Bangladesh is set to graduate from Least Developed Country (LDC) status this year. There are presently 44 LDCs designated by the United Nations; the status affords them preferential market access, aid, special technical assistance and capacity-building on technology, among other things. The list is reviewed every three years by the UN’s Committee for Development Policy.

Shilpi Jha, senior commercial specialist and IP policy advisor for South Asia at the U.S. embassy in New Delhi, speaking in Dhaka, said that Bangladesh needs to modernize its intellectual property laws to attract more foreign investment, especially from the United States.

Jha was speaking at a May 2026 roundtable titled “Advancing the IPR Framework and the Way Forward” organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh; her comments were reported by The Daily Star.

The newspaper reported the diplomat saying that stronger and internationally aligned intellectual property protection is no longer just a legal requirement, but an economic necessity, and that an updated IP framework would help Bangladesh integrate more effectively into the global economy, boost exports, encourage innovation and attract foreign direct investment.

Writing a year ago in advance of Bangladesh’s graduation from LDC status will mean, Asjadul Kibria, an editor at The Financial Express in Dhaka, said that intellectual property has drawn less attention than other areas of expected change, noting that LDCs are generally exempted from implementing most elements of the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement until July 2034, and that they enjoy special treatment in IP protection of pharmaceuticals until January 2033.

“When an LDC like Bangladesh finally leaves the category and becomes a non-LDC, the exemptions to implement TRIPS provisions will no longer apply,” Kibria writes. “In other words, the country has to follow the path of other developing nations by gradually implementing various IP rules outlined in the TRIPS agreement. However, a graduated LDC will be eligible for some flexibility applicable to developing countries.”

Kibria says that while there is plenty of help for governments making this transition, those governments must take advantage of the resources offered. “Use of these studies makes it possible to outline the potential risks and opportunities for the country in terms of IP in the post-graduation period. Updating the IP laws is not enough, and the update needs to be carefully crafted. Prior consultation with different stakeholders is a must. It is also necessary to rigorously review the IP laws of competing countries to understand their strength and weaknesses in this connection. Bangladesh has already updated patent, industrial design and copyright acts in 2023. More work is needed, however.”

It is against that backdrop that we bring you Bangladesh’s IP Experts, a list of 30 key intellectual property lawyers who almost certainly be involved in the future of intellectual property in Bangladesh.

Several firms had two lawyers named to our list of IP Experts: Bepary & Bepary (Md. Ariful Islam and Abu Tahla), Doulah & Doulah (Sharif Doulah and Sohailud Doulah), GRAM IP (Jafar Hasan and Farida Yasmin), H&H Company (M. Rezwanul Haque and Abdur Rafique) and The Legal Era (Fahima Binte Kamrul and Md. Salequzzaman). In total, lawyers representing 24 different firms made the list.

Most of the lawyers named to our list have multiple practice specialties. Many of them are litigators, while others concentrate on prosecution work or provide strategic advice.

All of them have something in common: they are experts in their fields and, in one way or another, they provide extra value for their clients. They are Asia IP’s Bangladesh IP Experts. – GREGORY GLASS

Bangladesh’s IP Experts is based solely on independent editorial research conducted by Asia IP. As part of this project, we turned to in-house counsel in Bangladesh, Asia and elsewhere and around the world, as well as South Asia-focused partners at international law firms, and asked them to nominate private-practice lawyers, including foreign legal consultants, advisers and counsel.

The final list reflects the nominations received combined with the input of the editorial team at Asia IP, which has more than 55 years of collective experience in researching and understanding Bangladesh’s legal market.

All private practice intellectual property lawyers in Bangladesh were eligible for inclusion in the nominations process; there were no fees or any other requirements for inclusion.

The names of our 30 IP Experts are published here. Each IP Expert was given the opportunity to include their biography and contact details in print and on our website, for which a fee was charged.