PAKISTAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Ali Kabir Shah, Hanya Haroon, Talib Ali Shah and Saif Ahmed, Ali & Associates
submitted and no third-party interests shall be affected, the Registrar issues a certificate of assignment validating the assignment of the trade mark in the name of the assignee. Section 69(3) of the Ordinance permits partial assignment, meaning an assignment can relate to some but not all goods or services for which the trade mark is registered or can be specific to the use of the trade mark in a particular manner or in a particular locality. Assignment of a Copyright Section 14 of the Copyright Ordinance provides that an owner of copyright in an existing work or a prospective owner of a future work can assign their copyright to any individual, either wholly or partially, and this right can be subject to certain limits set by the owner. These limita - tions include the timeframe of the assignment (ie, it can include the entire length of the term of copyright protection or can be for a specific time period). In the case of future works of copyright, the cop - yright is assigned only when the work comes into existence. Where the owner of the copyright is also the author of the work, the assignment of the copyright in the work is only effective for a period of ten years. This is an express statutory limitation. Upon expiry of the ten-year period, the assign - ment of the copyright will revert back to the owner, who is then free to reassign the copy - right. If the owner is deceased, their rights will be assigned to their heirs or legal representatives, who shall have the same rights as them in the work. This statutory period of limitation does not apply to any assignment made in favour of a governmental, educational, charitable, religious or non-profit institution.
In terms of the assignment of copyright in unpublished works that has been assigned by its author to any person or organisation that wishes to publish the work, the rights of the work revert back to the author if the work is not published within three years of the date of assignment. Section 14(2) of the Ordinance stipulates that, upon assignment, the assignee, in respect of the rights that have been assigned to them, and the assignor, in respect of the rights not assigned to them, are treated as the owners of the copyright for the duration of the assignment. The special rights of the author are also valid during the period of assignment, and they can take legal action if any alteration to their work damages their honour or reputation. Any owner or publisher of the copyright, or any publisher who has the copyright assigned to them, can apply to the Copyright Board if they consider any terms of the assignment to be adverse to they own interests, within one year of the assignment. The Board will hear from both parties and consider the matter. The order of the Board will be binding on both parties in accord - ance with Section 14(2A) of the Ordinance. All assignments are valid only when an agree - ment is made in writing and signed by the assignor or their duly authorised representative. Any assignment of copyright can be registered with the Registrar of Copyrights once a party files the prescribed form with the Registry, which will then record the granting of the assignment on its database. 6.2 Licensing Requirements or Restrictions Licensing of a Trade Mark A trade mark may be licensed exclusively or non-exclusively, in whole or in part, limited by
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