Wednesday, March 20, 2013

IP interest in Myanmar continues to grow

Businesses continue to be interested in this new market. Despite the grant of an extension for Least Developed Countries to comply with TRIPS, Myanmar may still press ahead with implementation of its IP laws. Draft Trademark, Copyright and Patent laws are already in circulation. In fact there appears to be 2 competing draft Copyright bills, with some confusion as to which department will take the lead. The ASEAN IP Association is holding its biannual conference in Yangon in early April. Below are the trademark filing data for Myanmar (technically these are deposits since no actual IP office exists yet).

Years Foreign Domestic
2010   2149   3821
2011   2378   3048
2012   4068   3294


While domestic filings remain low, there has been a significant jump in foreign filings in the last year. The first GI was even deposited recently (Champagne)!  And recently the Yangon courts granted a preliminary injunction in an infringement case. So IP is moving fast in this most exciting of new markets.

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