A concerted effort is being made by the Intellectual Property Organisation (IPO), government of Pakistan with the assistance of European Union (EU) and World Intellectual Property Organisation (Wipo) to protect Pakistan's super basmati rice from infringement by India.
The IPO, through a letter on July 8, informed all the stakeholders that whereas this specific matter was receiving due attention of the government of Pakistan, there was an urgent need to get the geographical indications (GIs) registered as a collective marks under the Trade Marks Ordinance, 2001.
The stakeholders, especially the chambers of commerce and industry, have been advised in their own interest to proactively identify their products with GIs and apply for their registration at the earliest to protect them from misappropriation by others.
The IPO recently organised a Wipo national workshop on GIs in an effort to find ways to deal with the issue. This was considered necessary in view of the economic and social criticality of intellectual property assets, especially for the national economy, in the domain of our genetic resources, traditional knowledge, folklore and bio-diversity.
The awareness workshop on GIs was organised by IPO with the financial assistance of EU and technical assistance of the Wipo and was attended by stakeholder ministries, organisations and chambers of commerce and industry.
During the national workshop as well as the two-day subsequent consultative meetings of the three Wipo experts with the stakeholders, Pakistan's initial position that the Trade Marks Ordinance, 2001 contains sufficient, explicit and specific provisions to protect GIs as collective marks was reconfirmed as correct.
It was, however, regrettably noted that the stakeholders were not utilising the existing legal provisions to protect their GI assets by registering these with the Registrar of Trade Marks. As a result, Pakistan's traditional GI heritage is seriously exposed to possibilities of misappropriation by others. The example of super basmati of Pakistan being claimed by India was quoted again and again.