New regime of Myanmar intellectual property laws complete with passing of Copyright Law
27 June 2019
On 24 May 2019, the Myanmar Parliament passed the Copyright Law, marking the fourth and final intellectual property (“IP”) law in the country’s new IP regime. On 30 January 2019, the Myanmar Parliament passed the Trademark Law and the Industrial Design Law. The Patent Law was passed on 11 March 2019. None of the four laws are currently in force.
The date of commencement of these laws will be set when the President issues the relevant Notifications for each.
Previous to the passing of these laws, businesses have had to rely on colonial-era laws to protect their intellectual property such as the outdated Burma Copyright Act 1914 and a definition of “trademark” in the Penal Code 1861.
This suite of laws, once they are in force, will bring Myanmar in line with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), an agreement between the member nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO).