KARACHI, March 12: The Intellectual Property Organisation (IPO) has declared Hub Industrial Estate as free from intellectual property rights (IPR) violations.

This was revealed at a seminar, jointly organised by the IPO and Lasbela Chamber of Commerce and Industry, recently at the Lasbela Industrial Estate Development Authority (Lieda) head office.

Senior vice chairman of the Lasbela Chamber Ismail Sattar informed the participants that no complaint of counterfeiting or imitation of products manufactured in Hub Industrial Estate had been reported.

This was in contrary to violation of trademarks, copyrights and patent rules rampant in other industrial estates of the city.

Registrar Trademarks of IPO Mohammad Mohsin appreciated the achievement of the industrial units in Hub for complete observance of the IPR rules.

The seminar was organised on the demand of local industries to strengthen their organisations’ understanding of IPR rules.

It was attended by 25 participants belonging to cement, pharmaceutical, textile, automobile, chemicals, salt and food industries.

Mr Mohsin told Dawn that the IPO would consider giving awards to industrial estates for their compliance with the IPR rules.

Such industrial estates would be presented as model zones and investors would be asked to set up factories there without any fear of imitation or counterfeiting of their products.

Addressing the seminar the Registrar of Trademarks stressed the need for better understanding and compliance with the IPR rules to ensure quick, fair and optimum benefits for the business community.

He highlighted the recent steps taken by IPO Pakistan to improve service delivery to its clients, such as automation of the registry and speedy delivery of registration certificates.

Ismail Sattar said the compliance of IPR rules was essential to provide protection to the SMEs, which could increase their profits through fair-play and could bring economic prosperity to Balochistan.

The seminar was also addressed by Shakeel Abbasi, registrar Copyrights and Mrs Yasmeen Abbasi, Controller Patents of IPO.

Ismail Sattar, senior vice chairman of Lasbela chamber, told Dawn that the Hub industrial Estate was a compact industrial area having 215 small and large scale industries. The industries maintain a cordial working relationship with the local community, offering them jobs in both skilled and unskilled positions.

All industries contribute Rs5 for every 1,000 gallons of water consumed by them into a fund, which is used for providing education, health and water facility to local residents.

He said that Hub Industrial Estate was the only estate in Karachi where not a single tyre was burnt on roads on the assassination of PPP leader Benazir Bhutto on Dec 27.