EDITORIAL
We are pleased to publish the sixth issue of the
quarterly Legal Counsel News Bulletin with
some important updates as a part of our continuing efforts to disseminate key information
to clients and other stakeholders. Being the
last issue of year 2020, it walks you through
the vital updates and news from 2020 about
Legal Counsel, depicting our moments of
growth (both in knowledge and size), pride, joy
and satisfaction in serving our rich clientele, of
doing good for the community as well as for
our colleagues, with a vouch to grow to an even
bigger and better legal service provider in 2021.
NEW IMPORTANT LEGISLATIONS
(OCTOBER 2020-DECEMBER 2020)
Nari-O-Shishu Nirjatan Daman (amendment) Act, 2020.
Marine Fisheries Act, 2020.
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DO YOU KNOW
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Capital punishment (i.e. death penalty) pronounced by trial court does not get executed
instantly and automatically. In Bangladesh, a
death sentence must be confirmed by High
Court Division (HCD) of the Supreme Court
through a Death Reference Case. Besides
being time consuming, the punishment can
be changed and even the accused be acquitted by HCD.
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on
1st December, 2020 ruled that “life imprisonment” shall mean to remain behind bars for
30 years unless the trial court specifically
mentions in the judgment that the convict is
sentenced to imprisonment until his natural
death.

Is Your Intellectual Property Protected?

Similar to tangible property, intellectual property (IP) is an
asset to a business that has the potential to maximize the
value of it. There are various forms of IP. Trademarks are
marks, brand names, logos, designs, slogans, etc. that are
unique to a business. Copyrights are associated with the
exclusive rights to produce, reproduce, perform, publish, sell
or give on hire any literary, dramatic or musical work, artistic
work and computer programme. Patent refers to an exclusive
right or title, to make, use, or sell an invention or authorize
others to do so. Such important, and almost the core commercial, aspect for a company and matters of utmost priority
and confidentiality, yet often ignored and left legally unprotected. These IP rights (IPR) may be acquired, exploited,
licensed, assigned, sold, used as a vehicle for raising equity
and even used as collateral to secure loans. Needless to say,
being valuable property, they are at a constant risk of being
stolen, misused, misappropriated by competitors or claimed
as being theirs any day.
As IPR advisor, Legal Counsel advises those businesses,
which have not done already, to prioritize for 2021 the development and implementation of a robust IP strategy for their
organizations. It is necessary for making use of IP to empower businesses to secure high prices for their products and
services, increase their market shares and maintain reduced
costs than its competitors. With a carefully considered IP
strategy, organizations can protect their creative works and
inventions, keep its resources in check and identify the
appropriate time for exploring new research and development
opportunities.

To develop an IP strategy, organizations must first consider their type, the products/services they sell/provide.
While generally all organizations should protect their trademarks, there may be IP specific to the type of organization or products and services that require protection. Organizations trading in consumer products may protect
the design of their products’ packaging, besides protecting the technology, know-hows, ingredients etc. of the
products, to avoid having similar products, designs and packaging in the market. On the other hand, an IT firm
may obtain copyright protection for its software to guard itself from anyone copying the particulars of its software.
Truer for FMCGs, such measures essentially armour all organizations to not only ensure brand protection by eliminating or reducing risks of counterfeit and look-alike products, but also to combat consumer protection issues.
Even the organizations not involved in commercial activities should still consider protecting their logo, ideas etc.
The size of the organization is an important factor for formulating an IP strategy. Where an organization is small
with fewer employees, a formal IP strategy may primarily include protective mechanism such as registration of its
IPR. By contrast, for organizations which are large in size, formulation of a comprehensive IP strategy is pivotal.

These organizations shall be able to identify its relationships with its employees, independent contractors, etc. in
order to determine the rights of ownership vested in its products/services.
The stage of development of the organization should also be taken into account. At the beginning stages of a business while it is establishing a market, building and registering its IP rights should be focused on. At a developed
stage, enforcement of such IP rights may take on a more significant role.
Organizations should conduct detailed market survey (i.e. product valuation, return on investment, etc.) before
launching any new product/providing any new service. The key issue to be identified is if the brand, creative work
or novel invention shall provide a competitive advantage in the market. Organizations should further look if the
products/services are already in the market and if the IPR for the same is already protected or not. Moreover,
organizations should also be updated at all times and stay vigilant on whether there is any potential infringement
of their IP rights by anyone and undertake all possible proactive and reactive legal actions against such infringement.

Arbitration on the Rise
Over the years,

due to various complexities associated with
litigation and an increased number of cross border transactions with more foreign trade and investment, parties have
opted to various alternative dispute resolution (ADR) procedures, with the view to resolving disputes amicably. One such
ADR modality is Arbitration. It is a quasi-judicial process
whereby, through agreement between the parties, a dispute is
submitted to a neutral third party (an arbitral tribunal consisting of one or more arbitrators) whose decision is binding
on the parties. During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, institutional arbitration has gained remarkable popularity, in most of the jurisdictions including Bangladesh. Besides experiencing a notable increase in the number of
client briefs for arbitration in our Chambers, we noticed from different forums that disputes that usually dragged
people to courts and lingered there for even decades, are now being referred to arbitration and being resolved
quickly, amicably and with lesser efforts.

Unlike litigation, arbitration is private and customizable forum for resolving disputes. It offers a speedy solution,
without requiring considerable time or having complexity and technical obscurity in relation to the process. The
arbitrators may also be chosen by the parties, the freedom which is absent in litigation. The arbitral tribunal
further has an overriding duty to be independent, impartial and bring about a fair resolution of every dispute they
decide on. Where any party has justifiable doubts as to the independence or impartiality of an arbitrator, his/her
appointment may be challenged. The timeline for providing statement of claim, defense, hearings, etc. is also
tailored to provide decisions as promptly as possible. The final award, although binding upon the parties, may be
challenged within the purview of relatively narrowly defined avenues.

Popularity of arbitration soared as lockdowns and restrictions of movements have little to no effect on the arbitration procedures; going virtual required little to no mess, no capricious rules/regulations, with parties freely choosing dates/times, platforms to hold hearings, media to share documents, etc.
Due to its flexibility, mechanism and effectiveness, in today’s commercial world, arbitration is an ideal ADR process
for parties in dispute. It aids parties in reaching an amicable settlement and further assisted in preserving their
future relationship, as opposed to bringing a win-lose outcome.

In a historical move, Bangladesh has signed its first ever
bilateral Preferential Trade Agreement (‘PTA’) with the
jewel of the Himalayas: the Kingdom of Bhutan, on the
6th December, 2020. Bhutan was the first country in
the world to recognize Bangladesh as an independent
nation on the 6th December, 1971. Signing the PTA on
the same date also marked the glorious celebration of
the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the
two countries. Under the PTA, 100 Bangladeshi products
Bangladesh is negotiating with almost all countries
and/or organizations attempting Covid-19 vaccine
development and is in touch with at least six of them.
From 8th December 2020, the U.K as the first country,
started administering the vaccine developed by Pfizer
Inc. and Germany’s BioNTech SE, with a 90 year-old
woman being the first to be vaccinated. The Government
of Bangladesh (GoB) is not considering procuring the
vaccines of Pfizer-Biontech or Moderna as those are not
suitable for Bangladesh due to temperature-related
storage and distribution issues.
including 16 fresh goods, will also enjoy duty-free access to the Bangladeshi market.
A PTA is a trading agreement in relation to a certain geographical trading bloc that gives preferential access to
certain goods from and within the participating countries.

So far, Bangladesh has entered into few multilateral
FTAs/ PTAs with other developing and emerging economies. The two multilateral FTA deals include the South
Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) Agreement and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Agreement. The three multilateral PTAs are the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement
(APTA), the Trade Preferential Scheme among member states of the OIC (TPS-OIC) and the Developing-8 (D-8)
PTA. It is hoped that the government shall continue to seriously emphasize on entering into more and more effective and well-balanced bilateral PTAs.
The GoB has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bangladesh’s Beximco Pharmaceuticals to get 3 crore (30 million) doses of the vaccine developed by Astrazeneca/Oxford
University. Under the deal, Bangladesh will get this vaccine at the early stage and the same will be preserved at Beximco’s cold storage. The country will be able to give this vaccine to 1.5 crore (15 million) population in the first
phase-two doses for each person, to be administered with a gap of 28 days in between. As per the Health Minister,
the vaccines will be coming in phases over 6 months, with first slot expected to arrive early January 2021.
Interim results from Phase-3 trials in Britain and Brazil found the vaccine to be 70.4% protective (23/11/2020).
Over 50% efficacy would suffice as per the World Health Organization (WHO).
Key Facts:
Priority recipients – health professionals, senior citizens (over-60), frontline administrative and law enforcement officials.
Listing – GoB started compiling list of senior citizens at ward levels using the NID Card database; GoB completed
listing all public and law enforcement officials via data sent by all Civil Surgeons.
Long-term plans – to cover all segments of the population, in phases.
Vaccine cost – GoB to provide these 30M free of cost.
Preferential Trade Agreement
with the Kingdom of Bhutan
Bangladesh Covid-19 Vaccine Update

Child Protection Policy:
Environmental Policy:
help of local people and students of Uttar Banishanta village, planted 1000 mangroves at
Banishta union of Dacope sub-district, close to
the Sundarbans Mangrove Forest on 27 and 28
December 2020.
LC practices little or no printing, reusing
papers, reduced electricity consumption, using
of eco-friendly cleaning products, etc.
Pro bono Policy: Throughout the year, LC has
been actively providing pro bono services in the
form of free legal advice over phone/email/virtual correspondences, participating in webinars and TV shows and disseminating legal
information through publications on various
paper and online based newspapers.

Webinar on ‘Employment Situations during Covid-19’ with the legal practitioners of
India, Pakistan, Australia and Nigeria, organized by: Legal Counsel, held on 14 June 2020,
Broadcasting Partner: Channel-I. https://youtu.be/CCnCs_Ijm88
Webinar on “Mental Well-being of Professionals during Covid-19”, organized by Legal
Counsel & Pulse Healthcare Services Ltd, held on 4 July, 2020. Mr. A M Aminuddin:
Attorney General of Bangladesh and the President, Supreme Court Bar Association
attended amongst other.
Webinar on ‘Digital Communication, Data Protection & Privacy’, organized by Legal
Counsel, held on 12 June, 2020, graced by the Hon’ble Minister, Ministry of Post, Telecommunication and Information Technology, Mr. Kamal Quadir. Broadcasting Partner:
Channel-I and Channel-I online.