Pashmina Logo Launch in the News

Further to my recent post regarding Bec's trip to Kathmandu to attend the launch of the NPIA logo, below are some stories in the local media on the event.

Bec meets the PM in Kathmandu!

Just a quick post to let you know Bec flew to Kathmandu on Wednesday so that she could attend the inauguration ceremony for the Nepal Pashmina Industries Association (NPIA) trademark. This is a project on which Bec has been working with NPIA for a couple of years and through her various law firm contacts throughout the world she has assisted them to have their trademark registered in most major markets in the world. This is a first for any Nepalese company or venture.

The trademark certifies the authenticity of a product as real pashmina and also guarantees certain standards to do with processing, environmentally friendly production and non-use of child labour. This is a significant leap forward for an indigenous Nepali industry and we hope it will open the door for other organisations to bring their unique products to the world.

The inauguration ceremony was held to celebrate the registration of the trademark in key markets as well as officially launching the use of the logo on pashmina products. The event was attended by Nepal's Prime Minister, Mr Madhav Kumar Nepal, as well as a number of other dignitaries. The PM presented Bec with a pashmina shawl bearing the new logo as a token of gratitude for the work she has done for the project. NPIA have also prepared a short film which was premiered at the event. It covers the background to the project and will be circulated globally to raise awareness about the logo and the importance of purchasing genuine pashmina.

Congratulations to Bec and NPIA for making such a huge impact on trade, export and commerce for Nepal! Thanks must also go to the many law firms around the world who provided their services on a pro bono basis for the trademark registrations.

Mitrataa in the news in Nepal

Mitrataa was recently in the news in Nepal as a result of Bec’s work on trademark registration for the Nepal Pashmina Industry Association (NPIA). For the past 18 months Bec has been working with NPIA in a strategic advisory capacity to help them create and register a trademark that signified certain of their products were legitimate pashmina products. In many countries the market is now flooded with products from China and India that falsely claim to be made from pashmina. The aim of this project therefore is to create a way for consumers to determine the genuine article and in the process increase export opportunities for Nepali business and the associated benefits that stem from this.

The recent article in The Himalayan Times celebrates the fact that the NPIA logo has successfully been registered as a trademark in Norway, with Australia and a number of other countries also in the process. This is a great result for NPIA and for Mitrataa. Bec has worked tirelessly with her network of law firm contacts around the world to get the best trademark advice and assistance with registration on a pro bono basis. It is testament to her relationship with firms in so many markets that the trademark is in the process of being registered in over 20 countries without NPIA incurring any legal costs other than the fees for application and registration! We want to acknowledge 4 firms in particular who have helped with this project - Rouse, Arent Fox, Baker & McKenzie, and TPC LLC.

The next step for this project will involve a marketing campaign to educate consumers about the different types of products in the market and how to distinguish ‘real’ pashmina ie. by checking for the logo. Down the track we also have very ambitious plans to develop the communities who farm the pashmina goats, providing education for their girls and education and employment opportunities for their women. Pashmina is one of a number of industries indigenous to Nepal and with vast export earning potential.

Well done Bec! Could this be the first Nepali enterprise to hold a trademark registration outside of Nepal?!

Bec's IP Awareness Training

This is a posting of work from our trip in October last year.

As many of you know, intellectual property law is one of my passions. So I was really excited to be able to marry my IP experience with my passion for Nepal to run a workshop in conjunction with the Nepal Trade & Export Promotion Centre. The NTEPC offers support to Nepali businesses which want to export their products overseas and they were keen to raise awareness of intellectual property issues amongst Nepali exporters. We ran an afternoon session for the co-operatives and associations as representatives of a broad range of industries initially. The afternoon consisted of 3 sections:

1. An introduction to NTEPC’s services, presented by Mani Lal Shrestha, Deputy Executive Director of NTEPC.
2. Intellectual Property and Its Benefits – An introduction for Nepali businesses, presented by me; and
3. Registration of industrial IP in Nepal, presented by Jiwan Prakash Sitaula, IP Director, Department of Industries.


My session had 2 main elements:

1. To explore the potential benefits of branding and IP for Nepali businesses;
2. To help Nepali companies avoid infringing other parties’ IP when they export their products overseas.

After the presentations, there was a very lively discussion of the role of government in supporting Nepali businesses in developing their IP and a round of questions about traditional knowledge and how it can be protected as this is a core competitive advantage Nepal has.

The afternoon raised a lot of interesting questions for me about the purpose of IP and its relevance to developing countries – is it a tool which is really only relevant to developed economies or could a country like Nepal have valuable IP which it could use in its battle to develop its economy?

As a result of this afternoon, I have been consulting pro bono to the Nepal Pashmina Industry Association as to how they can protect the pashmina name and brand.

We are now in discussions with the NTPEC and WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organisation which has been working with Nepal to help automate its IP systems, about running another series of workshops for different industries as well as preparing some training materials for the Department of Industries to use in its awareness raising activities.

We hope to continue to help Nepal protect its traditional knowledge and other valuable IP in future.

Bec