KARACHI, Aug 7: Justice Sabihuddin Ahmad, Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court, has suggested to all victims of violation of Intellectual Property Rights to file civil suits in the court to claim for the business losses, as many of them file cases of counterfeiting to stop infringement.

Justice Sabihuddin was chief guest on Saturday at a seminar on “Intellectual Property Rights and their enforcement” held by the Overseas Investors’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) in collaboration with the Sindh Judicial Academy. In his remarks, the Sindh chief justice said damage civil suits would bring to light the investment made by the companies in developing their products.

Hanse Dewaele, chairman of the OICCI’s standing sub-committee on IPR and country-manager of a Pakistan-based multinational, informed the audience that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had been empowered to take actions against IPR violations and disclosed that “some raids have been made”.

The re-establishment of the Pakistan Intellectual Property Right Organization (PIPRO) towards the end of deadline set in 2005 was mentioned as good news towards enforcement of IPR laws.The non-compliance of IPR, he pointed out, caused a loss of Rs66 billion to the government and additional loss of 8,900 jobs because of sliding away of the new investment.

OICCI President Salman Burney warned that those countries where IPR laws were not respected were bound to end up as perpetual investment starving destinations. “We have no dearth of creative talent in the country, but our artists suffer because their works are pirated,” he said.

Other speakers include Naveed Aftab, Ameena Saiyid, Shahid Qureshi and Hasan Irfan Khan.