Myanmar IP laws update

Laws pass through the legislative process in Myanmar as follows:-

1. Bills go to Upper House Bill Committee
2. Bills go to Lower House Bill Committee
3. Bill then goes back to Upper House Joint Committee for review
4. Bill then goes to Assembly of Union for debate /approval of Bill
5. Approved Bill then goes to President for signing to enact the Bill as a law within 14 days or receive comments, (thus a Bill may return to the Assembly with comments of the President within 14 days for further review)
6. Bill goes to President again and whether or not the President agrees it, the President shall sign and Bill is enacted as law
7. Notification is then be issued within a period of a few months to fix the date for the law to enters into force on the prescribed date in the Notification

If a Bill is not enacted as a law within 14 days from the date of receipt of the Bill at the President Office, it must be returned to the Assembly with the President’s comments.  

The Patent, Design and Trademark laws are now at stage 6; they are due to be signed into effect. However the challenge now lies in stage 7, because of the program of implementation required for registration based IP rules. Implementing rules, a new IP Office, the oversight committee and a physical move to the Ministry of Commerce al need to be planned and scheduled before the Notification can be issued. Once these laws have a date of entry into force, IP owners must be able to file their patents designs and trademarks. Right now the implementation team is working with the Ministry of Commerce to create the plans to put everything in place so that the Notification can be issued.

 

Meanwhile the Copyright Bill is at stage 5. This law does not have mandatory registration of course, so it can take effect immediately. However there are concerns about how the law will apply to certain existing translations and music (which could be rendered infringing), and how the transition period will work. Potentially some debates need to be resolved before the President can sign it.

Music piracy in Myanmar

As internet penetration picks up, the music industry has decided to embrace online distribution in Myanmar.  Physical sales are already low and many towns do not have any music CDs available. Piracy is blamed as part of the reason. Myanmar Music Organisation recently announced it would used enhanced labelling to identify genuine discs. Illegal online P2P file sharing has been cited as a reason for weakening physical sales.
 
So www.myanmarmusic store.com was launched on October 27th.  Original songs can be downloaded on the web or to mobile devices. There are separate sites for local and international buyers, since copyright in local cover songs are only available in Myanmar. Overseas buyers (including a large expat/diaspora population) will have separate access. Local payment systems are already operating.

Not every artist is embracing the system. “I don’t think this will work well because there are still places that we can download for free,” hip- hop artist, Kyaw Htut Swe explained. “If there is a place we can go and download without paying anything, everyone including me, will choose what they want to get for free. Only when we can clear all the free share websites, the online sales will be okay.”

Legacy Music Academy a music rights organisation has already taken online takedown action against several pirate websites including US media storage platform Mediafire. The new Copyright law will hopefully assist in 2014.