Miti Sanjana
Barrister-at-law (Honorable Society of Lincoln’s Inn); Partner, Legal Counsel
‘Moving towards Digitalization’
As our country is moving towards digitalization, it is becoming very important for us to scale up our ideas in Intellectual Property Rights. When people think of property, most of the time they refer to movable property rather than intellectual property. Bangladesh is a member of World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and ratified the Paris Convention on Intellectual Property in 1991. Like other countries, Bangladesh has many good laws to protect the intellectual activities. Protection of IP right is also recognized by the Constitution of Bangladesh. The proper implementation of the law and creating awareness amongst the general public can combat the infringement of these rights.
Shaleh Akram Somrat
Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh; Head of Chambers’, MentorIP Bangladesh
‘Next Generation Corporatocracy Mechanism’
Intellectual Properties (IP) will be the next generation Corporatocracy mechanism to “rule” the world. The clever ones will use Intellectual Properties as a friendly tool for doing smooth business. On the other hand, the lazy ones will witness the spiteful face of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) mechanism. The western world is already highly convinced with the idea. Now it’s our turn to decide how we are going to embrace Intellectual Properties!
Md. Saimum Reza Talukder
Senior Lecturer, School of Law, BRAC University
‘Control of Personal Data’
In this era of Fourth Industrial Revolution (e.g. Artificial Intelligence, Big Data etc.), Data is considered as the new oil. Data-hungry giants like Google, Amazon, Apple, Alibaba etc. are constantly searching, collecting and processing personal data of the users/clients to make profits. Moreover, Big Data about people does have social, political, cultural and security implications. Recent controversy on Cambridge Analytica is the glaring example of manipulating popular choice to shape up national politics. So the burning question of IP is that who should have control and ownership of personal data- the business giants or the State or the people?
Tajul Islam
Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh
‘Importance of Knowledge Economy’
Intellectual Property has a great contribution in economic, social, cultural and technological development of a country. Bangladesh, being a State Party of WIPO and major IP related international Convention, must be maintained international standard for IP rights administration and grievance mechanism of IP rights violation. The existing IP Rights administration mechanism requires more coordination among the agencies as well as expertise professionals. The government of Bangladesh has already realized the importance of this ‘knowledge economy’ and started to enact new legislation and updating the old laws. Despite of these initiatives, vacuum in legal regime prevails.
S M Hasib Mahmud
Lecturer, School of Law, BRAC University
Law Thoughts’Protection of Socio-economic Properties’Bangladesh has already enacted legislations- well equipped to give proper legal protection to Intellectual Property Rights. However, despite having the requisite laws, we have only secured GI rights over some goods whereas other aspects of the IP rights, such as patents, trademarks etc. remain unfamiliar to the common people at large. The World IP Day recognizes the value of protecting Intellectual Property Rights. In the wake of gaining the status of a developing country, much of which revolves around the eco-financial growth, we should rightly focus on enforcing the protection of socio-economic properties and heritage that we so dearly possess as our own.
Meherba Sabrin
Public Relations Secretary, Dhaka University Moot Court Society; Participant, Monroe E Price Media Law Moot Court Competition, University of Oxford.
‘Extended Version of Personal Property’
We see that in Bangladesh the idea of Intellectual Property Law is gradually being widespread among people. In my view, intellectual property is the extended version of individual’s personal property. The basic idea of this law can be found in Article 27 of UDHR where everyone has been given the right to protect their interest on any scientific, literary or artistic production authored by them.
Intellectual Property Law regulate the fields from Patents till Geographical Index which protects the interest of a country and helps it getting recognized the way it deserves, leaving a huge impact on economic and cultural growth in this era of globalization.
Sadman Rizwan Apurbo
Sophomore Law Student, University of Dhaka; Intern, BDLD
‘Training for Concerned Bodies’
The laws regarding Intellectual Property in Bangladesh have incorporated the provisions of international instruments and as such, they have maintained international standard lending protection to a variety of interests in intellectual property. However, the enforcement of these laws has been rather unsatisfactory in that the enforcement mechanism suffers from severe inefficiency. For example, the members of the law enforcement agencies possess little knowledge about the subtleties of Intellectual Property Rights. So the concerned authority should be provided with necessary training.
Rafaat Kabir Lubna
Freshman Law Student, University of
Dhaka
‘Finding New Talented Women’
We know that 26th of April is the World Intellectual Property Day which was recognized to celebrate innovation, creativity and contribution in different societies across the world. This year’s theme is- Powering Change: Women in Innovation and Creativity. So, we can be optimistic that this day would encourage many fresh talents to come out amongst the women lot and contribute in the development.
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