Bahauddin Foizee

With the fast progress of economy of Bangladesh, the need for legal protection of various business interests are growing. One of these interests are protecting the intellectual properties of businesses as well as of those individuals who owns the business.

The idea of protecting the intellectual property is considerably new in Bangladesh.

Although people in Bangladesh are very sensitive about the protection of their conventional property (e.g. house, car, land etc.), they tend to be less careful in securing their intellectual property because of their lack of understanding regarding the issue.

As a result, they not only get deprived from the likely benefits of the intellectual properties that they possess, but also have to bear losses at some awkward circumstances.

The most important part of protecting a person’s property is to register the property from relevant state-appointed authority or government body. Without registration of the property (both conventional property and intellectual property), it remains vulnerable to many dishonest efforts by dishonest persons.

Registration provides you the legitimacy to carry out any transaction in relation to the property which you have purchased or acquired by an appropriate process. Therefore, registering your property should be the top priority when you buy a ‘conventional’ property, such as land, apartment or car. Similarly, registering your ‘intellectual’ property should be the priority when you invent something, make a creative/artistic work or intend to use a logo for your business.

You will only be considered as the lawful owner of a property only after you get it registered in your name. If you fail to register your conventional property (house, land, car etc.) in your name, the previous owner of the property would be considered as the legal and rightful owner. Likewise, if you fail to register your intellectual property (your new invention, business logo etc.), any other person (or business), who (or which) has registered the same invention in his (or its) name will be considered as the legal and rightful owner of the invention.

Hence, in the current economic circumstances in Bangladesh, it has become very necessary for individuals, business owners and corporate stakeholders to understand not only the concept of intellectual property, but also the importance of registering such property.

Intellectual Property Right is a vast term and encompasses a lot of little things even in our daily lives — mostly without our knowledge. Be it the phone you hold or the soft-beverages you drink, everything has intellectual property hidden in it. The most popular forms of intellectual property protection are: Copyrights, Trademarks/Servicemarks and Patents.

Each of these forms are also discussed in other posts in this website. Please browse this website to read them.

Bahauddin Foizee regularly writes posts related to legal affairs with the intention to help individuals and businesses better understand what should they do to carry-out an action legally without violating law and legal provisions.