Business communities in Myanmar made efforts to enact the IP laws to protect intellectual property (IP) rights and encourage business in the works

Businesses in Myanmar still rely on outdated colonial-era laws enacted by the British more than one hundred years ago to protect intellectual property (IP) rights.

The encourage growth, draft laws are being formulated in the Hluttaw  to update the country’s regulations covering IP rights, copy right law, industrial law, patents and trademarks for enactment.

To date, the country has relied on the Registration Act (1909) and Myanmar Copyright Act (1914) to resolve issues concerning IP.

IP rights laws are one of the cornerstones of development and relied upon not only by local businesses but also foreign investors, making vital for the development of the country’s economy.

“Currently, our country does not have comprehensive, up-to-date IP laws. There are no exclusive laws to protect IP so we need better IP laws urgently. If we have Intellectual property rights law, we can strongly clarify conflicting claims with tools such as ntellectual property registration certificates before taking action, said U Moe Mynn Thu, Myanmar council member of  the ASEAN Intellectual Property Association.

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