EU invests in local intellectual property rights laws to safeguard European brands

The EU is investing € 100,000 in local intellectual property laws to make sure European brands and copyrights are protected in Sri Lanka.





The EU is investing € 100,000 in local intellectual property laws to make sure European brands and copyrights are protected in Sri Lanka. "The budget for the entire project is around Î 100,000.





Implementation can take place within the next three weeks," said Roshan Lyman, Economic and Trade Advisor, Delegation of the European Commission in Sri Lanka.

Part of the euros will go into the National Intellectual Property Office to computerise the registration process and search facilities that is now done manually.

The balance will go into training programmes to educate the local police on identification of intellectual property violations and enforcement of local legislation.

Although piracy is common in the island, at this point, the National Intellectual Property Office (NIPO) has no data on actual market conditions.

"The police might have some idea because of the raids they do but the police don’t have a concrete system for statistics," said Director General, NIPO, D M Karunaratne.