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In April 2005 the Government of Pakistan took the following land mark decisions
in tandem with consolidation and reorganization of the institutional infrastructure for integrated
management of intellectual property and reinforcement and enhancement
of the IPR enforcement
capacity of the government agencies in Pakistan. The decisions are as follows:-
- Establishment of IPO-Pakistan
- Empowerment of FIA
- Activation of Pakistan Customs
IPO-Pakistan was established for integrated management of intellectual property
rights by bringing all IP Registries under one umbrella organisation instead of
the age-old fragmentation of IP Registries into three different Ministries namely:-
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Copyrights
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Ministry of Education |
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Trademarks |
Ministry of Commerce |
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Patents/Designs |
Ministry of Industries |
Not only this fragmentation
was done away with, but the Prime Minister was also pleased to place the new organisation
directly under his supervision through the Cabinet Division. This measure further enhanced
the significance of the new organisation and sharpened its business focus. The new
organisation was also reasonably enabled with substantial initial grant of funds
and necessary autonomy to incur expenditure in accordance with the initial setting
up requirements. In this backdrop, besides meeting its own
initial requirements, the following additional measures were taken to kick-start
IPO-Pakistan to effectively achieve the organisational goals namely:-
- One Building Operation
- Committee of Heads of Registries
- Public Outreach Program
- Enforcement Coordination Committees
- Regional Offices
- Automation
- IPO Website
- Recruitment of patents Examiners
- Capacity Building Programs
- Focused Judicial Set-Up
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One Building Operation |
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In Lahore, an integrated Regional Office of IPO has been established. The Copyrights
Office and the Trade Marks Office which were previously located at two different
and distant places in dilapidated buildings have now been shifted to a new building.
Regional patents Office has also started functioning in the same building. In this
way all the three regional offices are now housed in the same building for public
facilitation.
In Karachi, IPO-Pakistan is in the process of locating all IP Registries namely
Copyrights, Trade Marks and Patents in the same building to initiate "One Building
Operation" for the facility of dealing Public which had to go to three different
and distantly located offices namely Copyrights, Trade Marks and Patents.
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Constitution of Joint Committee of Heads of IP Registries |
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In order o consolidate integration of IP operations, a joint Committee has been
constituted comprising Heads of IP Registries located in Karachi. Whereas the Registrar
of Trade Marks (Previously under Ministry of Commerce), the Registrar of Copyrights
(Previously under Ministry of Education) and Controller of Patents (Previously under
Ministry of Industries) rarely met ever before even socially, now meet every Monday
to jointly address their organisional problems in a corporate environment. This
measure is aimed at improving the quality of decision making and finding corporate
solutions for organisational problems.
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Public Outreach Program |
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The Committee of Heads of IP Registries has been assigned the Director General's
Public Outreach Program. Under this initiative the Heads of IP Registries jointly
meet with the Chambers of Commerce and Industry to inform them of the benefits of
IP compliance and the business risks involved in non-compliance. They have already
held such meetings with the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Karachi and Peshawar.
Their next meeting is set-up shortly with the Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and
Industry. One by one they plan to hold similar meetings with all major Chambers
of Commerce and Industry. They will also add a new dimension of meetings with universities,
R&D and academic institutions.
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Enforcement Coordination |
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An Enforcement Coordination Committee has been constituted in Islamabad comprising
the following; namely:-
- IPO-Pakistan (Secretariat of the Committee + Lead Role)
- Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)
- Police Department
- Pakistan Customs (CBR)
- Directorate General of Customs Intelligence
- Law & Justice Division
- Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA)
This Committee regularly coordinates and reviews enforcement activities and strategies
for enhancement of IP enforcement. Following a gradual and step by step approach
the Enforcement Committee has decided to establish two Regional Enforcement Coordination
Committees in Karachi and Lahore to jack up IP enforcement in these two most major
cities. Depending on the success of this enforcement mechanism, the Committee network
will be extended to those other cities where piracy, counterfeiting, imitation or
misappropriation of IP may be suspected.
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Regional IP Offices |
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Historically, the Registries of Copyrights, Trade Marks and Patents have existed
in one city only i.e Karachi. A small regional presence of Copyrights and Trade
Marks has existed in Lahore. After the formation of IPO-Pakistan, an acute need
was felt for upgraduation of the regional office Lahore with the addition of patents
related business and in other Provincial capitals as well. It is accordingly proposed
to establish Regional Offices in Quetta (Balochistan) and Peshawar (N.W.F.P). The
objective is to provide IP related facilities at the doorsteps
of the dealing public
and to expand the institutional
outreach of IPO-Pakistan as well as to. This measure will not only help promote IP awareness in the
country but it will also strengthen the ongoing enforcement drive.
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Automation |
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Previously, the IP Registries were not in the lime-light of public policy in terms
of automation. WIPO is now helping the Trade Marks Registry with automation under
the European Union's Trade Related Technical Assistance (TRTA) Program. The automation
plan is also being expanded to include the three Registries, IPO-Pakistan HQs and
the existing and the proposed Regional Offices. E-Government Directorate of the
Government of Pakistan is also assisting IPO-Pakistan in achieving its automation
plan.
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Website |
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IPO-Pakistan website has been launched under the following domain name:- www.ipo.gov.pk
It presently houses information on Patents and Trade Marks. The Copyrights component
is under construction. Efforts are underway to make it a comprehensive portal for
comprehensive real time information. WIPO is also assisting IPO-Pakistan in upgrading
this Website.
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Recruitment of patents Examiners |
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There was an acute shortage of patents examiners in the patents Office. In order to
make up this shortage twelve examiners were inducted having been selected through a rigorous merit-based
competitive process. After their initial training, the Examiners
joined the patents Office. Hardwork coupled with regular national and international
training opportunities have helped these Examiners to achieve competence in their
respective fields in the patents Office in a relatively shorter period.
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Capacity Building |
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As there is no IP Academy in Pakistan, IPO-Pakistan is developing a work plan for
capacity building of IP staff with the assistance of IP friendly countries and organisations.
WIPO experts have already conducted a training program for Examiners of Trade Marks/
Service Marks as well as the patents Examiners under European Union's TRTA Project.
Similar arrangements will be made for training
of Copyrights Examiners. US Commerce Department offers of assistance under CLDP have also been utilized for Capacity building of IP Offices. IPO-Pakistan needs international
assistance for training and skill development of IPO-Pakistan staff at all levels. EU-TRTA Project contains an IP related component. US CLDP offer is also
in hand. Singapore, South Korea and Australia are expected to help IPO-Pakistan
in its capacity building initiatives. WIPO has already provided technical assistance in 7 events uptil now and has also
sponsored officials from Pakistan on substantive foreign training including a study visit of a six-member high level IP delegation
to Australia, Korea and Singapore.
These exposures have greatly
helped the Policy Board, management of IPO-Pakistan
and Examiners of the Registries to raise the new organisation
on the most competitive and sophisticated lines.
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Focused Judicial Set-Up |
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IPO-Pakistan has proposed to the Federal Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights
to request the relevant judicial authorities to nominate those judicial officers
who alone should deal with IP litigation. In this way IPO-Pakistan can easily introduce
capacity building programs in the judiciary to enhance their skills to understand
the implications of IP litigation and the IP-economy linkages for impartial and
competent decision making. In this regard, the “IP Judicial Conference under the
US Commercial Law Development Programme,” was arranged with the assistance of the
US Department of Commerce and USPTO in September 2006.
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