Sindh Governor Dr Ishrat-ul-Ebad Khan has said that complete enforcement of Intellectual Property (IP) laws in the country is necessary for attracting foreign investors. Addressing 1st Intellectual Property seminar and award distribution ceremony 2014 at Governor's House on Sunday night as chief guest, Ebad said that there was a dire need to develop a strong mechanism to stop counterfeiting and implementation of IP laws.
"Without incentives provided by intellectual property rights, technologies and creations that have touched and changed millions of lives would probably not exist today. Copyright stimulated the development of vibrant local cultures, and encouraged their dissemination world-wide," he added.
He said international popularity of reggae, growth, distribution and commercial success has been encouraged to a large extent by the copyright system. "Many countries of the world are spending millions of dollars to promote their domestic brands and strengthening their enterprises to compete in the highly competitive business arena of the globe," he added.
The Governor said: "We must ensure that our people benefit from their innovations and creative work, and prevent others from copying or unfairly gaining from our creativity and investment."
On the occasion, Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping Kamran Michael said that this was not only a seminar but a start of an awareness campaign about IP laws and its benefits and losses.
Senator Farogh Naseem said that in other countries there were strong IP laws and IP tribunals and courts but in Pakistan there was nothing on this very important subject.
Senator Abdul Haseeb Khan said that non-enforcement of IP laws in the country was like an attack on the economy. "Only in pharmaceutical industry, counterfeiting has caused billions of rupees losses to genuine medicine producers and the businessman have been badly discouraged," he pointed out.
Farhan Hanif, Chairman Crown Group of Companies, said: "Pakistan is the land of opportunities having an array of indigenous products available in abundance. There is demand of Pakistani products of diversified sectors across the world and major chunk of the products are exported without any branding and value-addition."
Khwaja Izhar-ul-Hassan, Deputy Parliamentary Leader of MQM in Sindh Assembly and the Co-organiser of the event thanked all participants. He announced that IP awards ceremony would be organized every year on the international IP day.
Earlier, Sindh Governor Dr Ishrat-ul-Ebad Khan distributed IP awards among the owners, directors, CEOs and representatives of local companies working in various sectors.
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