Intellectual Property Registration with Intellectual Property Organization (IPO) of Pakistan

Intellectual property rights are similar to any other property rights. These have the aim of protecting creations of an owner’s intellect such as; inventions, designs, artworks, symbols, and signages. You can safeguard this through efficient and equitable intellectual property systems present in many countries with different IP rights like patents, trademarks, copyrights enabling the owner to benefit from their own work or investment in a creation. The government established IPO Pakistan as an independent body on April 8, 2005.

Types of Intellectual Property

Patents

Patents secure and provide protection against stealing one’s idea. It gives the right to an inventor and enables them to prohibit or exclude others from building, copying, selling, or making use of their creations, unless given permission. According to the international standard law, an owner can protect their invention for over 20 years by filing a patent. In Pakistan IPO (intellectual property organization) is the only office where you can register your business as a patent registered company to prevent others from stealing your ideas.

With a clear objective, KLA Pakistan principally functions on the notion of understanding your business. We lay our core expertise in tax consultation and provide financial services to Salaried Individuals, Business Individuals, AOPs, Companies and Non-Profit Organizations. From intellectual properties for copyrights, trademarks, and patent registration, we provide you all.

Process of registering a patent

Applying for a patent you have to go to the IPO office and submit your application for registration, if there will be no objection then you can submit further documents to proceed with your registration. Following are conditions to file a patent in Pakistan:

• It should be unique/novel.
• The discovery must vary significantly from what you know previously
• The invention must be industrially applicable.
• The applicant should not be involve himself in criminal activities.
• The applicant should be over 18 years and he should have a CNIC.
• Also, your actions should not oppose Law and Morality

Copyrights

Copyright is a form of intellectual property protection provided by the laws of the government of Pakistan. Through obtaining a copyright one can secure original work of authorship whether published or non-published. A person procures an exclusive right to reproduce, publish or sell their original work of invention. The categories of work that can be protected under copyright law include literary work, music, movies, photographic images and software etc.

Process of copyright registration

Registration of copyright is not necessary in Pakistan. A copyright is automatically secured when for the first time a work is created or fixed in a phono-record. Although there are definite advantages of copyright registration and the process to do this in Pakistan is as follows:

• File an application
• Wait for your ‘creation’ to go under examination
• Publish work in newspaper (Artistic work only)
• Opposition, if any
• Issuance of Certificate by Registrar (Registration)

Trademark

A trademark can simply be in a form of a phrase, symbol or a sign that is focused on establishing a unique identity and distinguishes one party from another. Unlike patents or copyrights, trademarks are not prone to being time-specific. They are life-long and can be used as long as you wish to indicate your presence on the goods and services in everyday commerce.

Process of trademark registration

In the current business environment brand name is considered more vital then business name. Many fake companies are misusing the brand name of well-known companies. Therefore, it is essential to protect your company’s reputation by registering a trademark for your brand name, logo, image, signature and graphs of your company. Following are the steps to register a trademark in Pakistan:

• Application for name availability in IPO Office
• Submission of required forms
• Examination of the application
• Journal Publishing
• Opposition and Hearing
• Trademark Registration

There are a few convincing reasons. To start with, the advancement and well-being of people to make and invent new things in areas of technology and culture. Second, the lawful insurance of new inventions supports the notion of further developments. Lastly, the promotion and protection of intellectual property incentives economic growth, creates employment and improves the quality lifestyle.

The intellectual property system helps find harmony between the interests of innovators and the interest of the general public, fostering an environment in which creativity and invention can move ahead, leading to equally benefit all parties.