Trademark Law - the never-ending delay

The Myanmar Trademark Law has been promised for a couple of years now.

The draft Trademark Law No 14 has been reviewed and approved by the Attorney Generals Office. It was submitted to Parliament in September 2014, but it has not yet been examined or discussed. Recently, the World Trade Organisation decided that all ‘Least Developed Countries’, which include Myanmar, will have until July 2021 to enact IP legislation under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. As a result, the pressure on Myanmar to enact IP/trademark laws has significantly reduced. 

On the political side, there will be a general election in April/May 2015 and it is unlikely that the Myanmar government or Parliament will make any push for the Trademark Law to pass before the election. Therefore, it seems probable that no new trademark law will be enacted in 2015.

There is still no proper Trademark Office as yet, and it will take at least 18 to 24 months to recruit and train trademark examiners, enact implementing regulations, etc. Therefore, the most plausible date for the Trademark Law to become effective and for trademarks to be filed under that new law is now looking more like 2016-2017.

Nick Redfearn, Rouse, Indonesia