Bangladesh sees further decline in patent applications from residents
Bangladesh's Intellectual Property offices received 402 patent applications in 2020 – a 2.66% decline from last year – and 362 of those came from non-residents.
While there were an additional 17 expatriate applicants compared to 2019, applications from residents fell by 41.17%, according to the World Intellectual Property Organisation's (WIPO) annual report titled "World Intellectual Property Indicators 2021" released on Monday.
The report stated that only 140 applications (34.82%) were granted out of the total 402.
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Meanwhile, the number of trademark applications was 10% higher this time.
A trademark refers to a word, symbol, design, or phrase registered to a specific company that differentiates a product from the ones that are closely identical in nature.
Among the total 13,691 applications for trademarks, 9,782 came from residents.
In terms of industrial design – a form of intellectual property protection available for design innovators – both resident and non-resident applications saw a decline in 2020 with 1,241 applications in total (22.34% lower than 2019).
Global trends, however, tell a different story about overall patent applications.
Despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the global economic contraction, 3.3 million applications were made in 2020 worldwide, representing a 1.6% increase from 2019.
In most countries, non-resident applicants represented a small proportion of the total applications filed. Around 70.3% of the applications worldwide consisted of resident filings.
The report also stated that the long-term trend in patent applications worldwide has been upwards since 1995.
Bangladesh's innovation performance unchanged over the years
In the 2021 edition of the Global Innovation Index released by the same organisation in September 2021, it was indicated that Bangladesh has not made any major improvements in terms of innovation in the last four years.
The country has consistently been ranking 116th among 132 countries in the index for the last few years.
The report also indicated that there were no major improvements in the country's overall infrastructural development or business sophistication. University-industry R&D collaboration has also been deteriorating over the years.
