agreements. The office advises on the lawful basis of processing, drafts privacy notices, consents and processing agreements, and represents controllers and data subjects before the Agency.

Electronic business: signature, document, distance contracting

The Law on Electronic Signature of BiH and the Law on Electronic Legal and Business Transactions of BiH, with the entity regulations on the electronic document and electronic business, give legal effect to contracts concluded electronically and to documents signed with a qualified electronic signature. In practice the questions are concrete: when is a contract concluded by email or through a web form binding, which form is required for which transaction (contracts on real estate, for example, still require the form prescribed for the land register), how an electronic invoice and an electronic document are kept, and what an online shop has to tell a consumer before the purchase and which right of withdrawal the consumer has under the Law on Consumer Protection of BiH. The office prepares general terms and conditions of business for online services, the terms of use and the privacy policies of websites and applications, and the documentation for distance contracting with consumers and with businesses.

Copyright in software and trade marks

Under the Law on Copyright and Related Rights of BiH a computer program is protected as a work of authorship from the moment of its creation, without registration. The economic rights in a program made by an employee in the performance of the employment belong to the employer, unless the contract provides otherwise, while a program made by an independent developer stays with the developer unless the rights are assigned in writing; that is why the assignment clause in a development contract is decisive. The name and the logo of a product or service are protected by the registration of a trade mark with the Institute for Intellectual Property of BiH, and the office conducts the registration and acts in cases of infringement. Databases, know-how and business secrets are protected by contract and by the rules on unfair competition.

Disputes and the collection of claims in the ICT sector

Disputes in IT business most often concern unpaid invoices for work done, defects and delays in the delivery of software, the use of software beyond the licence and the departure of a developer with the code or the clients. The office represents companies of the ICT sector in negotiations, before the commercial departments of the courts and in arbitration, and conducts the collection of claims against domestic and foreign debtors, including the enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitral awards in Bosnia and Herzegovina. For disputes with a foreign element the rules of private international law determine the applicable law and the competent court, which is why the choice of law and forum clauses in IT contracts deserve particular attention.

What the office does for IT companies

Within its commercial and corporate law practice the office provides legal services to the ICT sector, from the formation of the company to the contracts of its everyday business:

• formation of a company for a software or IT-service business, including companies founded by foreign nationals and by members of the diaspora, and later changes in the company,
• drafting and review of software development, maintenance, licence, assignment and IT-service contracts, in Bosnian and in English,
• general terms and conditions, terms of use and privacy policies for websites, online shops and applications,
• personal data: the lawful basis of processing, processing agreements, registration with the Agency and representation before it,
• copyright in software and trade marks: assignment and licence clauses, registration of trade marks, action against infringement,
• disputes, arbitration and the collection of claims in the ICT sector, in Bosnia and Herzegovina and abroad,
• tax and financial questions of IT companies, together with the accountant of the company.

These services are intended for companies and individuals who do business in the field of information technologies in Bosnia and Herzegovina: software companies, IT-service providers, online shops, freelancers, and foreign companies that engage developers or open a company in BiH.