TRIPS compatibility of Bangladeshi legal regime on geographical indications and its ramifications: A comparative review

摘要

This paper, as the title suggests, explores TRIPS compatibility of Bangladeshi legal regime on geographical indications along with its challenges and potential impacts. The global transformation of IPRs regime, as significantly developed by TRIPS Agreement, was and still is not a pleasant journey for many countries in general and for the least developed countries (LDCs) in particular. Arguably, the developing nations and LDCs were not able to negotiate their interests adequately in the drafting process of TRIPS. However, TRIPS is a global reality now and WTO members are inherently under an obligation to replicate TRIPS principles and guidelines in their domestic legal regimes. Bangladesh, as a member of WTO, has started to redesign its legal frameworks to be among the TRIPS compliant countries. In this process of transformation, sui generis Legislation along with a Rule for the protection of geographical indications has been enacted by Bangladesh. This paper sheds light on the two key issues-TRIPS compatibility of Bangladeshi GI legal regime and unexplored challenges of geographical indications of Bangladesh. Placing the TRIPS as the guiding document, this paper compares the Geographical Indication Law of Bangladesh and provides some critical observations in appropriate cases.