Dear colleagues / friends,

An eventful year has passed and we are looking forward to the year ahead. Welcoming the New Year, I wish that all of you be blessed with good health, happiness and success in your endeavors.

NIPO E-NEWSLETTER
It is with great pleasure that I present our first newsletter to you. Our main goals are to share information regarding activities of National Intellectual Property Office (NIPO) and IP related information among all its stakeholders and the general public. NIPO intends to circulate this newsletter as a quarterly publication. Apart from this newsletter, you are kindly invited to browse our newly designed tri-lingual website (www.nipo.gov.lk) which contains useful information, resources and links. Through our IP booklets which are freely available at our Help Desk, we share basic information in respect of the subjects which come under IP.
Viewers are welcome to use the information presented, but are kindly requested to cite NIPO as the source, respecting copyright of NIPO. We await your feedback and, also if you wish to share papers or articles with us please do not hesitate to send them in. We will take our best efforts to upload them to our website subject to availability of space.
Now that we are just a few days into the New Year, it is good to look ahead and think of what this New Year may bring about. But first, a quick look back.

NATIONAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFICE (NIPO)
As you all are well aware, NIPO is the sole Government authority which administers the intellectual property system of Sri Lanka as mandated by the Intellectual Property Act No. 36 of 2003. It also fulfills the international obligations of the country under the international conventions concerning intellectual property. NIPO which was established in 1980 under the Code of Intellectual Property Act No. 52 of 1979 commenced its functions under the Ministry of Trade as an independent Government department on 01st January, 1982. The policy and rationale underlying the introduction of law and administrative system of intellectual property was to ensure effective statutory protection to the economic and moral rights of the creators for their intellectual creations. The IP legal regime also promotes creativity of the people in scientific and technological fields and ensures protection for such creations benefitting both the creator and the society equally. Furthermore, protection granted for marks filed by commercial entities ensures establishing a valuable goodwill associated with their own brand names.
The term “intellectual property” encompasses two concepts – first being industrial property which comprises of patents, trademarks, industrial designs, trade secrets, Geographical Indications and ensures protection against the acts of unfair competition. The second is copyright which ensures protection of original literary, artistic and scientific works. It is a widely recognized norm that the concept of intellectual property stimulates the inventiveness. Thus innovative and creative activity, ensures transfer of technology and investment, promotes fair trade and encourages creativity in literary, artistic and scientific work.

OUR ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2018
In 2018, coping with changes surrounding the IP system and striving to create an IP system that will meet the demands of this digital age, NIPO adopted an IT driven, customer centric policy. Our work procedures were streamlined and further automated with the assistance of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Despite having bottlenecks, NIPO made great advances in our progress by providing better services to stakeholders which are published in our official website along with statistical data.
As you may be aware, Government of Sri Lanka has ratified the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) of World Trade Organization, an international treaty which revolves around facilitation of international trade and creation of business friendly environment. In terms of provisions of TFA, National Trade Facilitation Committee has been established in which NIPO is a member. We provided Department of Commerce with IP related information and assisted the latter to establish Sri Lanka Trade Information Portal, a web based platform which provides a single point of access for all trade related information. Complying with TFA requirements, NIPO has initiated a series of trade facilitation measures which have been briefly mentioned below. Launch of our aforesaid website and legal reforms are among such measures.
Last year, NIPO initiated a series of awareness programs, which have been continuing to this day, focusing on the furtherance of innovation skills not only of professionals, stakeholders and the trading community but also of the general public and students. During the last two months alone, NIPO conducted several such programs at the request of various stakeholders which were attended by over 150 participants in different forums. In 2018, NIPO conducted awareness sessions resourced by distinguished foreign IP academics targeting stakeholders and trading community.
The two day long “World Intellectual Property Day” commemorations under the theme “Women in Innovation and Creativity” with the main focus on “copyright” was held in Colombo at Galle Face Hotel in April with the support of WIPO.
Human resources are highly valued and they are our first priority. Ample opportunities have been provided to all IP staff to participate in various international training programs with a view to enhance their capacities, knowledge and skills. Welfare activities for the Staff were also strengthened. The Welfare Society of NIPO held its first ever “Health Camp” to all employees in March. A Sinhala Tamil New Year Festival was organized in April 2018 in order to enhance harmony among the staff and, a religious program titled “Divi Katharata Poda Wessak” was conducted by Rev. Palkumbure Chandima Thero in furtherance of spiritual development.

TOWARDS 2019
Beginning of the New Year has always been an exciting time for NIPO. Turning the calendars does not only give a chance to peep back to the past year but also to look ahead. NIPO dedicates this year to enhance customer-friendly services and setting standards in IP related activities. During this year, NIPO will further improve its services by introducing state of the art IT equipment. We hope to provide you with on-line IP related services which is a long felt need of stakeholders. Our foremost aim is to become a zero-backlog office which will be achieved very soon.
Sri Lanka’s accession to Madrid Protocol too will be completed in the ensuing year affording much needed global IP protection for domestic brands.
In this year, NIPO will also focus on the capacity building of all employees by providing training programs aiming to deliver our services in a much effective way.

NIPO & YOU
Our biggest strength remains the trust of the public to whom we serve. This trust will fortify our commitment to provide quality IP services.
Having concluded another challenging year, I extend my deep appreciation to the staff of NIPO for their dedication, loyalty and support. The continued guidance and support extended to us by the line ministry, Ministry of Industry and Commerce, and the Intellectual Property Advisory Commission have been extremely helpful and encouraging. On behalf of NIPO I also thank IP Agents who are registered with us, for their valued contribution which strengthen our collaboration. I look forward to 2019 being a year of further achievement with productive team work.

I shall be glad if this newsletter deepens your understanding of current status and challenges faced by IP administration. We kindly invite all of you to join hands with us to move forward with the development of our IP services and activities.

Thanking you
Geethanjali R. Ranawaka
Director General of Intellectual Property