HEC has registered 12K research papers

The total number of the research papers registered along with the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in 2002 was 800 which is now reached to 12,000 during the last year.

This fact was shared in a seminar that was organized by Higher Education Commission in association along with the Intellectual Property Organization (IPO) of Pakistan on Intellectual Property Awareness on Monday.

 The seminar, which was an opening occasion for a 4-day training workshop on the Intellectual Property Rights, patent drafting, licensing as well as the valuation being arranged at the similar venue, is funded by the European Union along with the support of Trade Related Technical Assistance (TRTA II) Programme, UNIDO, International Trade Centre and World Intellectual Property Organization. It emphasized on the importance of awareness between the researchers as well as the innovators regarding their rights besides shedding light on the role of Intellectual Property Rights in development of the economy of the state.

The Chairman of IPO Shahid Rashid during his address on the event said highlighted the lack of awareness as the weakest zone in Intellectual Property government in Pakistan. He grieves over that just 1050 patents can be filed in the state during the last 50 years. He also added that during the last five years, Pakistan can file just 117 patents. He observed that the practice of registration of rights has been on a further decay since 2009. He emphasized on that “we need to do a lot of work in this region”.

The chairperson of IPO highlighted the importance of coordination between the various government institutes and ministries to work on trooping of patents, as he said that the absence of coordination has already caused an unembellished loss to the state not just economically however academically as well.

He praised the strategy of Higher Education Commission for the establishment of offices of Research, Innovation as well as Commercialization in over 40 universities in order to promote the research culture in the country and provide the researchers along with the platform as well as the chance to market their work. He also put emphasis on the requirement for bridging the gap among the academia as well as business entities for the promotion and also for the use of research.