Bangladesh's Jamdani textiles to get global patent

Dhakai Jamdani, one of Bangladesh's finest muslin textiles, is set to be registered this month as the country's first Geographical Indication (GI) product, a media report said on Thursday.

Senior Secretary of the Industries Ministry M. Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan made the disclosure while addressing the 56th annual meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva on Tuesday, according to a message received here on Thursday.

Department of Patents, Designs and Trademarks (DPDT) under the Industries Ministry will provide the registration for Jamdani, popularly known as Dhakai Jamdani or Dhakai, the United News of Bangladesh reported.

The secretary said the government attaches highest importance to preserving intellectual property for ensuring knowledge-based industrialisation. "The government has already formulated laws and rules to provide registration for GI products," he said.

Mosharraf, who led a two-member Bangladeshi delegation to the WIPO meeting, said Bangladesh in association with the WIPO has already implemented the Industrial Property Rights project with a view to preserving, developing and registering intellectual property.

The historic production of Jamdani was patronised by imperial warrants of the Mughal emperors. The term Jamdani is Persian deriving from 'Jam', meaning flower, and 'Dani', a vase or a container, named after decorative floral patterns found on Dhakai textile.

--IANS

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