New IPO portal to be launched in August. PHOTO: FILE
He said this during a presentation from the IPO chairman after the organisation was placed under administrative control of the Ministry of Commerce recently.
The proposal of placing the IPO under control of the commerce ministry was floated in the Strategic Trade Policy Framework (STPF) 2015-18, which was approved by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in March this year.
“This (IP strategy) will support innovation and creation of marketable and exportable IP products, besides promoting economic development and foreign direct investment,” the minister said.
Khan was informed that the new web portal of the IPO would be launched in August. It will enable the organisation to offer improved online services to the public by providing the option of e-filing of all types of IP applications, e-payments and online search in IP gazettes/journals.
It was told that all the historical record of the IPO was digitised and over six million pages of IP applications were available in digital form.
Khan directed the IPO management to carry out due diligence before acceding to the international treaties relating to IP.
IPO Director General Shahid Lateef revealed that due to effective coordination with law enforcement agencies and practical measures taken by IPO, the US had removed Pakistan from the priority watch list this year while India and China were still part of the list.
“This is a great achievement in terms of transparency of intellectual property right laws and indicates the trust the US authorities have in the legislative and administrative measures taken recently by Pakistan in this field,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 29th, 2016.
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