PUBLICATIONS

The intellectual property attorneys at PakPat stay abreast of the latest developments in intellectual property law and are therefore frequently published. Our foreign publications in world’s renowned journals allow us to keep our clients informed of recent developments in the evolving field of intellectual property law.

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• How to avoid compulsory licenses – Managing Intellectual Property, May 2013, 117-118

The quid pro que behind grant of a patent in a country other than that of its origin is to help making scientific advances by dissemination of knowledge and transfer of technology. Exploitation of patented invention without ….  Read More

• How to avoid non-unity challenges – Managing Intellectual Property, April 2013, 101

The statutory requirement contained in the Pakistan patent law that “claim or claims of a complete specification shall relate to a single invention” impliedly suggests that there may be two inventions housed in one specification but to the extent of  ….  Read More

• Gene patent practice diverges from the US – Managing Intellectual Property, March 2013, 145

To be patent-eligible, apart from being novel, non-obvious and industrially applicable, patent laws require an invention must not fall within the list of subject-matter specifically excluded from patent protection. Such a listing in Pakistan effectively precludes patenting of “substances that exist in nature or ….  Read More

• Enhanced protection for process inventions – Managing Intellectual Property, Feb. 2013

Whilst product patent in Pakistan confers on its owner the exclusive right to make, use, offer for sale, sell or import for these purposes that product, the scope of protection under a process patent is also extended to acts done against “at least” the product directly obtained by that process ….  Read More

• Selective species of an earlier disclosed “genus” is patentable – Managing Intellectual Property, Dec. 2012-Jan. 2013, 62

The general test for anticipation in the Pakistan Patents Ordinance 2000 is that “an invention must not form part of the ‘state of the art’; that is it must not be ‘disclosed’ to the public anywhere in the world by publication in ….  Read More

• Grant of Markush-style claims clarifies patent scope –  Managing Intellectual Property, Nov. 2012, 76-77

From the standpoint of patent laws, every patent application is allowed to cover one invention only or a group of inventions linked by a unifying underlying concept. For instance, a product and a process especially adapted for the manufacture of that product; a process and ….  Read More

• Patent Office follows Canada on plant patentability – Managing Intellectual Property, October 2012, 75

Since the enforcement of TRIPs compliant patent law of Pakistan – the Patents Ordinance 2000, the PK-PO approach towards determination of the question of patentability against genetically modified plants cum plant varieties related applications remained overly-narrow ….  Read More 

• New use patents run risk of opposition – Managing Intellectual Property, Sep. 2012, 103-104

“New or subsequent use of a known product” is amongst the subject matters specifically excluded from the scope of patentable inventions in Pakistan [Sec. 7(4)(d) of the 2000 Ordinance]. Yet regardless of the said legal position prevailing since the 2000 Ordinance went into effect; the fact that mere changing the category of claim to give a specifically excluded subject matter an inventive gloss is not sufficient to evade the prohibition, as well as ….  Read More

• Patenting life sciences – Managing Intellectual Property, IP Focus, 9th Edition, 43-46

While biotechnology and life sciences inventions have been so long within the patent fold, and from their inception the industry has been sustained by such patents, patenting in this field still today poses considerable problems often provoking a rash of litigation. Although in Pakistan there has never been a general embargo on patents which involve living matter, yet for a long time, ….  Read More

• Bio-prospecting: Pakistan patent law treats contribution of indigenous knowledge as ‘non-inventive’ – CIPA Journal, Vol. 40 (10), 633-635

Exploitation of traditional knowledge (TK) and indigenous biological resources (IBRs) such as plants, microbes and genetic materials) of developing countries for the development of new medicinal products or synthetic reproduction of natural products, previously recognized for their therapeutic value, by the research-based companies typically from the developed world is a ….  Read More

• Important issues relating to Pakistan – asialaw IP Review, Vol. 3 Issue 4, 26-29

Multinational companies (MNCs) engaged in the development of pharmaceutical and agricultural chemical products are a substantial source of Intellectual Property (lP) related activities in Pakistan. The said companies roughly account for more than 60% of the lP assets in the country. Since the enactment of the Patents Ordinance 2000 and availability of provisional protection in the form of exclusive marketing rights (EMR) ….  Read More

• Drafting patent claims in Pakistan – an analysis of the conventional and current practices – asialaw IP Review, Issue Jan., 15-17

In patent process patent claims hold significance analogous to a nucleus in an atom. May it be the question of novelty or infringement analysis work, or of invalidity, every step of patent process revolves around claims. Therefore, drafting of claims and interpretation has always been a matter of ….  Read More

• The end of the Black Box/ Mail Box Filing Era in Pakistan – asialaw IP Review, Vol. 2 Issue 3, 13-14

The year 2005 is continuing to pose multi-dimensional challenges for both the patent practitioners and the Patent Office in Pakistan. January brought the end of the so-called Black Box/Mail Box filing era (hereafter, Black Box filing), which had come into existence after Pakistan signed the World Trade Organization’s agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) agreement. Effective from ….  Read More