President orders immediate steps to prevent abuse of intellectual property rights

President Maithripala Sirisena has instructed the relevant officials to take immediate steps to correctly implement existing laws to prevent the abuse of intellectual property rights as well as to implement new rules and regulations if the existing laws are inadequate.

The President gave these instructions at a discussion held on Monday at the Presidential Secretariat with a group of artistes and relevant officials. During the meeting, attention was drawn towards proper payment of royalty to the writers and copyright protection.

The President further stated that at present the rules and regulations on intellectual property rights were being properly enforced in every developed country and Sri Lanka should also pay attention in this regard.

President Sirisena directed the Ministry of Mass Media to implement a new program to educate the relevant sectors about the rules and regulations relating to intellectual property rights and royalties.

The ideas and suggestions were presented for a qualitative media and the steps that should be taken to prevent damage caused to society through indecent visuals.

Minister of Mass Media Gayantha Karunathilaka, Attorney General Jayantha Jayasuriya, Director General of the Government Information Department Ranga Kalansooriya, Director General of the National Intellectual Property Office of Sri Lanka, Geethanjali Ranawaka and several artistes participated in this meeting.