Your rights
Identify the owner, mark, registration and goods or services. Check current status and retain the certificate or register extract.
Practical resource · Pakistan
Brand Owner Toolkit
Identify a potential conflict, preserve useful evidence and choose a proportionate next step for protecting a brand in Pakistan.
Start here
Three questions before taking action
A strong response starts with the right details. Record what right you own, what the other party is doing and what outcome matters commercially.
The activity
Capture the mark as actually used, products, listings, seller identity, location and dates. Keep original files and purchase records.
The objective
Decide whether you need a filing stopped, use withdrawn, stock traced, imports intercepted, or urgent relief.
Interactive assessment
Trade mark conflict worksheet
This worksheet organises the facts for a first review. It does not decide whether two marks are legally confusingly similar.
For privacy, entries remain in this page while it is open. This page does not transmit or store them. Avoid entering confidential information on a shared device.
Cross-rights challenge
When someone registers your brand artwork as copyright
A competitor may seek an artistic-work copyright entry for a logo, label or packaging artwork associated with your brand. Investigate the underlying authorship and ownership promptly. The existence of a certificate is a serious evidential matter, but the statutory presumption is prima facie and an entry can be challenged through the prescribed process.
1. Obtain the full record
- Secure the application, reproduced artwork, advertisement, certificate or certified register extract, and claimed author, owner and creation date.
- Identify whether the work is merely similar or substantially reproduces your artwork.
2. Prove your chain of title
- Gather original design files, sketches, dated briefs, agency or employee agreements, assignments and first publication or use evidence.
- Keep trade mark registrations and historic packaging alongside the copyright evidence; they address related but distinct rights.
3. If the application is pending
- Obtain the application details and preserve the dated newspaper advertisement and any Copyright Journal publication of the artistic work. Section 39(2) allows objections within one month after advertisement, subject to any extension determined by the Registrar (not exceeding two months). Check the filing, advertisement and any extension on the actual record immediately.
- File a reasoned objection with the Registrar of Copyrights within the applicable period, enclosing earlier artwork, evidence of creation and use, and documents establishing authorship and title. Request an opportunity to be heard and retain proof of filing and service.
4. If an entry has been made
- Obtain a certified entry and assess rectification before the Copyright Board under section 41(2), including expungement of an entry wrongly made or remaining on the Register.
- Address any separate trade mark infringement, passing off or misuse in parallel where the facts warrant it.
Do not treat a trade mark registration alone as conclusive proof of copyright ownership. The artist, employment or commissioning terms, assignments and actual artwork may determine the copyright position. Preserve a copy of any demand or enforcement threat based on the disputed certificate.
Legal basis: Copyright Ordinance, 1962, sections 13, 39, 41 and 42; Copyright Rules, 1967, rules 4 and 5. The correct route and any live deadline must be checked against the official file and current practice.
Evidence preservation
Build an evidence pack
Select what you have and use the remaining items as a collection list. Keep originals and note who obtained each item and when.
Decision map · Pakistan
Brand enforcement: civil and penal routes
Follow the evidence and the nature of the conduct. The two routes may proceed in parallel where their separate legal requirements are met.
1 · Detect and preserve
Record the mark, goods or services, source, date, screenshots, purchase samples, packaging and any journal or copyright entry.
2 · Verify rights and assess conduct
Check ownership and subsisting rights; compare the marks and products; identify actual use, confusion, counterfeiting, urgency and the persons involved.
Registration issue only?
If there is a published trade mark application but no proved market use, diary and assess opposition. If a third party has applied for or obtained copyright registration in brand artwork, obtain the record and assess objection, rectification or other relief. These do not by themselves establish a penal offence.
Civil path · stop or remedy misuse
3A · Choose a response
Consider a measured cease-and-desist notice and undertaking, or proceed urgently where notice may defeat effective relief.
4A · Bring a claim
Seek advice on an infringement or passing-off claim before the competent IP Tribunal, with interim injunction or preservation relief where justified.
5A · Obtain and enforce relief
As supported by the claim and evidence: final injunction, damages or account, erasure or delivery up, costs and compliance monitoring.
Penal path · alleged offence
3B · Test the offence
Identify the precise trade mark or copyright offence and evidence of its statutory elements. Similarity or an adverse filing alone is insufficient.
4B · Initiate lawful process
Prepare a documented complaint through the appropriate authority and seek any search or seizure only under the applicable legal procedure.
5B · Investigation and trial
Preserve chain of custody, support investigation and prosecution before the competent IP Tribunal; conviction and sentence depend on proof and judicial findings.
6 · Review outcome and next actions
Monitor undertakings or orders, stock and online listings; consider Customs intervention for imports and update evidence, deadlines and costs.
Route selection is fact-specific. Civil and penal procedures have different thresholds and remedies; a notice is not a compulsory first step. Check current law, jurisdiction and procedural requirements before filing.
Choose a route
Common enforcement paths
The right sequence depends on the evidence, commercial aim and procedural dates. These are planning routes, not automatic recommendations.
Seek voluntary action
A tailored cease-and-desist notice can request withdrawal, disclosure, an undertaking and a response by a stated date.
Challenge an application
Where a conflicting mark is published, confirm the official journal entry and applicable opposition period promptly.
Address imports
Consider Customs recordal and a practical product identification guide where suspect goods may cross the border.
Object or seek rectification
If a rival claims copyright in your brand artwork, secure the full record, prove authorship and title, and assess objection or rectification.
Stop urgent harm
Where evidence and urgency justify it, obtain advice on an injunction, preservation, seizure and further relief.
Working plan
From discovery to decision
1. Preserve
- Save the journal page or dated listing.
- Take clear photographs of all sides of the product.
- Keep receipts, original packaging and source details.
2. Verify
- Check ownership and current registration status.
- Confirm the other party and the goods or services.
- Diary any publication or response date.
3. Assess
- Compare sound, appearance, meaning and context.
- Consider actual use, channels of trade and evidence.
- Identify the business result sought.
4. Act
- Choose a proportionate route and budget.
- Record responsibility and the next deadline.
- Review the result and escalation options.
Discuss a matter
Need a considered enforcement plan?
Send us the mark, the material you have found and the result you seek. We can assess the record and advise on a suitable course.
Email Khursheed Khan & AssociatesThis toolkit provides general information. It does not establish a solicitor–client relationship or replace advice on a particular matter.