‘Out of 177 Pakistani varsities,only 16 have registered patents’

Out of 177 universities and degree-awarding institutions registered with the Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan, only 16 varsities have obtained their patents, while the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) and other departments have registered 23 and 81 patents institutions respectively.

This was revealed by officials of the Intellectual Property Rights Organisation (IPO) while addressing a seminar on ‘Intellectual Property Right in Pakistan’. The seminar was organised by the Office of Research Innovation and Commercialisation (ORIC) of Mohammad Ali Jinnah University (MAJU) Karachi Thursday evening at the university auditorium.

Those who addressed the seminar included Syed Nasarullah, Tafseer Fatima and Niaz Ahmed Lashari from the IPO. MAJU president Prof Dr Zubair Shaik, associate dean Dr Shujaat Mubarak and deputy director Ghulam Muhammad also spoke.

The speakers were of the view that a strong policy on intellectual rights could attract foreign direct investment and stimulate inventive activities at home thereby boosting the industrial and economic development in Pakistan.

They maintained there was an urgent need to eradicate patent illiteracy else it would corrode the national technological industrial office itself. 

According to them, small differences in the IP strategy make a big difference in the competitiveness of a state.