Innovation Incubators in Pakistan — Part 9 of 12 · By Sameer Sami, Founder & Principal Attorney, SAMI & SAMI (Attorneys-at-Law)
“A patent is only as valuable as the trust people have in the office that grants it.”
IPO-Pakistan unifies four registries — Patents, Designs, Trademarks, and Copyright — under one autonomous body. For years, the common complaint was the same across all four: slow, paper-heavy, and inconsistent.
That is beginning to change. Fresh technical hiring, more competitive salaries, and defined performance benchmarks are the first step toward a department that can attract genuinely qualified examiners. Internally, IPO-Pakistan already uses WIPO’s IPAS system to manage filings and record Opposition proceedings for Trademarks, Patents, and Designs in a shared database.
Pakistan also already has IP Tribunals — established under the IPO-Pakistan Act 2012, growing from three (Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi) to five by the end of 2023 (adding Rawalpindi and Quetta). The problem is not their absence; it is that they exercise civil jurisdiction under the Code of Civil Procedure 1908, so IP disputes still move at conventional civil-suit pace, often taking years rather than the fast, specialized resolution the assets deserve.
Progress so far is real but partial: online e-filing for trademarks has started, but is not yet fully operational and still faces technical issues, and credit-card-enabled international payment remains largely absent.
The reform agenda that would change this is broad, not narrow:
Fully functional online filing and payment for patents, designs, and copyright, not only trademarks.
Electronic registration certificates and video-enabled hearings for ex-parte, opposition, and invalidation proceedings, sparing applicants nationwide the cost of travel.
Fully digitized, publicly searchable records across all four registries.
A differentiated fee schedule for foreign applicants, charged in USD and deposited directly into IPO-Pakistan’s own account — the practice in many national IP offices — turning the registry into a revenue-generating, self-sustaining department rather than a cost center.
Pakistan joined the Madrid System in 2021 as its 108th member, and the Trade Marks (Amendment) Act 2023 added a dedicated Madrid chapter to the Trade Marks Ordinance 2001. The remaining task is practical: ensuring examination, records and IP Tribunal enforcement handle Madrid-based registrations as smoothly as national ones.