Protecting IPR: challenges
and opportunities
The human potential to create and innovate is a boundless worldwide resource. Clear rules and strong enforcement
of IPR allows countries to sustain economic development and to build recognisable and respected brands worldwide,
writes James F Moriarty
WHY should Bangladesh care about protecting intellectual property rights? Intellectual property rights are the legal mechanisms – copyrights, patents and trademarks – that ensure that the products we buy are genuine. Dangerous and defective counterfeit products, from counterfeit medication, to toothpaste, to auto parts, put the lives of consumers at risk. A strong IPR system ensures that inventors and innovators are rewarded for their ideas. IPR protections foster an environment in which creative and innovative industries can thrive and contribute to economic development worldwide.
At the dawn of the 21st century, an increasing share of global economic output is generated by services, many of which depend on new and evolving technologies. Inventors, creators, and other risk-takers play a critical role in this economic progress, and the protection of IPR is necessary to ensure that the advances that result from their efforts are rewarded and valued. Progress in nanotechnology, information technology, and clean energy fosters economic development and improves standards of living worldwide.
Intellectual property rights don’t just protect inventors or large corporations; they protect local entrepreneurs and artists. A clear example of innovation in Bangladesh is the pioneering work of Mustafa Jabbar, inventor of the Bijoy Bangla keyboard and related software. The recent court decision recognizing Mr Jabbar’s ownership of the technology he developed is an important step in encouraging innovation. Bangladesh’s filmmakers such as Catherine and Tareque Masud have won critical international acclaim for their films but frequently suffer the theft of their work in their home country.
The illegal sale of stolen music and films in nearly all of Bangladesh’s markets is a troubling indicator of the scale of the IPR protection challenge.
Developing countries too often assume that IPR only benefits first world nations. This perspective unfairly discounts indigenous capacity for innovation – as if good ideas worth protecting and promoting can only come from the first world. Officials in less developed countries cite the World Trade Organisation’s TRIPS agreement as granting their countries exemption from international IPR standards until 2013 (and 2016 for pharmaceutical patents). Relying upon these temporary ‘exemptions’ is a choice fraught with risks. An economy built on weak IPR foundations is one in which the abuse of foreign and domestic IPR occurs hand-in-hand. Any country seeking free-trade agreements cannot ignore today’s work to ensure meeting future obligations to protect IPR.
The human potential to create and innovate is a boundless worldwide resource. Clear rules and strong enforcement of IPR allows countries to sustain economic development and to build recognisable and respected brands worldwide. Bangladesh’s innovators, inventors and artists have proven themselves worthy of the highest awards and recognition worldwide – it’s time that Bangladesh’s domestic IPR mechanisms now grant them the same honour.
James F Moriarty is the US ambassador to Bangladesh
IN MEMORIAM
My brother Ferdous Alam Dulal
by Shamsul Alam Belal
ON MAY 7, 1981 Ferdous Alam Dulal was killed along with the eminent labour leader Abdur Rahman on Bijoy Nagar Road in the capital. His death was a bolt from the blue for our family. Our mother, who had already lost two of her sons in their minor age, refused to accept that Dulal was no more among us; she still doesn’t. The second among nine children of my parents, Dulal was born in the first half of January 1951. Our mother had extra affection for him, maybe because he was her only fair-complexioned son with a large head, thick curly hair, slim but tall figure and an innocent fact. He used to be timid in his adolescence but became somewhat bohemian in his youth.
Dulal was not the one to support the family with his income but became its backbone for many obvious reasons. Our father was especially proud to have a journalist son. When he died in 1978, Dulal felt guilty for not having done anything for him. He tried to get rid of such a sense of guilt by bearing the expenses of me and my younger brother Babul later on. It was a difficult task with his meagre income.
A mediocre student, Dulal was an avid reader of the life-sketches of immortal heroes and legends. When his secondary school certificate examinations results came out, probably in March 1966, he was not at home. As he got the news, he rushed home and, in his haste, stumbled and fell near the main entrance. He cried out in pain. Our mother laughed and said, ‘Don’t cry. You have passed your exams with good results.’ Dulal instantly forgot his pain and asked her, ‘Will you now bear the expenses if I want to study medical science?’ Our father said, ‘Of course, I will but first you have pass the HSC exams.’
He could not, however, study medical science but was selected through the ISSB examination for the Pakistan Air Force. In the meantime, the war of independence began; our eldest brother Khokon and he joined the war. During the war, he along with some of his freedom fighter friends went missing in the Indian state of Mizoram. They could not be traced for nearly a month. Our eldest brother was at Agartala and tried in vain to locate them. When Dulal eventually came back to Agartala, he described how they had lost their way, fallen into the hands of a man-eating tribe, saved themselves by playing tricks and survived by eating only the inner stalk of banana plants.
When he came to our home in Radhanagar in India, only 1.5 miles off Chouddagram, he described the whole hair-raising story. The family was insisting upon him not to go to the war any more. But he suddenly sprang up with his Sten gun and cried out, ‘No, I will go and I assure you that I will return alive with this gun and a new flag.’ And then he went out of the house. He was emotional and asked me to inform our parents at home in Bangladesh that he would not die in the war. ‘Tell them not to be worried but to pray to Allah for the independence of Bangladesh,’ he told me and went away.
After independence, he came back and devoted himself to prepare for his BSc examinations. The examinations over, he came to Dhaka and joined the Bangladesh Press International sometime in July 1972. My father was proud but was a little concerned with his very meagre salary. None in our family could imagine that the introvert Dulal as a journalist would become so smart and widely popular in only nine years of his professional career. After the merger of the BPI with Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, Dulal switched to economic reporting and, in only five years, became one of the best economic reporters in town by dint of his personal integrity, commitment and perseverance. Here I must recall with profound respect the amount of affection and care the late AZM Enayetullah Khan, editor of the weekly Holiday, and Moazzem Hossain, then the most revered economic reporter of the Bangladesh Observer and now editor of the Financial Express, dedicated to Dulal to rear him in this field of journalism.
After performing his duty in the BSS, he used to regularly contribute to the weekly Holiday, Radio Bangladesh and the weekly Sunday, where his by-lined news stories, particularly on economic and development issues, earned him acclaim. He was convinced that the work of a journalist should not be confined to writing news on certain subjects. He soon started critiquing stage drama and caught the attention of leading cultural personalities of the time. In other fields of journalism, Dulal was equally efficient.
Dulal was never afraid of speaking his mind. Immediately after August 15, 1975, when even whispering about Bangabandhu was a matter of great fear, Dulal was one of those in the National Press Club who dared protest the killing of Father of the Nation. Even in hardship, he was loyal to his good person and zeal for righteousness. In his faithfulness to the principle, he was as firm as a rock.
On one night in 1979, he came home early and told me that he would go to North Korea as a member of the Bangladesh cultural delegation. On his return, he told me a good number of stories about his first experience of visiting a foreign country, seeing the people there and having chats with them. Next year he went to the United States.
Dulal kept a close watch on the economic ups and downs around the world in the late 1970s and soon realised that the third world countries would again be used as tools of the west in the name of globalisation. He wrote several articles predicting the impact of globalisation on the poor countries. His apprehensions are now proving to be true.
A life that held so much promise ended in minutes on May 7, 1981 when the killers hired by a quarter close to the then BNP government sprayed bullets on him and the labour leader Abdur Rahman. Dulal’s brutal assassination seems to tell us that no gentleman has the right to live in a society where politics and economy are being continuously polluted by corruption, black money and tall talkers.
Dulal’s death is not an isolated case. Where killers are being tamed by those who rule society as well as the state, life is not safe at all. It was quite a surprise for all of us that the killers of Dulal were jailed but later released and absorbed into national politics by the deposed dictator HM Ershad. We are grateful and proud nonetheless that we have seen the amount of countrywide shock and condemnation at Dulal’s death. After 28 years of his tragic assassination, I still see Dulal’s friends, colleagues and well-wishers keeping their dear friend alive in sweet reminiscence.
Democrats do have a nominee
by Muhammad Cohen
Hundreds of thousands of Democrats will vote in the United States presidential elections in Indiana and North Carolina on Tuesday, and those results won’t matter. But the reason the final tally won’t matter is different from the reason the vote didn’t matter in Pennsylvania two weeks ago.
Senator Hillary Clinton’s win in the Pennsylvania primary didn’t change the calculus in fashion back then: Senator Barack Obama still led in pledged delegates, overall delegates, popular vote, and states won, and thus remained the prohibitive favourite for the nomination.
This week’s heavily contested Indiana primary – foolishly dubbed a ‘tie breaker’ by frontrunner Obama – is supposed to demonstrate whether the senator from Illinois can succeed with white working class voters. But no matter who wins where and by how much this Tuesday, the new math of the race won’t change: Clinton will not end her campaign until she wins the nomination, regardless of the damage she inflicts on the Democratic Party and its nominee.
In her Pennsylvania victory speech, Clinton said, ‘The American people don’t quit, and they deserve a president that won’t quit.’ In the midst of her vacuous, vapid chatter most notable for begging for donations – by a candidate whose family income in recent years tops US$100 million – that line stood out. Except for the disgraced Richard Nixon facing impeachment and likely conviction, when has an American president quit?
Clinton faced appeals to drop out of the race during her February losing streak, but no one expected her to drop out after a win in Pennsylvania. Her fighting spirit is admirable, especially against the cool of Obama, who finally got angry last week, he says, after his long-time preacher Reverend Jeremiah Wright resurfaced and exponentially increased the damage his ‘God damn America’ sound-bite had done.
An offer they should stop refusing
But Clinton didn’t say, ‘The American people are fighters, and they deserve a president that who will fight every bit as hard as they do.’ She specifically said quit, and the remark wasn’t directed at voters. It was a lightly veiled threat to the party leadership, super delegates all, that the senator from New York will continue her fight until she’s their nominee.
The rush of super delegates to Obama, including the high-profile defection of former Democratic national committee chairman Joe Andrew last week, is a plea to end the increasingly harmful nomination fight and unite. But the Clintons hold the only votes that matter on this topic, and they’re already united behind Hillary. It’s up to the party to fall into line, or be destroyed resisting.
The Clinton campaign got manna from the heavens with the reappearance of Wright, but they’ve been hacking at Obama for months. Clinton said presumptive Republican nominee John McCain was qualified to be commander-in-chief while deafeningly silent on Obama. Although their positions on most issues are similar, Clinton has twisted his planks to create phoney attack points. She’s deployed images from children nestled snug in their beds to Osama bin Laden to raise doubts about Obama’s fitness for the presidency.
Her campaign claims, legitimately, that its attacks are kid stuff compared with Republican tactics. Clinton’s campaign isn’t giving Republicans talking points for autumn – as if the GOP couldn’t find Wright or indicted Obama fundraiser Tony Rezko on its own – they’re either toughening Obama or destroying him before the Republicans can.
Picking a winner
Clinton’s attacks have boosted Obama’s unfavourable ratings, allowing Clinton to claim – and some polls to show – he’ll be the weaker candidate against McCain. The Obama of February, with a fresh message of hope and lofty aspirations, would be more attractive than the muddied, bloodied Obama voters see today, a full six months before the presidential vote.
More importantly, a badly compromised Obama undercuts the reigning myth that it would be illegitimate for super delegates not to nominate the candidate with the most pledged delegates (and states won and popular votes in sanctioned contests). Obama’s woes boost the counterargument that it would be irresponsible for party leaders to nominate a candidate that doesn’t have the best chance of winning.
Clinton’s case – that she’s faced down the Republican attack machine for more than a decade – is at best half-true. Running as a Democrat in New York is hardly equivalent to running for president. In her first national race, facing a largely Democratic electorate – some states allow independents and Republicans to vote in Democratic primaries – Clinton is running a close second. Can she expect to do better against McCain?
In the general election, Clinton will also confront vicious attacks from Republicans far beyond anything she’s seeing in primaries. Since she claims Bill Clinton’s presidency on her resume, Hillary must carry the baggage of those eight years. As Clinton’s fortunes rise, no doubt a factory is turning out life-size Monica Lewinsky blow-up dolls for general election hecklers.
Republicans will again blame the Clinton administration for the September 11, 2001, attacks (while taking credit that ‘we haven’t been hit again’) and portray withdrawal from Iraq as another Clinton move to weaken America and embolden terrorists. Hillary provides additional targets such as her ‘sniper fire’ landing in Bosnia and her dismal failure to reform healthcare as first lady. Most important, polls indicate 58 per cent of voters don’t trust her, a number Republicans will exploit relentlessly.
Bring it on, the Clintons say. This election represents the best chance for a Democrat to succeed a Republican president since 1976, and the Clintons are loath to see it go to a candidate from outside their family. The Clintons are confident they can win the White House, whereas, they’ll confide, it’s a leap into the unknown with Obama, a half-black guy with an Arab middle name who doesn’t wear a flag pin, and whose wife and preacher have publicly and viciously expressed their disdain for our country. But let’s not talk about Obama...
Belushi doctrine
The race is all about the Clintons, and they won’t walk away until they’re strolling back to their old house on Pennsylvania Avenue following Hillary’s oath of office. Clinton’s ‘quit’ comment served notice that she subscribes to John Belushi’s declaration in the film Animal House: ‘Nothing is over until we say it’s over.’ Democrats might wish they saw this brand of grit and determination and tenacity during the 2000 Florida vote count, but that was about succeeding a Clinton, not a Clinton succeeding.
The peculiar architecture of the 2008 nomination race makes it simple for Clinton to keep fighting until she wins. Since the race this year is too close to be settled by pledged delegates, then the primary season is simply the preliminary round. Clinton will finish that round narrowly behind Obama in all likelihood. Democratic national committee chairman Howard ‘The Scream’ Dean wants super delegates to declare their choices shortly after the final primary on June 3. Despite Clinton’s recently electoral successes, super delegates disturbed by the negativity of Clinton’s campaign could put Obama over the top.
But, the Clintons will fight on to the convention in August, assuring supporters that super delegates can change their minds. (Clinton’s side also contends, less convincingly, that even pledged delegates can vote as they please, even on the first ballot.) No matter what the delegate count says on the eve of the convention, the Clintons still have two extraordinarily potent weapons at their disposal: Michigan and Florida.
Clinton won unsanctioned primaries in those two states that all candidates agreed would not count. The Clintons and their campaign will mount a convention floor fight to seat those states’ delegations and count their votes. When that fails, expect a full court press – lawsuits in every court they can find, at every level, for every reason. Legal precedents say political parties can set their own rules of conduct, but the Clintons are bound to find a judge – it only takes one, and Bill appointed plenty – to see things their way.
If the Democrats want to fight, lawsuits can tie up the nomination past election day, or at least long enough to ensure that any Democratic candidate not named Clinton will lose, and that Hillary will get the nomination unopposed in 2012. Rest assured, the Clintons have the chutzpah to make it happen.
The Clintons are confident that, with an unpopular war and a lousy economy under a Republican president, come November enough Democratic voters will hold their noses and pull the lever for Hillary, putting the good of the country and the party above their personal desires, something we’ve yet to see from a Clinton. At some stage, the Democratic leadership and voters will understand it’s not worth the trouble to fight the Clintons, relent, and give Hillary the nomination. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, even if you can no longer stand ’em.
Asia Times Online. May 6.
Food crisis
India solved its food shortage years ago, mainly by the simple act of giving electricity free to farmers so that they could irrigate their land.
Why can’t we?
Shubho
Via sms
* * *
The answer lies in reducing incentive to the production of cash crops which diverts force excess water use in impoverished growing areas and reduce the viability of staple diet food production. Climate change must be tackled, rather than fiddling while Rome burns.
Zahir Chowdhury
On e-mail
* * *
A large part of the problem is the way capitalism works. Food is made into a scarce commodity by stockpiling and the futures market exacerbates that problem. Food prices will increase as hording and futures dominate the landscape.
There is no easy solution to that problem. Land use policies and termination of outward growth of human settlements will help ease the problem. Force cities to build upwards and terminate any plans to develop rural areas.
Sabur Alam Khan
USA
* * *
Neither overpopulation, nor consumerism is the real cause of food crisis. Happy, contented and educated populations neither over-breed nor overeat. How many millions are wasted on armament industry? How many acres of arable land are being poisoned by toxic fallout from the manufacture and usage of weapons? Governments, especially that of the Western world, should start considering the well-being of the people and not dominance. Then only will they be able to pinpoint the causes of food shortage and the evil called global warming can be tackled.
A citizen
On e-mail
Dhaka-Kolkata train service
Let the Dhaka-Kolkata train service drive away all the obstacles in the way of good and friendly relationship between Bangladesh and India. Through warm and friendly negotiations we want the end of all frictions between the two neighbouring countries. We, the peace-loving peoples of the two countries, want to live in peace and amity. The train service is one of the positive steps to strengthen further bilateral relationship.
Moznu
Sunamganj, via SMS
Citizen’s right
Those who talk against empowering women are actually violating constitutional and human rights of a section of Bangladeshi citizens. Discrimination among citizens is strictly prohibited in Bangladesh. The constitution of this land guarantees equal rights to all the citizens of Bangladesh, irrespective of their sex, caste and faith.
MH Khan
On e-mail
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