Patents

We assist clients in the protection, maintenance, enforcement and commercialization of patent rights in Pakistan and across multiple jurisdictions, combining technical expertise with strategic legal advisory to support innovation and maximize commercial value.

• Requirements: the invention must be new, involve an inventive step and be capable of industrial application (section 7(1)).
• Absolute novelty: the state of the art includes everything disclosed to the public anywhere in the world, in writing, orally, by use or otherwise, before the filing or priority date, and traditional knowledge of local or indigenous communities (section 8(2)).
• Limited grace period: only display at an official or officially recognised international exhibition within the 12 months before filing is disregarded (section 8(3)). Your own publication, sale or presentation can destroy novelty.
• Not inventions, as such (section 7(2)–(3)): discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods; aesthetic creations; schemes or methods for mental acts, games or doing business; presentation of information; substances that exist in nature.
• Not patentable (section 7(4)): inventions contrary to public order or morality; plants and animals other than micro-organisms, and essentially biological processes; diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical methods; a new or subsequent use of a known product or process; and a mere change in the physical appearance of a chemical product.
• Keep the invention confidential, and use non-disclosure agreements, until an application is filed.

Patent protection in Pakistan is governed by the Patents Ordinance, 2000 and the Patents Rules, 2003, and administered by the Intellectual Property Organization of Pakistan.

A granted patent provides exclusive rights for a period of 20 years from the filing date (section 31), subject to payment of annual renewal fees.

Pakistan operates on a first-to-file system, and there is no utility model or petty patent regime, meaning protection is available only through full patent filings.

We provide end-to-end patent services across the patent protection cycle.

Patent protection does not automatically grant the right to commercialize an invention. Businesses must ensure that their activities do not infringe third-party rights.

We provide:

• freedom-to-operate (FTO) searches
• infringement risk assessments
• design-around strategies
• competitor patent analysis

Patent protection is governed by a combination of national legislation and international legal instruments:

Compulsory (non-voluntary) licences. After four years from the filing date or three years from grant, whichever expires last, the Controller may issue a non-voluntary licence to prevent abuse of patent rights, for example failure to work the invention (section 59(1)). No licence is issued if the owner shows circumstances that justify non-exploitation or insufficient exploitation in Pakistan (section 59(2)). Separately, the Federal Government may authorise a government agency or third person to exploit a patent in the public interest, against anti-competitive practices, where a licence on reasonable commercial terms is refused, or where the patent has not been exploited to promote innovation and technology transfer, subject to adequate remuneration (section 58).

No supplementary protection. Pakistan has no supplementary protection certificate or patent term extension. The term is fixed at 20 years from filing (section 31), which matters for pharmaceutical and agrochemical lifecycle planning.

Standard-essential patents and FRAND. Pakistan has no specific rules or guidelines on licensing standard-essential patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. Telecom licensing questions therefore turn on the Patents Ordinance (including sections 58 and 59), the licence agreement and the Competition Act, 2010.