On 1 April 2023, the Trademark Law will come into effect according to the State Administration Council’s Notification No. 82/2023 dated 10 March 2023. Implementation of the law is being done in phases. Prior to its effectiveness, during “Soft Opening Phase 1”, which is currently ongoing, the Myanmar Intellectual Property Department (“MIPD”) under the Ministry […]

Trademark registration has been somewhat in limbo since a new trademark law, which has not yet entered into force, was enacted on 30 January 2019 in Myanmar. The law changed the way trademarks would be recognized from a “First-to-Use” system to a “First-to-File system”, and specified that to protect a trademark, it needs to be […]

As a follow up to our email earlier this year about the soft-opening period for the reregistration of trademarks, please note that the Ministry of Commerce (“MOC”) has issued order 63/2020, dated 28 August 2020, in relation to the implementation of the online system for reregistration of trademarks that will start from 1 October 2020 (“Order”). According […]

After almost one year of enactment of the Myanmar Trademark Law 2019 (for our previous article about the law, please see here, the Ministry of Commerce (“MOC”) has brought implementation of the law on schedule. A draft regulation of the Trademark Law has been circulated for comments, and the MOC is testing the new on-line filing systems for trademark registration. In light of the recent meetings held by MOC to […]

Highlights of this note What kind of mark is registrable? Does the trademark law adopt a “first-to-file” or “first-to-use” system? Can I claim priority rights? How long can a registered trademark be protected? What rights does a trademark owner have? If I identify a pending trademark application infringing upon my rights, what can I do? […]

Continuing our intellectual property reform coverage, especially our comprehensive analysis of the Trademarks Bill (Read here) Myanmar recently saw the passing of the Trademarks Law by the National Assembly in a move which brings the long-awaited agenda intellectual property reform in Myanmar closer to reality. What is left now is for the lower house to […]

Myanmar’s long awaited legal reform to its intellectual property framework is nearing completion with the recent announcement of a new draft of the Trademarks Bill (the “Bill”). Once enacted, the process for registering your trademark in Myanmar will be streamlined with a soon to be established Intellectual Property Office (“IPO”) replacing the comparatively weaker protection […]