KARACHI: Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) – the collective body of over 200 top foreign investors, has recommended a substantial increase in penalties to ensure Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection which is imperative to attract foreign direct investment in high-value research-based products and services in Pakistan. Sharing the results of OICCI’s IPR Survey- 2022, conducted annually, the Chamber’s President Ghias Khan and CEO and Secretary General, M. Abdul Aleem, in their joint statement called for full and strong IPR enforcement. They mentioned that the Intellectual Property Organisation of Pakistan, the regulatory body for IPR, was without its Chairman since May 202.
There had not been any significant action taken to strengthen the IPR Tribunals, especially in Karachi. IPR violations had caused the government significant revenue loss besides endangering the life and well-being of public exposed to counterfeit products including medicine, the OICCI top office bearers said. OICCI President emphasized that timely registration of copyrights and trademarks supported by strict enforcement regime was critical for building confidence of the existing and potential foreign investors in Pakistan.
OICCI would continue to support IPOP and share its international knowledge base on IPR towards ensuring a robust IPR regime in the country, he added.
He said that research-based foreign pharmaceutical companies operating in Pakistan were quite concerned that there was very poor linkage between the Patent Law and Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan on product registration. The registrations were being issued to companies infringing patents, forcing the patent holders to approach court for the protection of IPR at a heavy cost.
Lengthy processing timelines for granting IP rights, complicated procedure for registration and long drawn judicial procedure for the protection of IP rights were the key issues highlighted in the OICCI IPR Survey 2022. More than 50 percent of the respondents believe that Trademarks and Copyrights get registered in 1–3 years whereas 53% of the respondent (vs 46% in previous survey) reported that it takes more than 3 years to resolve an IPR dispute, he said.
OICCI members, however, had appreciated the increasing focus of Custom IPR Wing at Karachi Port for closely monitoring the import of counterfeit products.
OICCI’s CEO and Secretary General, M. Abdul Aleem said that OICCI worked closely with IPOP in supporting initiatives towards strict monitoring of IPR violated products. More engagement with brand owners in Pakistan and improving check on import valuation which would help boost the government revenue and manufacturing of legitimate value-added products in Pakistan.
IPOP together with Law Enforcement Agencies and media has a pivotal role in promoting high level of protection of IPR in Pakistan and attracting quality research-based product and investments in the country, he said.
