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Bangladesh Regulation
Inventions, in modern times, are the outcome of well-planned
research and development. To maintain the right on any invention a
patent of it is required i.e. it is to be recorded and informed to all
that the invention is made and owned by someone. Patents provides
limited term exclusivity to patentees to commercially make use of the
inventions they own. Patents are granted in consideration for disclosing
to the public the scientific and technological information subsisting in
the inventions by the inventors/or the subsequent owners of the
inventions. Published patent specifications are therefore, important
scientific documents containing extremely valuable scientific
information. A patent is enforceable only within the territorial limits
of the nation granting it.
The Laws
At the moment the Laws regarding Patents in force in Bangladesh is The
Patents Act, 1911.
Conventions
Bangladesh is a party to The General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade 1994
(GATT), which includes the Chapter entitled “ Trade-Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights” (TRIPS) and, as such, makes her a Member
of the World Trade Organization (WTO) family.
Bangladesh is also a member to the Paris Convention. However, Paris
Convention is not strictly followed by the Bangladesh Administration
since, the same has not been ratified in the Parliament. Though it is
not strictly followed convention priority is available for Patent &
Design Applications.
Since, Bangladesh is not a member to Patent Co-operation Treaty, PCT
National Phase is not available in Bangladesh.
Administration
The Government of Bangladesh maintains offices of the Trade Mark
Registry, in Dhaka and Chittagong, and the Patent Office in Dhaka.
Recently both the offices have been merged under the same Directorate.
All the courts of District Judge in each district and the Magistrates do
take cases for judicial enforcement of various existing Intellectual
Property laws of Bangladesh. The Supreme Court and the several courts of
the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh hear the
Intellectual Property appeal cases.
Eligibility for Registration
Not all inventions are patentable. For an invention to be patentable, it
must be new, useful and non-obvious. Invention means a new product or
process involving inventive step and capable of industrial application.
The features of an invention that make it non-obvious to a person who is
skilled in the art are termed as the inventive steps.
The owners of Intellectual Properties are in general aware of the
Geographical Locations of Infringement & Imitation of Intellectual
Properties – such are those countries which are not developed but have
many customers. Bangladesh is one of such countries where there are
about 150 million customers using various foreign branded products from
baby foods and various edible items to electronic goods, various
machineries, medicines and chemicals, fabrics, construction and
industrial materials, perfumes, and cosmetics and many more things,
manufactured and marketed by the owners holding the genuine Intellectual
Property rights. But at the same time with the help of the said modern
facilities (e.g. easy availability of good printing systems,
photographic accessories, computer technologies, various chemicals, and
customized spare parts) the simple customers are randomly cheated and
defrauded by the infringed and imitated products being deprived of the
benefits of the required standards and quality.
Renewal
The initial Patent Registration is valid for three years, which may be
subsequently renewed for every one year
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