Welcoming the promulgation of Intellectual Property Ordinance 2012, Centre for Culture and Development (C2D), has urged the government to ensure public representation in the policy board of the Intellectual Property Organisation (IPO). According to the C2D, the board, to be constituted under the ordinance containing, 15 members overwhelmingly of federal bureaucracy and corporate sector would lack public representation to act as watchdog for the interests of the people in matters related to intellectual property rights in Pakistan. The C2D also said that apart from public representation, the IPO policy body must also include parliamentarians, academics, technocrats, and civil society, as their presence is vital to public awareness regarding intellectual property rights issue. “One of the reasons for setting up the IPO given in the preamble is for the awareness of intellectual property rights in Pakistan. The C2D observes that it stands contrary to the spirit of the preamble that representation in the board is lacking from such critical quarters that can analyze, strengthen and represent the public opinion. This would include parliamentarians, academics, technocrats, and civil society, who could help achieve the objectives of creating awareness of intellectual property rights in Pakistan”, C2D said in a press release. The C2D further emphasised that all the under trial cases in different courts regarding IP laws would be transferred to tribunals, headed by special judges, drawn from existing judiciary as well as fresh recruits from the lawyers, eligible to be the judge in Pakistani courts. Tribunal would act as an appellant authority against the decisions of the IP institutions such as Copy Right Board, Trade Mark Office, Patent Office, etc. “No special procedures have been created for the enforcement of IP laws.
the critique of the ordinance is quite apt and require an action to make the IP regime working more productively in Pakistan
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