There is virtually no local patent that has been commercialised. 90 pc patents are filed by individuals based in other countries. – File Photo

KARACHI: Only 10 per cent of the 50,000 patents registered in Pakistan since 1947 are local patents while the rest are foreign (filed by individuals based in other countries). Moreover, there is virtually no local patent that has been commercialised.

Pakistan has tremendous potential for the development of indigenous herbal drugs and there is a dire need for traditional knowledge and practices to be documented, preserved and researched.

These points were among those highlighted at a day-long workshop on patent protection for research and development at Karachi University (KU) on Wednesday.

The programme was jointly organised by the Pakistan Scientific and Technological Information Centre (PASTIC), an affiliate of the Pakistan Science Foundation, Ministry of Science and Technology, in collaboration with the HEJ, International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), KU.

Giving a presentation on selected case studies and international patents of the ICCBS, Prof Dr M. Iqbal Choudhary, director, ICCBS, said that there had been a radical shift in the approach and mindset of funding agencies and scientists were now being asked to conduct applied research that was relevant to national requirements.

Patents, he said, were an important indicator of scientists’ performance and international patents should be given considerably more weightage than research publications.

“The process of getting an international patent has become much easier with the financial assistance of the Higher Education Commission (HEC), which takes care of all related expenses.

“However, a patent should not be acquired for the sake of a patent as that would be sheer wastage of resources. One should make an effort for something which is worth patenting,” he said, listing novelty and utility as two major requirements for a patent.

Dr Iqbal stressed the need for documenting and preserving indigenous knowledge and practices and said that, compared to many other countries, Pakistan had the advantage of being rich in medicinal plants.

To explain his point, he cited a conversation he had with a senior medical expert who told him there was no difference between the life-spans of people in rural and urban areas in this country if one overlooked the incidence of high child and maternal mortality in rural settings.

“This means that those living without basic medical care and sanitation infrastructure must be doing something we are unaware of that helps them develop a strong immune system,” he said, adding that surveys had shown that people in rural areas use herbal remedies to treat various ailments.

Highlighting the achievements of the HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry, Dr Iqbal said that US patents had been acquired for a number of medicines, although this was not being done earlier because the late Prof Dr Salimuzzaman Siddiqui, the founder director of the HEJ, believed that research outcomes were a shared human heritage and as such did not require a patent.

“We have also discovered new anti-epileptic agents and moved towards their commercialisation by getting approval for clinical trials. We don’t know whether we will be able to develop a drug from these or not. But this is the farthest we have come to doing so in 35 to 40 years,” he said.

Tousif Haider Mirza, representing United Trademark and Patent Services, a private firm based in Lahore, elaborated upon the concept of intellectual property rights (IPR), the unfortunate lack of awareness about them, their importance and the protection they could provide to an individual’s inventions, brands and designs.

In Pakistan, he said, most patent applications were related to the field of chemistry, particularly pharmaceutical chemistry.

The Gazette of Pakistan, also available online, was a helpful guide in getting latest information about the patents being acquired in the country, he told the audience.

Mr Tousif also gave details of the multinational companies operating in Pakistan that have acquired hundreds of patents and pointed out that sufficient revenue, a team of qualified researchers, a conducive environment and reliable legal protection of the outcome were important factors in research and development.

Tracing the history of IPR in Pakistan, Sabir Gul Khattak, controller of patents and registrar of designs, International Property Organisation of Pakistan (IPO), said that the old intellectual property law prevalent in Pakistan was the Patent Act of 1911 which was replaced by the Patent Ordinance in 2000 that was amended in 2002.

“A patent can be acquired for a product, process or improvement in the product. About 1000 to 1200 patent applications are filed every year. Of them, only 10 per cent are local patents while the rest are from foreign countries. The process for obtaining a patent takes two to three years,” he said.

Retired brigadier Rashid Ali Malik, who heads a private security firm which also provides services to individuals and companies seeking help in protecting their products, spoke about IPR enforcement in Pakistan.

“We have conducted over 2100 raids in 13 years to check manufacturing and sale of counterfeit products across the country.

The success rate has been 90 per cent, meaning that in most cases people directly involved in the business were caught. Only 10 per cent of those cases went to court while the rest were settled between the parties,” said the retired brigadier.

The raids were carried out with the help of the police which was informed about the raid at the eleventh hour, he pointed out, adding that poor implementation of the law and support from influential quarters had helped the counterfeit business grow in the country.