The 2023 statutes: Bangladesh's IP law leaves 1911 behind

Bangladesh's intellectual property statutes were, until recently, remarkably old. Patents and industrial designs were governed by the Patents and Designs Act 1911 — colonial-era legislation that predated most of the technology it was being applied to. Copyright had been modernised in 2000 but not since.

That changed across 2023. The Patent Act 2023 and the Industrial Design Act 2023 replaced the 1911 regime, splitting patents and designs into separate statutes. The Copyright Act 2023 came into force on 18 September 2023, replacing the Copyright Act 2000. Trademarks continue under the Trademarks Act 2009 as amended in 2015, with the Trademarks Rules 2015.

Why this matters practically

• Section numbering has changed. Advice, pleadings and website content citing 1911 Act sections are citing repealed provisions, and the audience that reads IP content closely will notice.
• Design protection now has its own statute, separated from patents, with its own filing and enforcement provisions.
• The Copyright Act 2023 addresses digital exploitation in ways the 2000 Act did not, and provides enforcement routes including task force and mobile court action.
• Transitional provisions govern rights and applications that existed before commencement — a practical question for any portfolio filed before 2023.

What has not changed

Bangladesh remains outside the Madrid Protocol, the Patent Cooperation Treaty and the Hague system. New statutes have not created an international filing route; national filing through local counsel remains the only way in for all four rights.

Nor has the enforcement environment changed because the statutes did. Outcomes still turn on procedure, on the choice of forum, and on whether the rights holder is prepared to run a programme rather than a single action.