Bangladesh’s parliament passed the Patents Bill 2022, which aims to modernize century-old patent legislation and protect intellectual property rights. The bill, among other things, increases the validity duration of patents from 16 to 20 years.
Bangladesh parliament passes patents bill
According to analysts, this would encourage foreign investment since it protects intellectual property and acts as a protection in preventing generic versions of unique products or inventions from being developed. In 1911, the pre-existing patent and design legislation was adopted. The legislation was separated into two sections in 2016, patent law and design law.
The patent legislation was required to permit updates and to keep up with the present growth of the economy and the expansion of trade and commerce. According to the law, every technical product that contains something novel is patentable. Inventions, scientific theories and mathematical methods, commercial methods, rules or ways of conducting solely mental labor or sports, and any such computer program, on the other hand, would not be patentable.
Apart from the requirement to restrict commercial usage within Bangladesh’s borders in order to protect public order and ethics, a variety of other challenges, including innovation, have been left out of patent protection. Under the proposed law, a registrar’s office would be established to grant or revoke patents for any single inventor or joint inventors of technological innovation.
The new patent legislation would make it easier to comply with Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreements and other worldwide regulations pertaining to patents and innovation. The TRIPS agreement mandates member nations to make patents accessible without discrimination for any innovation, whether goods or processes, in all disciplines of technology, subject to the standards of novelty, inventiveness, and industrial applicability.
The newly revised legislation will aid Bangladesh in addressing the issues that have arisen as a result of its United Nations status transition to a developing nation. Following the introduction of any pharmaceutical products, it would guarantee the proper balance between pharmaceutical innovation and access to medication. It will protect intellectual property rights while encouraging inventors and corporations to invest more in new and improved ideas and technology.
Foreign investors and multinational corporations may be discouraged from investing in Bangladesh unless their intellectual property rights and technical knowledge are adequately protected. However, the new act provided a solid foundation for the adoption of international norms to safeguard intellectual property. Patent modernization and simplicity may be beneficial in preserving intellectual property and facilitating international procedures. However, the law should be well implemented so that international investors may have trust in the protection of their intellectual property.
The list of Bangladesh IP Firms can be found here.