Understanding the Jurisdiction of Pakistan's Specialized Courts for Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement

Abstract

On 01 October 2015, the Intellectual Property Organization of Pakistan confirmed through a press release that Pakistan’s Federal Government has appointed presiding officers to three Intellectual Property Tribunals (IP Tribunals) that have been set up pursuant to mandate of Intellectual Property Organization of Pakistan Act, 2012 (IPOPA’12). This certainly is a long-awaited development. That will improve intellectual property rights development in Pakistan, as well as a demonstration of pragmatism of Pakistan authorities.

This article provides an overview as to the jurisdiction that these IP Tribunals are to exercise in Pakistan. For convenient reading the body of this article has been arranged into nine parts as below. The first serves as the introduction to subject matter of this article, the second part in general terms lists the practical benefits of having IP Tribunals, the third part identifies the causes of actions that expressly have been included in the original jurisdiction of IP Tribunals, the fourth part analyses the causes of action that IP Tribunals can try in its capacity as a civil court, the fifth part alludes the causes of action that IP Tribunals can try in its capacity as a criminal court, the sixth part points out the causes of action that do not fall within the jurisdiction of IP Tribunals, the seventh part notes the thresholds as to transfer of pending cases to IP Tribunals, as well as to the appeals that can be preferred against the rulings of IP tribunals, the eight part described the powers and composition of IP Tribunals, and the final ninth part serves as the conclusion to this article.

Keywords: Intellectual Property, Pakistan, Law, Courts, Specialized Judiciary, Tribunal