Intellectual Property Tribunal Lahore has restrained the website rightjob.pk from displaying, offering, advertising and job posting that are uploaded on the website rozee.pk under an ex-parte ad-interim injunction. The presiding officer of the tribunal also restrained the 'rightjob.pk' not to copy and posts the job ads and the data from 'rozee.pk' and restrained it from unfair competition.
The management of ROZEE.PK expressed satisfaction over it saying that copyright and intellectual property laws in Pakistan seemed to be finally being given the long overdue attention that they deserved. They said it a landmark case in which ROZEE.PK has been awarded an ex-parte ad-interim injunction against "Rightjob" over a series of job ads that were copied from ROZEE.PK without its permission or the permission of the companies that posted the jobs originally on ROZEE.PK.
Over 20 companies submitted complaints against the infringement and acts of unfair competition by "Rightjob" for jobs that were posted on ROZEE.PK. "Enforcing copyright protection of online content is a necessary step for the growth of Pakistan's Internet eco-system," said Aamir Ibrahim, CEO of Mobilink.
Unauthorized copying of such content may be a cause for concern when it comes to information security. Individuals may face serious threats regarding theft of their personal information through fake job postings in order to gather data for various unethical and illegal purposes. Furthermore, employers are also at risk from such activities, as it not only hurts the image of their brand and the confidentiality of applicants, but also violates their rights to control where their representation exists, as they may find themselves associated with channels that they have not authorized to use their brand name.
"ROZEE.PK puts great effort into protecting our job applicants by verifying the authenticity of all companies that post jobs on our website to safeguard their personal information," said Monis Rahman, CEO of ROZEE.PK. "When jobs are copied from our site without permission by third party sites, candidates unknowingly share their personal information with unauthorized sources and the underlying companies never see their applications. We are committed to safeguarding our members' personal information at all costs and are hopeful that this landmark injunction will serve as a precedent to prevent similar violations for other online publishers."
The learned judge (District and Session Judge Lahore Mohammad Khalid Nawaz) dictated ex-parte ad-interim injunctive order in this case in open Court, an extract of which is below: "...the defendants are heavily restrained from displaying, offering, advertising any job posting made on plaintiff's website ROZEE.PK and not to copy and post the plaintiff's job advertisements and its data on defendant/respondent's website RIGHTJOB..."
The awarding of an injunction against "Rightjob" by the Intellectual Property Tribunal is a victory for Pakistan on many fronts. The decision is an encouraging gesture by the learned court to safeguard online copyrights and intellectual property in Pakistan, and allows for foreign investors to feel more secure when investing into the IT sector of the country.
To date, more than 1 million people have found jobs from the platform of ROZEE.PK, and the service releases Top Employer Rankings every year based on surveys and data analysis to help seekers identify the top employers in Pakistan. ROZEE.PK aims to connect talent with genuine opportunity in the swiftest, most efficient manner possible.-PR