KCCI seeks protection of geographical indication of products

KARACHI: Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) President Anjum Nisar has urged the federal government to promulgate Geographical Indications Law and establish a GI Registry in Pakistan.
Addressing the members of KCCI Intellectual Property Rights Sub-Committee here on Wednesday, he underscored the need for protection at both local and global levels, of the country traditional and indigenous items, produced at cottage industry level as well as by mid-level manufacturers and industrialists.
The government, he said, must secure GIs of Pakistani Basmati, Sindhri Mango, Chaunsa Mango, Anwarratol Mango, Sargodha Kinno, Sindhi Ajrak and Cap, Multani Mitti, Kashmiri Pashmina Shawl, Chiniot Furniture, Hala Furniture & handicraft and other traditional indigenous products first in Pakistan and then globally. The KCCI president expressed his apprehensions that otherwise other countries could secure Pakistani GIs as their own and seriously affect the country exports.
He said that India has already promulgated GI law and had established GI registry in 2003 and only recently also approved IPR Protection Bill in parliament and mandated its Agri Export Promoting Authority (APEDA). India now intends and is propagating to register majority of Pakistani Traditional Indigenous Products as GIs of India, said the senior industrialist.
Anjum Nisar said in Pakistan the draft on GI law was submitted to the Ministry of Commerce in the year 2000 and IPO Pakistan initiated its working in the year 2006, whereas the proposed draft of Bill on GIs is still pending before the concerned ministry.
He on behalf of the business community expressed his fear that if the government failed to take immediate measures to implement and promulgate the GIs law and its Registry and does not register Pakistani GI first in the country and then globally, the exports of traditional and indigenous products would be badly hampered.
In order to avoid confrontation among the private sector, the KCCI president urged the government to secure GIs under its competent authority like the TDAP.http://www.forexpk.com/finance/5239