An Appraisal of 'Farmers' Rights' under the New Plant Variety Protection Act of Bangladesh: Is It a Success Story?

摘要

The intellectual property rights (IPRs) protection for plant varieties is a mandatory obligation on the member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Bangladesh, a least-developed country (LDC) in South Asia, recently enacted the Plant Variety Protection Act 2019 (BPVPA) as per the mandatory requirement under art.27.3(b) of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). This article makes a critical examination of the "farmers' rights " provisions of this IPRs legislation in the light of TRIPS, the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA).