Sri Lanka, June 18 -- Sri Lanka's engagement with intellectual property (IP) dates back to the British colonial era, beginning with the British Inventor's Ordinance of 1859, under which the first patent was issued in 1860. Over the years, various laws, such as the Trademarks Ordinance (1888, later revised in 1925), the Patents Ordinance (1906), and the Copyright Ordinance (1908), were enacted and remained in use even after Independence in 1948. The modern era of IP legislation began with the Code of Intellectual Property Act, No. 52 of 1979, introduced in response to economic liberalisation.

This was followed by several amendments before being replaced by the Intellectual Property Act, No. 36 of 2003, which aligns with international st...