CPD and National Crafts Council of Bangladesh (NCCB) jointly organised the dialogue on “Protecting Geographical Indication Products in the Context of Bangladesh and the Way Forward” (ভৌগলিক নির্দেশক পণ্য সুরক্ষার গুরুত্ব: বাংলাদেশ প্রেক্ষিত ও করণীয়), at the CIRDAP auditorium on Tuesday 17 June 2014.
Published in Dhaka Tribune
CPD: Make proper rules for GI Act to function
Abu Bakar Siddique
It says the existing act lacks provisions to protect rights of Bangladeshi GI products
The government should formulate proper rules immediately to make the Geographical Indicative Products (registration and protection) Act functional, so that the law can establish the rights of products like Jamdani, speakers at a discussion said yesterday.
They also claimed that the existing act – which was passed in the parliament last year – lacked adequate provision to protect the rights of the country’s geographical indicative (GI) products.
The comments were made at a dialogue titled “Protecting Geographical Indication Products in the Context of Bangladesh and the Way Forward,” organised jointly by Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and National Crafts Council of Bangladesh at the city’s Cirdap auditorium.
According to the existing act, GI is a sign which defines the source and contains the goodwill of a product that originated in a particular area, like Hilsa from Padma River, Chamcham from Tangail and Kanchagolla from Natore.
Registering a particular product like Jamdani with GI sign would benefit producers by giving them more financial and business opportunities due to its goodwill, said CPD Distinguished Fellow Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya.
“The country has already lost its famous products like Jamdani, Nakshi Kantha and Fazli mango because of not having the act in due time which could have identified and registered the GI products,” said Shukla Sarwat Siraj, a supreme court lawyer who works on Intellectual Property rights.
Regarding the GI products that India has already registered as their own, she said Bangladesh could also register those products because of their origin and market those with GI sign.
According to India’s Geographical Indications Registry, Nakshi Kantha was registered as a GI product of the country in 2008, and Fazli Mango and Jamdani Saree in 2009.
The registry mentions Jamdani Saree as “Uppada Jamdani Saree” – a handicraft item produced in its Andhra Pradesh state, Nakshi Kantha produced in West Bengal and Fazli mango grown in the Malda district of West Bengal state.
Referring to a report published in the Dhaka Tribune last November, Shukla said a comment by the then registrar of the Department of Patents, Designs and Trademarks, which claimed that the government planned to register Jamdani saree as Dhakai Jamdani, was ridiculous.
Other speakers at the programme also echoed Shukla, demanding that Jamdani be registered under its original name, as the origin of the fabric was historically in Dhaka.
Shukla also claimed that only after registering products like Jamdani, Nakshi Kantha and Fazli mango as Bangladeshi GI products, the country could approach the World Trade Organisation for gaining the intellectual property rights of those products.
Earlier, Bangladesh formulated an ordinance named Geographical Indications of Goods (registration and protection) Ordinance 2008, which identified 66 products as the country’s GI products.
Of them, three were fisheries, eight vegetables, 14 agricultural products, 48 food items and 18 other products including Jamdani Saree, Fazli mango and Nakshi Kantha.
The government has formulated the GI act in line with the agreement made between Bangladesh and the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) on January 1, 1995.
Published in The Financial Express
B’desh Jamdani ownership hijack attempt draws flak
Experts liken Indian claim to patent rule violation
FE Report
Speakers at a dialogue in the city Tuesday urged the government to take immediate steps for ensuring the country’s ownership and patent rights of traditional items like Jamdani.
They emphasised formation of Geographical Indication (GI) rules according to the law and setting up a separate unit to help protect the ownership of traditional items from other countries.
“We are still lagging behind other countries, including India, to claim our ownership of any traditional item. The government should take necessary initiatives shortly to protect our cultural and historically important items,” said Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Distinguished Fellow Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya.
He also said like some other traditional items Jamdani is solely a Bangladeshi item and it is not a generic one.
CPD and National Craft Council of Bangladesh (NCCB) jointly organised the dialogue on “Protecting Geographic Indication Products in the Context of Bangladesh and Way Forward”.
Barrister Sarwat Siraj Shukla said there is no visible sign to formulate necessary regulations to enact the GI Law 2013, though it is much needed to claim patent rights of any traditional item.
“India had already applied for the ownership of Jamdani although it is a Bangladeshi item. We are ready to fight it legally, if needed, to protect our items.”
She said ensuring ownership of traditional items is very needed in the era of globalisation.
Dr Iftekhar Iqbal, associate professor of Dhaka University, mentioned in his presentation that considering all historical, geographical, commercial and cultural contexts of Jamdani, Dhaka was and still is its only true centre of production.
“Jamdani has to be a unique name, whose geographical location indicator must be Dhaka, but not Dhakai Jamdani. In other words, Dhaka and Jamdai are synonymous. So, India’s registration of Jamdani under its GI law is illegal and a violation of existing TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) regulation.”
He mentioned that India registered Jamdani as ‘Uppada Jamdani Sarees’ from Andhra Pradesh in 2009. However, research suggests that there is no combination of geographical, ecological, historical or commercial conditions elsewhere in the world for Jamdani, except Dhaka.
GI is a name or sign used on certain products to certify that they possess certain qualities, as they are made according to traditional methods or enjoy a certain reputation due to their geographical origins.
According to the GI law, the real producer of any particular goods in an area will get the absolute rights of the registered products.
If jamdani sari is registered locally under the law, no other country will export any clothing item with the name jamdani to Bangladesh.
The law will also ensure the patent rights of various area-specific products, such as – kachagolla of Natore, roshmalai of Comilla, chomchom of Porabari in Tangail, monda of Muktagachha in Mymensingh, tea from Sylhet, and honey from the Sundarbans.
Dhaka University professor Dr Masuda M Rashid Chowdhury, rights activist Hamida Hossain, NCCB president Monira Emdad and secretary Shahid Hossain Shamim, and designer Bibi Rasel also spoke at the dialogue.
Published in The Daily Star
Implement GI law soon to protect indigenous products
Analysts say at CPD discussion
Star Business Report
The government should immediately frame rules to implement a law, which got passage last year, to protect the patent rights of traditional products such as jamdani sari, hilsa fish and nakshi kantha, analysts said yesterday.
The geographical indicative (GI) products cannot be registered under the law in absence of the rules, they said.
GI is a name or sign used on certain products to certify that they possess certain qualities because they are made as per traditional methods or enjoy a certain reputation due to their geographical origin.
As a result, the country is losing the patent rights of some traditional products, such as jamdani sari and nakshi kantha, especially to India, they said.
The government passed the Geographical Indicative Products (Registration and Protection) Act in November last year.
Goods protected by the law will enable the real producers to get higher prices due to their supreme quality, said Debapriya Bhattacharya, distinguished fellow of Centre for Policy Dialogue.
He spoke at a seminar on ‘protecting geographical indication products in the context of Bangladesh and way forward’, co-organised by CPD and the National Crafts Council of Bangladesh at Cirdap auditorium in the city.
In 2009, India registered the Bangladeshi jamdani as Uppada jamdani saris due to an absence of the law in the country, said Iftekhar Iqbal, an associate professor at the history department of Dhaka University.
Iqbal, who conducted a study on jamdanis, said the ecological context of the production of cotton and finished jamdani products are unique in the Dhaka region.
The jamdani is a part of the national culture and heritage of Bangladesh and such a long-term cultural and historic continuity of jamdanis is unmatched elsewhere in the world, he said.
“Hence, India’s registration of the Uppada jamdani under its GI law is illegal and a violation of existing regulation of TRIPS [Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights],” Iqbal said.
The study is a result of a qualitative and quantitative research between September and December 2013.
A number of primary and secondary sources, including official publications, creative literature, and research works from pre-modern and modern times, have been consulted.
Bangladesh is lagging behind in protecting its traditional products, as India passed the GI law around 14 years ago, said Shukla Sarwat Siraj, an advocate of the Supreme Court.
Bhattacharya of the CPD said the study, guided by an advisory group of experts, will help the country prove exclusive ownership of the jamdani internationally and regain Bangladesh’s claim to India.
Compared to 1,600 jamdani weavers in the year 2000, their number rose to around 15,000 in 2013, according to the study.
It is estimated that about 2,000 jamdani saris are produced a week in the Dhaka region, at a price range of Tk 5,000 to Tk 150,000.
The total export of jamdani saris, including to India, jumped from $4.84 million in fiscal 2008-09 to $10.41 million in 2010-11, it said.
As per the law, the industries ministry will open a geographical indication wing under the Department of Patents, Designs and Trademarks, with the chief of the wing being the registrar of geographical indications for goods.
To register a product, the association or co-operative of the product will have to apply; no individual can register a product.
The government took the initiative to formulate the GI Act in 2009, with the first draft of the law placed on the industries ministry website in January 2012.
Published in New Age
Govt spurred to formulate GI Act regulations immediately
Staff Correspondent
The government should formulate the relevant rules and regulations of the Geographical Indication Act 2013 in order to protect the patent rights of traditional products, speakers at a discussion meeting on Tuesday said.
The discussion on protecting Jamdani as a Geograpic Indication of Bangladesh was jointly organised by Centre for Policy Dialogue and Bangladesh Jatiya Karushilpa Parishad at CIRDAP auditorium in the capital.
‘We need the rules and regulations as soon as possible. According to the international practice if we want to claim that some other countries have enlisted our product by their name, we need to enlist that product in our own country,’ CPD distinguished fellow Debapriya Bhattacharya said.
He said Jamdani, a unique Bangladeshi handloom product, is an asset of the country which bears Bengali tradition and heritage.
‘After we enlist Jamdani in our own country, we would see what kind of legal measures can be taken to retrieve its patent,’ he said.
He also said that some of the Bangladeshi products were patented by other countries and to retrieve those, Jamdani would be the starting point.
Dhaka University history teacher Iftekhar Iqbal in his presentation said that India’s patent on Jamdani in the name of Uppara Jamdani is illegal as it is purely a creation from Bangladesh.
The Dhaka belt was historically the Jamdani zone which extends from Sonargaon to Dhamrai and Narsingdi, he said.
He said the quality of water of the region, basically of the river Shitalakhya, is a major component that ensures the quality control of Jamdani.
The cleansing of cotton thread in the water of Shitalakhya brings a glaze in the finished product, he said.
He also said the local ecology inspired most of the Jamdani designs.
‘Jamdani cannot be tarmed as Dhakai Jamndani like Uppara Jamdnai as Jamdani is a unique name which only indicates one geographic location which is Dhaka,’ he said.
Lawyer Sukla Sarwat Siraj said that the newly introduced GI law in Bangladesh has loopholes as it focuses only on punishment.
‘But the law failed to address the country’s interest in international bargaining platform,’ she said.
Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute senior fellow Mohammad Abu Yusuf said that it was crucial to determine who would get the patent right.
‘We need to determine who will get the patent rights of Jamdani. There are parties like the government or the traders or the association to demand the patent rights,’ he said.
CPD Trustee Khushi Kabir said that the government was wasting time formulating the regulations.
‘This is a common practice but this time we need to do it fast. We should not consider whether or not we will be able to retrieve the patent right of Jamdani but we must try as it is the right thing to do,’ she said.
GI is a name or sign used on certain products to certify that they possess certain qualities because they are made as per traditional methods or enjoy a certain reputation due to its geographical origin.
Published on BSS Online
Patent rights of indigenous products stressed
Speakers at a dialogue here today stressed the need for proper implementation of the Geographical Indicative Products (Registration and Protection) Act, 2013 to safeguard the patent rights of the country’s centuries-old indigenous products.
They said traditionally jamdani saree is a product of Bangladesh but some countries, especially India, has been trying to get its international patent right under the name of “Upadah Jamdani”.
They suggested the government to go for a legal battle to establish Bangladesh’s patent right of jamdani.
Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and the National Craft Council of Bangladesh (NCCB) jointly organised the dialogue styled “Protecting Geographical Indication Products in the Context of Bangladesh and the Way Forward”.
CPD’s distinguished fellow Dr Debapriya Bhattachary moderated the dialogue while Dr Iftekhar Iqbal of History Department of Dhaka University presented keynote speech. NCCB chairman Monira Emdad, general secretary Shahid Hossain Shamim, advocate Shukla Sakhawat Siraj, Hamida Hossain and Bibi Russell, among others, took part in the discussion.
They said ownership of Geographical Indicative (GI) Products is an important part of world trade. Jamdani saree is a product of Bangladesh but India got its international patent right in 2009 as ‘Uppada Jamdani Saree’ identifying it as a product of Andhra Pradesh, India, they alleged.
Presenting historical evidence about the origin of jamdani saree, Dr Iftekhar Iqbal said only Bangladesh has the raw materials, environment and efficiency for making jamdani saree.So, none but Bangladesh has the legal right to get its international patent right, he added.
He urged the government to implement the Geographical Indicative Products (Registration and Protection) Act, 2013 to protect the country’s claims to commodities such as jamdani saree, nakshi kantha and hilsha fish.