History: The patent law of Bangladesh was last revised in 1985.

Membership: WIPO, Paris

Provisions until now: A number of areas have remained outside the field of patentability, of which plants, agricultural processes, food products and pharmaceuticals. (Hossain, 1997)

Changes to conform to TRIPS: Bangladesh will likely adopt plant variety protection legislation as compliance with TRIPS Art 27.3.b. In addition, UNCTAD estimates that the cost for bringing Bangladesh's IPR laws and system to a level required for implementation of TRIPS will cost well over USD 1.35 million dollars. PLANT VARIETY PROTECTION The Ministry of Agriculture is drafting PVP legislation, which they hope will comply with UPOV standards. Some national agricultural research administrators have been arguing that the UPOV model will neither foster innovation nor protect the rights of farmers and therefore that another approach to PVP is needed. It's not clear whether UPOV or an alternative PVP system will be the one that is established in the end.

SOURCES: - UNCTAD, The TRIPS Agreement and Developing Countries, UNCTAD, Geneva, 1997. - M. Gul Hossain, "Toward Developing a Plant Variety Protection System in Bangladesh", paper presented to the seminar on Plant Variety Protection under the UPOV Convention, Dhaka, 16 September 1997. - Alan Jacobs (ed.), Patents Throughout the World, Clark, Boardman & Callaghan, New York, Release #51, November 1995.