ISLAMABAD: Intellectual Property Organisation of Pakistan (IPO-Pakistan) has organised a seminar to commemorate World Intellectual Property Day.
Education Minister Balighur Rehman was the chief guest on the occasion. The theme of this year IP Day was “Innovation – Improving Lives” given by World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). Addressing the seminar, the minister said that over the past years incredible growth had been seen in technology on a global scale. Investments in Research and Development (R&D) are central point of economic growth in this era, he added.
Highlighting the theme of the seminar, he said that the nations in the developing world become ever more globalised, innovation linkages are quickly gaining prominence, leading to collaboration among nations involving academia and industry as a key driver of economic growth. He said, “Patents are used as a measure of output of innovation and are the most preferred intellectual property in relation to technological innovations.”
Balighur Rehman maintained that there was a correlation between innovation, patent filing and development in society, adding that trend of the patent filing reflects economic growth of a country and social development in that society.
Emphasizing the need of Research & Development, he said the government of Pakistan has substantially increased the budget for R&D sector with focus on innovation driven research. “Internationally, private sector is taking lead in spending on research in national economy which should be followed by the private sector in our country as well,” he added.
Appreciating the efforts of IPO-Pakistan for creating awareness about IPRs in the country, the minister said, “I would like to appreciate Ministry of Commerce and IPO-Pakistan for efforts in creating awareness about intellectual property rights.”
Earlier, welcoming the chief guest and the participants of the seminar, IPO-Pakistan Chairman Shahid Rashid highlighted the role of IPO-Pakistan. He said that the vision of IPO was to put Pakistan on the Intellectual Property map of the world as a compliant and responsible country by promoting and protecting Intellectual Property Rights.
“Mission of IPO is integrating and upgrading IP infrastructure for improved service delivery, increased public awareness and enhanced enforcement coordination for achieving the goal of being an IP based nation”, he remarked. He said that due to the efficient policies of IPO-Pakistan, the number of application has soared from 32,443 in 2014-15 to 44,364 in 2015-16 in trademarks, patents, copyrights and industrial designs.
