Book piracy: Govt losing billions due to lax IPR protection
New integrated strategy afoot to enforce intellectual property laws.
Govt losing billions due to lax IPR protection. PHOTO: MARIAM ESSA
An intellectual property policy has been formulated and sent to the law ministry for comment, Intellectual Property Organisation (IPO) Director-General Aamir Hassan said.
He was addressing a seminar titled “The enforcement of copyrights laws in Pakistan”, organised by the Oxford University Press (OUP) here on Wednesday, said a press release.
Hassan said that based on this draft policy, the IPO has also prepared an integrated strategy and action plan to enforce intellectual property laws in the country.
He also revealed that the IPO has proposed setting up IP courts in all the provincial capitals and the federal capital. This proposal has already been submitted to the law ministry and is actively being followed-up on.
“With the establishment of IP tribunals, intellectual property cases would be resolved in time and the problem of prolonged litigation would be solved.”
OUP Managing Director Ameena Saiyid said that book piracy deprives the writers of royalties, the publishers of legitimate income and government of tax revenue.
She said that according to an estimate, the government lost Rs25 billion to piracy during 2012.
She proposed that there should be special task force at the provincial level to counter the IPR violations.
She said pirated books are being exported to the Middle East, which should be addressed by customs authorities as such smuggling brings a bad name to the country and also results in loss of government revenue.
Saiyid said that if piracy was curbed and more books were published by genuine publishers, the prices of books will come down.
IPR lawyer Bilal Ahsan said that punishments for IPR violations should be enhanced to create effective deterrence. He observed that as police and other law enforcement agencies were preoccupied with violent crime, special IP enforcement squads should be formed to take quick and effective action.
Customs Intelligence Additional Collector Imran Chaudhry said that Pakistan was bound to protect IP rights under various international laws.
FIA Deputy Director Shahbaz Akram said 131 cases of IPR violations were registered with the FIA during the last eight years.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 27th, 2014.