Parliament passes patents bill

Bangladesh Patents Bill 2022 was passed in parliament today with an aim to make the century-old patents law more time-befitting and safeguard the intellectual property rights.

Industries Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun placed the bill in the House, which was passed by voice vote.

According to the bill, the owner will be given the patent of any innovation for 20 years instead of 16 and then it will become public property.

A registrar office will be there to issue or cancel patents of any single inventor or joint inventors of a technical innovation under the proposed law.

The current patent and design law was enacted in 1911.

In 2016, the law was divided into two parts, a patent law and another design law.

The bill was tabled in parliament on November 14 last year and was sent to the parliamentary standing committee on the industries ministry for scrutiny and report back to the parliament.

The bill states that any technological product will be patentable if has something new in it.

However, inventions, scientific theories and mathematical methods, business methods, rules or methods of performing purely mental work or sports and any such computer program will not be patent protected.

In addition to the need to prevent commercial use within the borders of Bangladesh in order to protect public order and ethics - a number of other issues have been left out of patent protection, including innovation.

Moreover, if a person fails to comply with an order under this Act, the court may impose compensation.