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Assignment 4

Muhammad Shaheer

Air University
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Intellectual property

Intellectual property is anything intangible created by human mind. Intellectual property

belongs to the person who created it or put work into creating the product, only this person can

decide who makes it, how and where it is used and who can sell and profit from it. Intellectual

property is the output of innovation, new products and technologies. Intellectual property rights

not only provide protection, but can also drive success for businesses of all sizes.

There are laws and regulations to protect intellectual property once a person is ready to

go public with it. There are four major paths to legal protection which are stated as follows.

Patents

A patent is basically a set of rights granted by the government to the creator over the

intellectual property for a specific period of time in exchange for detailed and public revelation

of the invention. Patents cover things like inventions, new processes, new machines and new

ways of manufacturing things.

Copyright

Copyright is obtained by the creator or owner of certain piece of art to ensure that

artwork is neither renamed for some other artist nor can it be sold without the agreement of the

actual owner to anyone. Copyright protects works like art, music, writings, movies and even

software.

Trademark

Using a trademark covers unique branding and identifiers like business names, logos,

slogans, mascots and more. Businesses use various logos, names and slogans to promote their

work and for the reason of individuality, trademark rights over those logos, names, and slogans
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are obtained such that no other business or start-up can impersonate to be them and make profits

out of their name or defame them.

Trade Secrets

Trade secrets make sure that things like manufacturing processes, formulas, and

compilation of information never make it into the wrong hands. Intellectual information that can

provide competitive edge to a certain business generally falls in this category and is kept secret

for this reason.

Obtaining Intellectual Property Rights

Getting these protections seems like a lot of time and effort but it is essential to protect one self

in the world and their work. Each form of intellectual property can be obtained by following

their standard procedures.

Patent

Firstly, a patent specification document is compiled. After submission of the patent

specification, patent form is filled and filling fee is submitted against the patent. After

completion of this process, the application needs to be delivered to one of the locations i.e.,

controller of patents in Karachi, Chamber of commerce in Lahore or IPO headquarters in

Islamabad. The patent examiner then examines the patent application and accepts or rejects the

application.

Copyright

Firstly, the owner needs to fill an application for copyright. IPO then conducts a secure

copyright test. The results for this test are published in newspaper against artistic work only. In

case no opposition rises up against that work of art, the copyright is issued to the owner.
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Trademark

To obtain trademark, a trademark request form is submitted. Along with this request

form, 8 copies of reproduced trademark i.e., logo, are provided. Further, a list of services and

goods against which this trademark is to be used is provided to the IPO. Trademark payment is

made. After thorough examination of the full case, trademark request is accepted or rejected.

Trade Secrets

Pakistan has no legislation that protects trade secrets.

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References:

https://www.startup.pk/how-to-file-a-patent-application-in-pakistan/

https://ipo.gov.pk/copyrights

https://www.techjuice.pk/how-to-register-a-trademark-in-pakistan/#:~:text=Prescribed

%20Application%20Form%20(TM%20Form,General%2C%20IPO

%20%E2%80%93%20Pakistan).