The North South University law department celebrated ‘World Intellectual Property Day’ with a seminar on contemporary Intellectual Property Law at the NSU in Dhaka on Wednesday.
Macquarie law school professor, Niloufer Selvadurai, joined the seminar online as keynote speaker, said a press release.
The featured speakers were Advocate Saquib Rahman, senior lecturer, department of law, NSU, and Mahua Zahur, director, Centre for Learning Intellectual Property.
Chaired by Professor Abdul Hannan Chowdhury, NSU vice-chancellor, the special guest was Professor Abdur Rob Khan, treasurer and pro-VC, North South University.
Professor Niloufer Selvadurai spoke on the topic titled The IP Issue of Our Era – Patent Protection For AI-Generated Inventions, where she discussed the issues surrounding whether AI shall be acknowledged as an inventor in patent law.
She further analysed statutory reforms in the context of using personal pronouns to exclude AI inventors.
Mahua Zahur spoke on her topic titled IP and Music: An Assessment of the Prospects of the Music Industry in Light of the Copyright Act, 2023.
She highlighted the works done in public domains and the protection of folkloric works, while also criticising the inadequate security measures for audio-visual performers.
Saquib Rahman spoke on ‘dilution by blurring: Bangladesh’s ignorance.
He described why dilution-by-blurring was a conceptually difficult area of trademark law, and that the courts in Bangladesh had not recognised blurring as of yet, concluding that the concept’s inclusion in the Trademark Act of 2009 was a crying need.
Ishtiaque Ahmed, associate professor and chairman of the department of law, delivered the introductory remarks, where he expressed gratitude to the distinguished guests for gracing the occasion with their presence and the continuous evolution of IP law in the legal and social context.
Professor Md Rizwanul Islam, dean of the school of humanities and social sciences, observed that Bangladesh should not view the protection of intellectual property from a binary point of view, which was protecting the interest of foreign intellectual property rights holders at the expense of the consumers of Bangladesh.
He opined that Bangladesh should emphasise enforcing intellectual property rights, inter alia, to encourage creativity and attract foreign investment.
Professor Abdul Hannan Chowdhury recognised the valuable insights surrounding IP law from the seminar.
Professor Abdur Rob Khan acknowledged the department of law for organising such an academic event.
