Bangladesh made little progress in intellectual property (IP) filing while ignored applying for international patent or trademark registration of its products.
As the country is not a signatory to three international treaties on patent, trademarks and industrial design, the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) urged the government to sign the agreements to attain the right to filing for the claims.
In a note in this regard, the FBCCI says: "Although Bangladesh has complied with its Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) obligations, it has not yet initiated move to promote its own interests on IPR. Bangladesh is yet to join as a party to any of the three major Global IPR Protection Systems."
The systems, structured in three treaties or agreements, are: Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), Madrid Agreement on Trade Marks (Madrid system) and Hague Agreement on Industrial Designs (Hague system).
Without signing these agreements, it is very difficult and expensive to file any international patent or trademark application from Bangladesh.
When contacted, Md Sanowar Hossain, Registrar of the country's IP office (Department of Patents, Designs & Trademarks or DPDT), told FE that a process is on to sign these treaties gradually.
"We have initiated a process to sign PCT in 2010 and lot of works have already done," he said.
"We are also working to become a party of Madrid system. After completing these two signatures, we will move for the Hague system."
Mr Sanwar, also an additional secretary at the Ministry of Industries, explained that once Bangladesh becomes a party to the PCT, local inventors could seek patent protection in more than 100 countries by filing one single international patent application at a lower cost.
Bangladesh ranked 92nd among 116 countries on the filing of patent applications in 2015 while the country's position was 105th in 2014, according to the latest report of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
Patent is known as 'a set of exclusive rights granted by law to applicants for inventions that are new, non-obvious and commercially applicable.'
In 2015, global applications for patent registered 7.8 per cent and reached 2.8 million. China leads the table with 1.1 million applications, with 18.7 per cent growth, followed by 0.58 million and 0.31 million filings from the United States of America (USA) and Japan respectively.
Bangladesh was ranked 54th among 108 countries in filing applications for fresh trademarks last year. WIPO, however, wrongly put the figure of 2014 in its latest report instead of 2015.
DPDT received some 12,809 applications for trademarks of which 9,322 were filed by local applicants.
Global applications for trademarks stood at 8.45 million last year, registering 13.7 per cent growth over the previous year. Again, China is on top in filing trademark applications of 2.82 million, followed by the US (0.51 million) and the European Union (0.36 million).
According to WIPO definition, 'a trademark is a distinctive sign that identifies certain goods or services as those produced or provided by a specific person or enterprise.' These can be registered for both goods and services.
The Madrid system provides a kind of one-stop solution for registering and managing trademarks worldwide by filing one application in one language and paying one set of fees to protect one's mark in 114 countries.
On the filing of applications for industrial design, Bangladesh was in 40th position among 130 countries, as per the World Intellectual Property Indicators 2016.
The country received 1,376 new applications last year for the industrial design of which 1,284 originated from local or resident sources.
Global filing of design applications stood at 1.14 million in 2015 with less than one per cent growth. Chinese IP office received the highest number of applications, some 0.56 million, followed by the EU (98,162) and South Korea (72,458) in 2015.
The holder of a registered industrial design has exclusive rights against unauthorised copying or imitation of the design by third parties.
The Hague system provides a practical business solution for filing up to 100 designs in 66 countries through a single international application.
The FBCCI argued that membership of these global IPR-filing systems would facilitate global IPR registration of Bangladesh products by submitting a single application in Bangladesh with only 10 per cent of prescribed fees.
"It will also enhance its value-added global trade without having to undertake any additional international obligations," the apex trade body argued.
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