KU holds workshop on intellectual property rights

The University of Karachi’s (KU’s) Office of Research, Innovation and Commercialization (ORIC) organised a two-day workshop for the faculty’s capacity building on intellectual property (IP) rights at the Chinese Teachers Memorial Auditorium on Wednesday.

Sindh Higher Education Commission (SHEC) Chairman Prof Dr SM Tariq Rafi presided over the workshop’s inaugural session as the chief guest. During his speech, he said this workshop would help create awareness among the faculty members and scholars about how IP rights could provide legal protection to their research work. He urged them to learn more about IP rights.

He commented that the SHEC was taking steps to bring the academia and business community closer so that the universities would not lose talent and their products could be safeguarded through IP rights.

Dr Rafi added that unfortunately, Pakistan was among the countries where copyrights were not being followed according to the international standards. He asserted that IP rights were a big issue of the academia and research communities.

“We are providing all possible support to teachers and researchers to carry out their research and register creative works under IP rights. There is a need to further legislate on this issue,” he said.

He opined that Pakistan was producing best IT experts, but the country’s own IT industry was lagging in exporting its products to the global market. He said a huge gap between academia and industry was one of the reasons for this shortfall.

He stressed the need for adapting the curriculum as per the market’s demand, saying that most of the curriculum being taught at the varsities was outdated, because of which fresh graduates faced hardship in getting jobs after completion of their studies.

KU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Khalid Mahmood Iraqi said the varsity had included field experts in the faculty at the department level, making necessary changes in the curriculum incorporating inputs from the relevant industry.

He said the KU could provide human resources to the industries as per their needs. Dr Iraqi opined that without a collaboration of industries and universities, the nation could not be developed. He said that academia provided brains and workforce while industry gave jobs in societies. He added that the varsities could provide sustainable solutions to the industries’ problems through research and innovations.