Since 1998, the Asia Pacific Legal Institute has been working closely
with the Sri Lanka Law College (SLLC), the National Intellectual Property
Office of Sri Lanka, Technology Initiative for
the Private Sector (TIPS) of the International Executive Services Corps
(IESC) in
Colombo, Sri Lanka and the IESC Headquarters in the United States in developing a full-fledge
diploma program on intellectual property law for local and regional
professionals and interested parties. The goal is to bring forth
a group of well-trained professionals to embark on setting and enforcing
intellectual property and technology policies in the future. The
program is also designed to establish Colombo as a major center for
intellectual property and technology management information and studies
in the South Asian region. This program will also be an integral part
of the national efforts in full compliance with the rules of the World Trade Organization, especially the TRIPs Agreement.
The program was formally inaugurated on February 12, 2000 at the newly
renovated renovated SLLC campus
in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Dr. Joseph H. Silva, Principal of
the SLLC, was the host. The Lordship Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva
was the Chief Guest of the ceremony; the Honorable Shaun E. Donnelly,
U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Mr. Raymond G. Jubitz, Chief Executive
Officer of TIPS/IESC, Mrs. Nansie Jubitz, Dr. Dissanayake
M. Karunaratna, Director of National Intellectual Property Office
of Sri Lanka, and Professor Andy Y. Sun, Executive Director of APLI were among the guests
of honors at the ceremony. Formal classes began immediately following
the inauguration ceremony and each such training session will last one
year, covering a wide spectrum of subjects and issues in intellectual
property and technology transfer laws. Through rigorous competition
and selection, 38 attorneys out of 55 applicants were admitted to and
enrolled in the first year of this program and 11 are female. Before
they may be successfully graduated from the program, each candidate
must have pass a round of examinations (including, among other things,
"open book" style examination) and received certification on a law review
style thesis.
While regular classes and information acquisition are underway, APLI
has taken the next step to organize an American delegation to visit
Sri Lanka. This delegation will participate in a major international
intellectual property conference. In addition, members of the
delegation will offer a round of lectures at the SLLC and engage in
a number meetings with key professionals and senior officials for meaningful
dialogues. APLI is especially grateful for the funding support
from TIPS/IESC.
Although just formally launched, this program has already received strong
support from all sectors, especially the Ministry for Internal, International
Trade and Food, International Business Machines (Sri Lanka), Ltd. and
the American Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka. In addition, thanks
to the generous support from IBM Sri Lanka, the SLLC is now "wired up"
with broad bandwidth, high-speed Internet access and possesses the capability
to conduct multimedia teleconferences. SLLC is also developing a website
for this program. Despite the civil war, the program moves ahead
with stride. In fact, it offers something positive for the future
legal and economic development of the island state. Meanwhile,
APLI has agreed to be a temporary host to provide this program's information
from the United States.
