IPO sets up facilitation Desk at SMEDA

[Salman]

LAHORE: Intellectual Property Facilitation Desk has been set up at Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) to facilitate business community for registration of their Trademarks, Patents, Copyright and other related IP rights.

Chairman of Intellectual Property Organisation (IPO) Hameed Ullah Jan Afridi, LCCI President Irfan Qaisar Sheikh and Director General IPO Sajjad Ahmed Bhutta jointly inaugurated the Facilitation Desk on Thursday besides a one-day training seminar on "Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights. The LCCI Senior Vice President Kashif Younis Meher & former President Senator Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry and Chairman SDC Rehmatullah Javed also spoke on the occasion.

Speaking at the seminar, the Chairman underlined the need for training and capacity building activities for the stakeholders especially for partners of enforcement agencies so that they could be able to implement the relevant laws and procedures accordingly.

He said socio-economic development is directly linked with the opening of economic avenues and we can attract local as well as foreign investment by giving protection of IP rights in the country.

Hameed Ullah Jan Afridi informed the participants that a special emphasis was being laid on expansion of training facilities and with the cooperation of World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) special foreign training programmes for stakeholders are also being implemented.

Similarly, the automation of IP Registries is also in progress and land mark of digitize publication of Trademark Journal has been achieved which helped to accelerate the process of Trade Marks registration. The Chairman said that besides in-house capacity building and infrastructure development IP facilitation desks are also being set up in the offices of partner organizations. He said that IPO-Pakistan has start awareness programmes with pubic private partnership to motivate the owners of Trademarks and Patents to get their intellectual rights registered and avail the benefits of legal business ownerships.