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BEHIND every invention and enterprise is an intellectual effort and the Western societies have long given recognition to the contribution of intellect to the development of new industrial products by way of granting the patent right to the inventor of a product or the method to produce it. The industries in the advanced West invest a huge sum of money in the field of research and development (R&D) of new products. Naturally, as soon as a new industrial commodity hits the production line, the competitors in the market try to duplicate the product by fair means or foul. To discourage such copying, which is tantamount to stealing the product of hard labour of others, the industrially advanced countries have evolved the necessary legal framework to discourage the duplication of new industrial products in violation of the copyright laws.
While it is necessary that the laws to protect intellectual property rights be strictly followed in the advanced countries, the same rule may not apply in the case of the least developed countries (LDC). That is because the fledgling industries in the LDCs like Bangladesh cannot simply afford to invest big money in R&D of new products. But if the laws to protect intellectual property rights are strictly enforced on them, too, like in the industrially advanced countries, then most of the Third World countries will be deprived of their access to the vital commodities necessary for their survival and growth. Medicine, for example, is one such area where the wholesale application of the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) may spell doom for the public health as well as the pharmaceutical industries of the LDCs. That is precisely the reason that the LDCs have been given the time until the year, 2016, under the exemption clauses relating to this particular pharmaceutical sector. The scenario is not different for other industrial goods such as IT products, capital machinery and many other kinds of manufactured goods that the LDCs are still not in a position to produce on their own right at the moment.
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) had earlier exempted the LDCs from complying with the strict obligations of the TRIPs agreement for a period of 10 years. On December 31 of this year, the exemption time will expire. Unfortunately, the countries covered by the WTO's provision of exemption are yet to graduate themselves from the status of LDCs. Understandably, Zambia, the present coordinator of LDCs, has submitted a proposal to the TRIPS council to extend the exemption period for another 15 years. It is hoped that WTO, especially the members of this global trade body representing the industrially advanced countries, will be able to realise the limitations of the LDCs in this respect as the latter are still engaged in an uneven war with poverty, hunger, natural calamities and other kinds of vulnerabilities.
However, there is also no scope of making light the responsibilities of the industrially advanced countries in this respect. True the LDCs need a breathing space before they can catch up with the advanced countries on the issue of TRIPS. But the latter also need to help the former in earnest through technology transfer and other means such as incentives so that the LDCs' transition to the status of developing countries or to a still higher level is accomplished rather smoothly. The LDCs are also faced with the no less difficult task of revamping their own legal system in conformity with the copyright laws of the advanced countries. Among the LDCs, Bangladesh enjoys a unique position in that some of its industries like textiles can gainfully take advantage of the asked-for exemption period for TRIPS. Unlike India, China and other members of the developing countries, Bangladesh can make immediate use of the relaxed rules for LDCs in the case of certain industrial products protected under the patent rights of TRIPS, export those to different markets and, in the process, graduate itself rapidly to its desired status under the WTO within a short time.
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