Industries Minister Dilip Barua yesterday said the laws on Intellectual Property Rights
(IPR) need to be updated and new law should be enacted to protect the IPR.
Inaugurating a workshop on IPR in the city, he also stressed the need for raising awareness about the law before formulating the law.
Intellectual Property Rights Project of the Industries Ministry and World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) jointly organised the workshop titled `Colloquium for judges on the enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights' with the support of the European Union.
Registrar of Department of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks M Anamul Huque
and WIPO Director Louise Van Greunen spoke at the inaugural session of the workshop with Project Director ABM Khorshed Alam in the chair.
Dilip Barua said creation, protection and management of intellectual property (IP) is becoming an instrument for national development in the context of globalisation of trade and commerce and emerging knowledge world.
Mentioning that developing countries have many challenges to overcome while evolving their own IP system, Dilip said where the economic growth of a nation is driven increasingly by the creativity and knowledge of their people, effective IP systems, may be considered as the key to unlocking this human potential.
Terming the infringement on IPR a global threat amid increasing invention of sophisticated devices, he said the tendency of the people to gain by imitating and piracy is certainly a big challenge for a least developed country like Bangladesh.
"For quick and effective materialisation of the vision of building a digital Bangladesh, creation, protection and well-use of IP are a must," he said.
The industries minister expressed his gratitude to the EU and WIPO for helping the ministry in framing and amending laws, and automating the procedures of business of the Department of Patents, Designs and Trademarks and the Copyright under the IRP project.