Pakistan is a member of the Berne Convention, the Universal Copyright Convention, and the World Intellectual Property Organization, but not a member of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.
As a WTO member, Pakistan is subject to the terms of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs). The United States has taken various steps to ensure that Pakistan complies with its TRIPs commitments, particularly with respect to fulfilling its obligation to establish a "mailbox" for agricultural chemical and pharmaceutical product patent applications.
After repeated bilateral consultations and a U.S. request for establishment of a WTO Dispute Settlement Panel, the Pakistani president issued an executive ordinance in 1997 establishing a mailbox system and granting exclusive marketing rights to patent applicants under certain conditions.
Copyrights
The Copyright Office is a department of the Ministry of Education. Copyright on a registered design is initially granted for a five-year period and may be extended for two additional five-year periods. In 1992 a statutory amendment, which generally strengthens penalties against copyright infringement, became law.
The market for imported computer software has remained nearly 100 per cent pirated, while industry representatives estimate that the piracy rate for videos has declined to around 80 per cent. As a result of strengthened law enforcement (277 raids reported in 1996 alone), some video outlets are taking steps to offer legitimate products.
Patents
Registration of patents and designs is administered by the Patents Office, a department of the Ministry of Industries. Patents are granted for up to 16 years from the date of application and may generally be extended for a five-year period and, under some circumstances, for an additional five years. Legal remedies such as injunctions are available in cases of patent infringement.
Current law protects only process patents, although the government is committed to eventually offering product patents in accordance with its WTO obligations.
Trademarks
Trademarks are registered under the Trade Marks Act (1940), through the Trade Mark Registry, a department in the Ministry of Commerce. Trademarks are registered for seven years from the date of application and the registration may be renewed for an additional fifteen years.
There have been occasional instances of trademark infringement, involving a range of products such as toys, playing cards, and industrial machinery. In 1994 the Pakistani government issued new drug labeling rules requiring the generic name of substances to be printed "with at least equal prominence as that of the brand name." This rule serves to dilute in the minds of consumers existing differences in quality, efficacy, and safety, and incorrectly implies total interchangeability and equality among different products.
Licensing
In the past, foreign investors had experienced difficulties in obtaining government approval for royalty and technical fee agreements, but revised laws and regulations have largely eliminated this problem. Limits on royalty and technical fee payments have also been abolished.
Source: -- Country Commercial GuideCopyright, International Strategies, Inc.