Practice areas

IP, IoT & big data; technology transfer & franchise; media, entertainment & defamation; IT & telecommunications; competition & antitrust

Introduction

ABM Hamidul Mishbah is a corporate lawyer practising at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh and is the managing partner of Old Bailey Chambers in Dhaka. He obtained LLB (Hons) and post graduate degree in law from the UK and was called to the Bar of England and Wales from the Lincoln’s Inn in March 2005. Mishbah later on pursued an LLM degree in competition law at Kings College in London.

Mishbah specialises in IP; emerging technology; IT and telecommunications; competition (antitrust); data protection; media, entertainment and defamation; international commercial law and constitutional law matters. Mishbah served the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) as a national consultant for Bangladesh’s accession to the Madrid Treaty for Trademarks and had previously served as an IPR Consultant for the access to information programme under the Prime Minister’s Office, Bangladesh.

Mishbah’s notable engagements in recent years include spearheading the enactment of the customs IPR (Export & Import) Rules, 2019 in Bangladesh, advising Japan Tobacco International (JTI) in a USD1.5 billion acquisition in 2018 (the largest acquisition in Bangladesh till date), advising VEON Telecom for acquiring the largest video-on-demand and streaming platform company in Bangladesh, assisting leading pharmaceutical companies (i.e. Pfizer and Gilead Sciences) to enforce their IP rights (patent and trademark) in life-saving drugs during 2016-2020, and acting for Casio Japan and Nestle Bangladesh for enforcing their trademark rights at the border through restraining imports of Casio and Nestle products by parallel importers in complex litigations in 2019.

In 2015, Mishbah assisted Microsoft Bangladesh to enforce its copyright and successfully claimed damages for infringement of Microsoft’s copyright in software. He also represented Samsung Electronics in a ground-breaking litigation to prohibit parallel imports, sell and distribution of unauthorised Samsung branded goods into Bangladesh, and offered advisory services in a large M&A transaction by rendering advise on the competition law impact in the e-commerce market resulting from the merger of two leading e-commerce companies in Bangladesh.

Mishbah assisted the music fraternity of Bangladesh in establishing the first-ever collective management organisation (CMO) in Bangladesh in 2014 and played a key role, as a member of the drafting committee for the Copyright Amendment Act, for the introduction of a robust Copyright Law in Bangladesh.

In his legal career spanned more than 16 years, Mishbah has played a pivotal role, and was engaged in various capacities for shaping and framing various legislations and policies, including drafting the National ICT Policy, 2009 and Licensing Guidelines for Vehicle Tracking Services; reviewing the draft of Geographical Indication Act, 2013, the draft of Broadcasting Policy, 2014, the draft of Digital Security Act, 2018, and the draft of Digital Commerce Policy, 2018.

He currently serves as a member to the committee for emerging issues of the International Trademarks Association (INTA) for 2020-2021 and the copyright taskforce of Bangladesh functioning under Ministry of Cultural Affairs.

In 2011 Mishbah founded Bangladesh Intellectual Property Forum (www.bcipf.org), a not-forprofit organisation that solely engages in creating IP rights awareness and capacity building programmes, and runs a legal aid centre called IP Plus Law Clinic that provides pro-bono legal support to startup entrepreneurs, innovators and the creative fraternity. In 2018, Mishbah initiated and founded LexOration, a platform for young lawyers that holds legal lecture series and publications.

For his voluntary contribution in bringing positive changes within the IP rights regime in Bangladesh, Mishbah was awarded the “Ten Outstanding Young Persons of Bangladesh, 2015 Award” by the Junior Chambers International (JCI).

Back to Bangladesh’s A-List 2021