KARACHI, Feb 9: The Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordination Committee has stressed the need for creating awareness among importers, wholesalers and retailers about the disadvantages of trade in counterfeit and pirated products.

It emphasised the need for training the Customs staff and the police to differentiate between an original item and a counterfeited one.

Speaking at the meeting, Intellectual Property Organisation (IPO) Chairman Pervaiz Kausar said that in this modern day world, intellectual property was one of the basic pillars of any country’s economy.

Protection of IP rights encourages creativity in any society, he added.

Registrar, Trade Mark, Mohammad Mohsin, told Dawn that the committee decided to hold training programmes aimed at checking IP violations effectively at the directorate of Customs Training and Police Academy.

He said the committee felt that there was a need for making stricter IPR protection laws as progress on enforcement had been slow.

The existing laws have not brought about the desired results, he added.

Col (retd) Faiz Mukhtar of Pakistan Intellectual Property Solutions (Pips) informed the committee that as a result of the raids carried out by his squads, book traders at Urdu Bazaar in Karachi have agreed to stop selling pirated books, and in turn the UK publishers, including Cambridge, Pearson and Macgraw Hill, have decided to open their liaison offices in Pakistan.

They have also agreed to either publish their books prone to piracy in Pakistan or give franchise to local publishers.

The step would make available these books to local students at cheaper rates as high cost of books earlier was the main cause of piracy.

Representatives from police, Federal Board of Revenue, Pakistan Customs, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority, Anti-counterfeiting and Infringement Forum, IPO Pakistan, EMI and owners of private investigative agencies attended the meeting.— M.Q.