The cabinet yesterday approved the draft of Trademarks (Amendment) Act 2014, making the provision of disposing trademark related disputes or cases within 360 days instead of 120 days.
The decision was taken at the regular meeting of the cabinet at the secretariat yesterday with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters after the meeting: “The act was given final approval with the condition that the opinion of Law Ministry will have to be taken regarding the matter.”
Previously, the deadline for disposing the disputes or cases under the act was 120 days.
Bhuiyan said: “The existing deadline of disposing the matters is illogical as the officials concerned need to dispose seven important matters to dispose a case or dispute. It is quite impossible for a man to dispose all the matters within 120 days.
“Considering the troubles, the Ministry of Industries tabled the proposal to extend the deadline of disposing the disputes to 360 working days from existing 120 days. The cabinet has given its final approval to the draft. It will be sent to the Law Ministry for its opinion,” he added.
He also said the neighbouring countries did not have any deadline in their respective laws on this regard; but Bangladesh kept the provision to keep pressure on disposing such cases or disputes within the deadline.
The Trademarks Act was first enacted in 1940; the rules for implementing the act were formulated in 1963; the act was later reformed in 2009.
The cabinet also discussed the progress of implementing the cabinet’s decisions that had been taken during the first nine months of the current government. On this regard, the Cabinet Division tabled a quarterly report of the cabinet decisions implementation progress.
The report read that the cabinet had taken 55 decisions in nine meetings during the last three months. Of those, 33 decisions have been implemented already and the rest were being implemented. Progress of implementing the decisions was 60%, the report read.
The cabinet also approved four strategies or policies during the period, while 54 summaries were also approved.
Bhuiyan said: “The cabinet has already given final approval on 13 draft acts during the period, while preparation of 28 drafts of acts is in the process. Nine drafts of acts are pending in the parliament for passage.”
A total of 11 drafts of acts – which were already given approval in principle – were waiting in different ministries for correction or examination. Those will be placed in the cabinet soon for final approval, he added.
