1 June 2014Jurisdiction reportsKhine Khine U

Business brief 2014: Myanmar

Patents and design

The Burma Patents and Design Act, 1945 has already been revoked; new patent and industrial design laws have been drafted and are waiting for parliament to promulgate them in 2014.

At present in Myanmar, patents and designs can be registered under the Registration Act and they do not have to be examined before registration.

To apply for a patent, it has to be registered in another country. So in practice the registration of a patent means that one registered elsewhere is simply registered in Myanmar. While at present there is no examination, there will be under the new law. It is intended that in line with international patent practice, patent applications will be examined, enquiries made to the country in which the patent has been registered, and an examiner will test it before approval. There will be a completely new procedure before a patent registration is granted in Myanmar and the patent registration cost will be different under the new patent law. Existing patent applications will not be recorded in an online database but the new patent office will try to adopt international standards to introduce the best possible system for patent applications in Myanmar.

Designs can also be registered; for these too, there is no prior examination step although the design has to have been created and used in Myanmar.

Trademarks

To protect a trademark in Myanmar, it has to have been registered under Direction 13 of the Registration Act. A trademark is registered by means of a declaration of ownership: a solemn statement of facts made by the declarant and usually attested by a public notary, a magistrate or a judicial officer.

When registering a trademark, the owner must make the following affirmations in the declaration document:

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