BANGLADESH SPECIAL 301 2007

C O N F I D E N T I A L DHAKA 000703 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/30/2017 TAGS: ECON ETRD KPIR BG SUBJECT: BANGLADESH SPECIAL 301 2007 REF: SECSTATE 56065 Classified By: DCM GEETA PASI FOR REASON 1.4(d) ¶1. (U) POSITIVE RESPONSE TO DEMARCHE. Econoff delivered reftel demarche to Abida Islam, Director of America and Pacific Wing, Ministry of Foreign Affairs on April 30. Ms. Islam acknowledged the expressed USG intent to increase engagement on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) issues and agreed with Econoff's suggestion to convene a meeting of GOB IPR stakeholders with Econoff and IPR industry representatives in the near future. ¶2. (C) BROADER GOB REACTION ON SPECIAL 301. In a previous conversation with Econoff, Mesbah Uddin, Registrar of the Department of Patents, Designs and Trademarks said he was actually hoping for Bangladesh to be listed on the Special 301 watch lists. Uddin said that if Bangladesh were listed it would draw attention to the IPR situation in Bangladesh and might result in his office getting the resources needed to take action. ¶3. (C) COMMENT. GOB resources tend to be allocated on a 'first-crisis, first-served basis', as reflected in the Registrar's statement, but there does seem to be unity of desire at least between the IPR industry and the IPR sectors of the GOB (specifically Patents, Designs and Trademarks as well as Copyrights) to address the issue. The IPR industry representatives may even have some resources to contribute similar to the information already provided in the Special 301 process. The next step is to coordinate effective enforcement of IPR by the law enforcement agencies. BUTENIS