Intellectual Property Rights and Gender-Based Violence in Pakistan: Safeguarding Women's Innovations and Rights

Abstract

The combined area of research of IP rights and gender-based violence or GBV, is fairly under-researched, especially within the developing world context of Pakistan. WIPR is crucial for the acclaim and protection of the quotient of women’s innovation; however, GBV can significantly affect WIPR. This paper aims to unveil how multiple and intersecting factors of GBV and women’s intellectual property rights intersect with the moderating factor of access to legal support and resources (ALSR). Appreciating these relationships is paramount in steering efforts on how women’s innovations and rights can be protected comprehensively given the current socio-legal trends aching the arena.

Again, gender-based violence entails physical, emotional and even economic violence in equal measure, all of which hinders women from engaging effectively in intellectual and economic productivity. In Pakistan, where GBV remains a rampant social concern, the effects of GBV are not only limited to the individual and psychological harm but also a woman’s employment and career advancement. Such, GBV may demoralize women and decrease their chances of going to school, or impede women’s capacity to assert and defend their rights in innovations. To date, a close connection between GBV and women’s IPR is yet unexplored, and thus there is a research gap in comprehensively analyzing how gender-based violence impacts the protection and enforcement of the rights in question.

Legal assistance and available legal assets enable the moderating of the impacts of GBV on women’s IPRs. Compliance assistance can empower women in IP procedures and educate them about the general formalities of Intellectual Property law to enable them secure their inventions. Legal resources in Pakistan may be available and effective to different extent, therefore affecting women’s ability to claim their intellectual property rights despite negative effects of GBV. Based on the descriptions of the interaction between ALSR and GBV with reference to WIPR, this article seeks to establish areas of focus where more consideration may be given to women to enhance their welfare.

The rationale for the present work can be defined with the following research questions When identifying the effects of GBV on women’s IPR, where , and to what extent does the role of intermediary variables like access to legal assistance and forms of protection play? It is therefore the purpose of this research to have empirical input on how GBV hinders the protection of women’s intellectual property and how ALSR can solve this problem. These findings are expected to contribute to the formulation of policy guidelines and actual strategies for improvement of women’s IP rights within the frame work of GBV and to foster gender sensitive/legal reforms that may provide improvement support to women across Pakistan.