A two-day workshop on Madrid Protocol, organized by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), held at Hotel Radisson in Kathmandu has been completed. The workshop saw wide participation from within the Nepali Film industry and beyond.  The program, which also highlighted USPTO's role in promoting trademark and fighting piracy, ended with distribution of certificates to participants. 




Nancy Omelko (Attorney Advisor), Shilpi Jha and Attiya Malik, employees of USPTO, provided presentations on USPTO,  WIPO,   Trademark and   American Trademark  during the workshop. Representatives from Ministry of Industry, Copy Rights Act Nepal, US Nepal Chamber of Commerce, FNCCI, Legal Community, Producer's Association and other sectors attended the programme and raised their trademark problems in front of Nancy, Attiya and Shilpi.



The trio, meanwhile, encouraged the community to work more with USPTO regrading intellecutual property and assured them of protection and further trainings.  
Actor, Director and President of Film Producers’ Association, Akash Adhikari, said that to save the Nepali film industry from piracy is his foremost concern and agenda.  ‘When producers gave me the responsibility of President of Film Producers’ Association,  they wanted me to do something to save the industry from the crippling practice of piracy. This programme has helped us form an idea about what must be done in the future', he said.




Shilpi Jha said, ‘The government of Nepal must have a very strong intellectual property and anti-piracy law.  We are always ready to help but the film industry has to be locally protected within a country first and for that to happen stringent law and punishment measures should be brought forth for any intellectual property violation'.