Soft Opening of Re-filing Old Trademark in Myanmar

Posted by HAVIP IP LAW on November 25th, 2019

Trademark Law (Union Law No. 3/2019) which was enacted in Myanmar on 30 January 2019,  is expected to be effective at the end of 2019 or in the first quarter of 2020. National IP Office officially accepts filing for registration of trademark, cach dang ky thuong hieu san pham current Myanmar IP Department is making a plan with an assistance of WIPO (which is named “soft opening”) to collect online applications from the old registered trademark owners with an aim at facilitating the work of upcoming national IP Office. 

As announced by Myanmar IP Department in our intensive meeting on 22nd October 2019 and the guideline Article appeared in the Government Newspaper “The Mirror Daily” issued on 3rd November 2019,  the said “soft opening” of Trademark Law has been planned to be inaugurated in the end of December 2019 and the Article encourages the trademark owners who wish to register their marks under this Trademark Law to be in a state of readiness for this soft opening to re-file their old registered trademarks. Applications are to be submitted only through the law firms established in Myanmar and officially recognized by Myanmar IP Department, which will have the access to obtain online passcode from it.

There are very few recognized Law firms in Myanmar dang ky bao ho nhan hieu tai viet nam, and Havip-Biz Law Consult (Myanmar) Co., Ltd. is one of the leading domestic law firms having permission to access E-filing system operation under soft opening.

Importantly, kindly take notes as followings:

• (i) the said “soft opening” period is initiatively estimated for (6) months in which Myanmar IP Department shall NOT charge any fees and costs on such filing of old trademark registrations (under the current system of trademark registrations as per Registration of Deeds Law);
• (ii) multiple class applications along with the relevant goods/services are acceptable; and
• (iii) shall NOT accept filing new trademark applications for registration in this special period. New trademark applications shall only be accepted by the upcoming Myanmar IP Office after the soft opening period i.e. (at the time of “grand opening” when the law comes into force)

For more information of procedures for trademark protection in Myanmar under Trademark Law, please kindly see our Flowchart.