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Decide whether you need a filing stopped, use withdrawn, stock traced, imports intercepted, or urgent relief.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
- Preserve the newspaper advertisement and act promptly: section 39 provides an objection stage for artistic works after advertisement.
- Send a reasoned objection to the Registrar with the earlier artwork and ownership documents; verify the operative period on the actual file.
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.
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.