Sri Lanka moves to digitalise Intellectual Property Office with WIPO support: A response

Tuesday, 18 February 2025 02:49 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

I refer to the above report published by the Daily FT of 13 February 2025.

This is a good idea, but needs far more oversight by an independent organisation. There is the National Innovation Agency (NIA), the COSTI, all of which had/have interconnected functions. Unfortunately none had worked.

Recently Dr. Pethiyagoda revealed how an anti snake venom developed in Sri Lanka was kept in isolation by the National Intellectual Property Office (NIPO) for over seven years and then to find that the patent had been filed by a party in India.

All these are institutions that rub each other’s back and the officers live on taxpayers’ money.

I filed a patent application for a stationary file. The product itself was of interest to me from 1962, as I had to carry a mass of book up and down a hill at Peradeniya from Marcus Fernando Hall to the Science Faculty. The walk had to be undertaken four times a day. It exhausted me beyond limits. This patent application was refused on frivolous grounds. After I protested, there was a discussion with the Registrar of the Patent Facility.

To my surprise the officer who handled the file was not present at the discussion, she was represented by her clerk – a situation that surprised me. The clerk made some comments during the discussion which confirmed to me that they had a prior discussion prior to the meeting and that the discussion was for the purpose of formalising the refusal to accept the patent.

I of course acted to prevent the parties at the Intellectual Property Office from benefitting by having a half page article published in a respected newspaper. My filing a patent application was on the advice of a company who was interested in the design.

Digitalisation is already there. When a document is handed over at the NIPO office it has to be submitted with a duplicate and the original and the duplicate are accepted and overprinted with acceptance digitally.

I was advised to seek judicial review of the problem. I declined because the cost of legal action would need 100 years of marketing to recover the cost.

I had a chat with the head of COSTI who advised me to leave the file with a particular assistant of his. That was also the end of it. Recently when I inquired the ex Head of the COSTI excused himself by stating that the lady to whom the file was given had left the organisation.

The WIPO requires around $ 1,000 – 3,500 to provide a patent registration (Rs. 297,000-Rs. 1,039,500).

It is better if the Government can negotiate with WIPO to provide a low-cost registration fee facility for us in Sri Lanka.

Goodbye Sri Lanka, I hope and prey that if there is a rebirth it should be far away from these characters.

S.P.U.S. Wickramasinghe

[email protected]

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