ISLAMABAD, April 26: A panel discussion on the occasion of World Intellectual Property (IP) Day was organised by Lok Virsa at Shakarparian on Thursday. The theme was ‘Traditional Knowledge, Folklore and Intellectual Property (IP) Rights in Pakistan.’

Federal Secretary Ministry of National Heritage and Integration Asif Ghafoor was the chief guest on the occasion. The panelists who took part in the discussion were Khalid Javaid, Executive Director, Lok Virsa, Ahmed Saleem, South Asia Research and Resource Centre, Abdul Shakoor Sindhu, Principal Coordinator, Rural Development Policy Institute (RDPI), Dr. Nadeem Omar, Director, Centre for Culture and Development, Zafarullah Khan, Executive Director, Centre for Civic Education, Dr. Khadim Hussain, Executive Director, Bacha Khan Research Centre, Mazhar Arif, Managing Director, School of Political and Strategic Communication and others.

While addressing the gathering, Asif Ghafoor said: “Intellectual Property Right is an important subject for Pakistan.

I am glad that now a lot of awareness about it is seen in the institutions and among the individuals dealing with various national projects in the country. We fully support them and offer them our help wherever required.”

The dialogue was aimed at stimulating a discussion on the role of IP in national culture.

Specific objectives were to analyse the threats and opportunities for the development of national cultural heritage in the context of Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (Trips) Agreement and cultural diversity; to discuss the effectiveness of IP Rights legislation for the protection of national cultural heritage; and to highlight the issues in monitoring of IP Rights and to discuss the measures needed to put in place effective institutional mechanisms for tracking violation of IP Rights in traditional knowledge and folklore.

Intellectual property rights are like other property rights. They allow creators of new goods with designs, qualities, or owners of patents, trademarks or copyrighted works to benefit from their own work. These rights are outlined in Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which provides for the right to benefit from the authorship of scientific, literary or artistic productions.

World Intellectual Property Day (World IP Day) is celebrated every year on April 26, to raise awareness of how patents, copyright, trademarks and designs impact on daily life and to celebrate creativity and the contribution made by creators and innovators to the development of societies across the globe.

World IP Day offers an exciting chance each year to join with others around the globe, to highlight, discuss and demonstrate the importance of IP for the development of national and sub-national cultures and economies.