From 9 to 13 February 2025, the World Customs Organization (WCO) held a national workshop on the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) in Dhaka, Bangladesh with the financial support of the Customs Cooperation Fund of Japan (CCF/Japan).
Aimed at building the capacity of the Bangladesh National Board of Revenue (NBR) in the IPR domain, the workshop brought together 25 officials who are expected to contribute to strengthening the enforcement of IPR regulations in Bangladesh and to implement training within the NBR.
In his opening remarks, Mr. Abdur Rahman Khan FCMA, Secretary, Internal Resources Division, Ministry of Finance and Chairman of the NBR, expressed his gratitude to the WCO Secretariat for organizing such an important event and to the Japanese Government for funding it. He went on to encourage officials to participate actively in the workshop sessions, stressing the crucial nature of this event for Bangladesh given the economic impact and the health and safety threats posed by IPR infringements.
The five-day workshop covered both theoretical concepts and practical exercises related to IPR issues, including the challenges faced by Customs in managing the increasing number of small packages crossing borders as a result of the growth in e-commerce.
Experts also drew participants’ attention to the various WCO resources available to Members for effectively addressing IPR issues, including the recent publication titled “Case studies and risk indicators to identify IPR, health and safety infringing goods related to e-commerce”.
Combating counterfeiting and piracy requires the development of solid partnerships with the relevant stakeholders. On the second day of the workshop, selected rights holders were invited to share some techniques for detecting IPR infringements involving their products.
The event concluded with a field visit, affording participants an opportunity to see how the strategies discussed during the workshop could be implemented and to identify areas requiring improvement.
The workshop was facilitated by an expert from the WCO Secretariat and two WCO IPR Technical Operational Advisers from India and Japan.
For more information about IPR-related activities, please contact us at: IPRteam@wcoomd.org