Islamabad : In order to promote the culture of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) in the country, the Government, through Intellectual Property Organization (IPO-Pakistan) is trying to motivate students and entrepreneurs to translate their ideas into products and services, says a press release.
This was stated by Ch. Fawad Hussain, Federal Minister for Science & Technology on Wednesday while addressing the seminar organized by IPO-Pakistan, in connection with World IP Day, 2019.
“Forty-seven universities and research institutes in Pakistan have been linked with world IP community under the Technology Innovation Support Centers (TISC) Program with active support of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan and WIPO”, the Minister said. A sizeable number of sports good manufacturing associations and chambers of commerce and industry are being attracted through effective liaison and IP awareness efforts.
Highlighting the theme of the seminar, Fawad Hussain said that the theme of this year’s World IP Day “Reach for Gold - IP and Sports” is in fact recognition of growing contribution of sportsmen and sports goods manufacturers in innovation and creativity.
“Advancement in science and technology and their growing commercial uses have created new kind of stakes in the form of IP Rights and with growing awareness about these Rights, a lot of interest has been generated amongst relevant stakeholders all over the world, including Pakistan”, he opined.
Chaudhry Fawad Hussain assured government’s full support to IPO-Pakistan for the protection of IP rights and their enforcement as per the legal instruments available for making Pakistan an IP compliant economy. He congratulated Chairman and Director General, IPO-Pakistan for holding a successful event.
Addressing the Seminar, Shandana Gulzar Khan, Parliamentary Secretary for Commerce said that empowering sports goods manufacturing industry is equal to empowering a major segment of society which ultimately lead to development and prosperity. Appreciating the role of IPO-Pakistan, Ms. Shandana said that IPO has effectively engaged the institutional stakeholders in creating awareness about the IP rights and has expanded its enforcement coordination mechanism to encourage IP rights holder to register their IPRs. Consequently, a nexus of academia, industry and public sector is evolving.
Earlier, Mujeeb Ahmed Khan, Chairman, IPO-Pakistan expressed the resolve for a strong IP regime and said that structural reforms are underway and legislative changes in accordance with international best practices have been initiated for putting Pakistan on the world intellectual property map.
He informed that in connection with World IP Day celebrations, IPO-Pakistan organized several events this year which includes an awareness walk, slogans challenge for students and a seminar.