2. What Is Copyright ?
It is the right of literary property as recognized and
sanctioned by a positive law, the Copyright Ordinance,
1962 as amended by Copyright (Amended) Act 1992. An
intangible, incorporeal, right granted by these statutes to
the author or originator of certain literacy or artistic
productions, whereby he is invested for a limited period,
with the sole and exclusive privilege of multiplying
copies of the same and publishing and selling them.
3. Copyright protection subsists in original works of
authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression,
now known or later developed, from which they can be
perceived, reproduced or otherwise communicated,
either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.
Works of authorship include following categories:
Literary Works
Musical Works including any accompanying words
Dramatic Works, including any accompanying music
Pantomimes and choreographic works
Pictorial, Graphic, and Sculptural works
Motion pictures and other audio-visual works
Sound recordings
4. Where These Laws Not Apply?
In no case does copyright protection for an original work
of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process,
system, method of operation, concept, principle or
discovery of nature laws, regardless of the form in which
it is described, explained, illustrated or embodied in such
work.
5. Copyright, in a literary work may be infringed in several
ways:
By reprinting verbatim a part of it
By imitating the whole or part, or by reproducing the
whole or part under abridged form
By reproducing the whole or part with colourable
alternation
By converting it into a dramatic work
By performing it in public
By dealing with copies made or imported in contravention
of Copyright Act
6. What is a Patent?
A patent for an invention is grant of exclusive rights to
make, use and sell the invention for a limited period of 20
years. The patent grant excludes others from making,
using, or selling the invention. Patent protection does not
start until the actual grant of a patent.
What rights does a patent owner have?
A patent owner has the right to decide who may or may
not use the patented invention for the period in which the
invention is protected.
7. Licensing:
The patent owner may give permission to, or license,
other parties to use the invention on mutually agreed
terms. The owner may also sell the right to the invention
to someone else, who will then become the new owner of
the patent.
Once a patent expires, the protection ends, and invention
enters the public domain, that is, the owner no longer
holds exclusive right to the invention, which becomes
available to commercial exploitation by others.
8. Patentable Inventions In Pakistan
In order to be patentable an invention should have the
following characteristics:-
The invention is new.
It involves an inventive step.
It is capable of industrial application.
It should not be contrary to law or morality.
9. UnPatentable Inventions In Pakistan
Discoveries of Laws of nature.
Method or producing sound.
Computer Programs (Software)
The discovery of new properties of known substance.
Literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works.
Doctor’s prescriptions and Patent Medicines. Mere
charts, diagrams, or printed sheets.
A surgical operation.
10. Who may apply for a patent ?
According to patent law, only the inventor may apply for
a patent, with certain exceptions. If a person who is not
the inventor should apply for a patent, the patent, if it
were obtained, would be invalid. The person applying in
such a case who falsely states that he/she is the inventor
would also be subject to criminal penalties
What If The Inventor Is Dead ?
If the inventor is dead, the application may be made by
legal representatives, that is, the administrator or
executor of the estate.
11. Co-Inventors
If two or more persons make an invention jointly, they
apply for a patent as joint inventors. A person who makes
a financial contribution is not a joint inventor and cannot
be joined in the application as an inventor.
12. Reliefs in suits for infringement
If a patent is infringed by infringer and a suit for
infringement has been field against him then the
remedies can be availed by the patentee. The Court can
order to.
desist form infringement.
pay the right holder expenses which may include
appropriate attorney’s fee
the applicant to pay the defendants expenses including
attorneys fee.
prevent an infringement, if there are imported goods the
court can order to prevent its customs clearance.
13. What is a Design?
A DESIGN is defined as the features of shape,
configuration, pattern, ornament or composition of lines
or colors applied to any article by any industrial process
or means, whether manual, mechanical or chemical,
separate or combined, which in the finished article
appeal to and are judged solely by the eye, but does not
include any mode or principle of construction or anything
which is in substance a mere mechanical device and
does not include any trademark or property mark or
artistic work .
14. Design Ordinance protects only designs that is aesthetic
in nature. They may be decorative elements added to the
article or they may be part of very shape or configuration.
Novelty and originality are important criteria in a design
for registration. In addition, only those designs that are
applied to an article by an industrial process will be
protected.
Legislation
The Pakistan law of designs is enshrined in the Designs
Ordinance, 2000. The Act seeks to provide for the
registration of designs in Pakistan. The rights granted
under the Ordinance are operative in the whole of
Pakistan.
15. Classification
Almost all jurisdictions including Pakistan follow Locarno
Classification for registration of design comprising 32
classes, numbered 1 to 31 and an additional class 99 to
include articles not falling under the aforesaid 31 classes.
Most of the classes are further divided into sub classes.
Design applications must be filed in a particular class
depending upon the predominant material with which the
article is made or is capable of being made.
16. Rights conferred by registration
The registration of a design confers the proprietor
copyright in the design for the period of registration.
Copyright means the exclusive right to apply the design
in respect of the article for which it is registered.
Duration of registration
The term of a design registration is initially for a period of
ten years. The renewal is possible for further period of 5
years.
17. Remedies For Infringement
Remedies under Section (8)
If any person infringes a registered proprietor’s right, the
proprietor may:
bring a suit for an injunction for the continuance of the
infringement.
bring a suit against him for the recovery of damages
18. What is trademark ?
A trademark is any word, name, symbol, or design, or
any combination thereof, used in commerce to identify
and distinguish the goods of one manufacturer or seller
from those of another and to indicate the source of the
goods.
What is the law that regulates trademarks in pakistan?
In Pakistan, registration and protection of trademarks is
regulated under the Trademarks Ordinance, 2001 and it
extends to whole of Pakistan.
19. Trade name is the full name of your business, such as:
“Syed Bhais (Pvt.) Limited” and it identifies your company
or firm. A trademark, however, is the sign that
distinguishes the product of your company. A company
may have various trademarks. For instance Syed Bhais
Private Limited sells its products under the trademark.
Who is authorized to apply for trademark registration?
Any person who intends to use a trademark can apply for
registration. It can be individual, firm, company or
organization.
20. What is the penalty for applying false trade description?
He will be punished with imprisonment of either description for a
term which shall not be less than three months but which may
extend to two years, or with fine which shall not be less than fifty
thousand rupees, or with both and on subsequent conviction penalty
will be enhanced.
What is trademark infringement?
A person shall infringe a registered trademark if such person uses in
the course of trade a mark which is identical with the trademark in
relation to goods or services which are identical with those for which
it is registered.
21. When a trademark is not infringed ?
A person shall not infringe a registered trademark when used in good faith.
Where registration of a trademark is subject to disclaimer, a person shall not
infringe the trademark by using disclaimed part of the trademark.
In case of importation of infringing goods, material or articles what remedies
are available?
Infringing goods, material or articles may be treated as prohibited, the
proprietor of the registered trade mark may give notice in writing to the
collector of Customs that he is the proprietor of the registered trade mark,
that infringing goods, material, article, bear false indications as to their
source or the identity of their manufacture are expected to arrive in Pakistan
from outside Pakistan and that they are subject to the control of the customs
authorities under the Customs Act, 1969 (IV of 1969): and he request s the
Collector of Customs to treat such goods as prohibited.
