Intellectual property rights were not taken were seriously in Pakistan but the recent action by authorities has changed this trend. Intellectual Property Lahore has recently given a decision in favor of Rozee.pk that filed a case against RightJobs for copying job postings from Rozee’s portal.
According to the ruling, the court asked RightJobs to remove all copied job postings from its portal. Additionally, it also prohibited the accused party to copy other similar content from Rozee in near future.
Rozee filed a copyright case against RightJobs in front of intellectual property tribunal requesting them to take action against RightJobs. In addition, they also mentioned that RightJobs had been copying its job postings without its permission. The companies who posted these jobs on Rozee.pk were also unaware of this third party.
After hearing the plea, the court issued an interim order and strictly restricted RightsJobs from showing, offering, advertising job postings copied from Rozee.pk. The court also ordered RightJobs to remove all previous job postings as well to prevent any unfair competition.
Pakistan’s online industry was marked by lawlessness so far except for print and electronic media. There was no concept of copyright on content writing while many startups were counting on copying content which was copied from other sources. However, this decision has set a new example that justice will prevail for cases filed for copyright violations.
Risk of leaked personal information
There was a serious concern by the ruling authorities that in addition to revenue loss, copyright violations may threaten the security of confidential information. Those who copy job postings might use the personal information of applicants and use it for some illegal and unethical purposes.
The risk also exists for employers as it dents their brand image drastically. Not only it violates the privacy of applicants but also poses the risk of unwanted representation. These organizations want to control their representation on various platforms especially with those channels which they deem unworthy of their brand association.
CEO of Rozee.pk, Monis Rahman, stated:
“Rozee.pk puts great effort into protecting our job applicants by verifying the authenticity of all companies that post jobs on our website to safeguard their personal information. When jobs are copied from our site without permission by other third party sites, candidates unknowingly share their personal information with unauthorized sources and the underlying companies never see their applications. We are committed to safeguarding our members’ personal information at all costs and are hopeful that this landmark injunction will serve as a precedent to prevent similar violations for other online publishers”
The decision of suspension against RightJobs is indeed a breath of fresh air and a victory for online industry in Pakistan. This has laid foundation for online copyrights and intellectual property rights in Pakistan. Therefore, it will allow foreign investors to consider their investments secure in the IT industry of Pakistan.
Source: ProPakistani