On October 18, 2023, the State Administrative Commission of Myanmar (SAC) issued Circular No. 217/2023 and Circular No. 218/2023, setting October 31, 2023 as the effective date of the Industrial Designs Law and Copyright Law enacted in 2019. The publication of these notices marks the beginning of operation of the substantive protection framework for industrial designs and Copyrights in the country.

About the Industrial Design Rules

The Ministry of Commerce of Myanmar has promulgated the Industrial Designs Rules on 29 September 2023, setting out the procedures and guidelines for the registration of industrial designs under the Industrial Designs Act.

The Industrial Design Rules shall come into force on the date of the first implementation of the Industrial Design Law. The Rules set out substantive procedures for matters relating to industrial designs, including the appointment of agents, examination, objections, priority claims and registration, as well as the assignment and licensing of industrial designs.

Application for registration

Once the Industrial Designs Act and the Industrial Designs Rules have come into force and the application fee and application form have been prepared, individuals and legal entities may file an application for the registration of an industrial design with the Intellectual Property Office electronically, in person (including through a local agent) or by post. Applicants who are not registered or residing in Myanmar must appoint a local agent through the required form, which must be notarized by the notary office of the country (region) where the applicant is registered or resides.

Application requirements

The new Myanmar law follows the latest Locarno classification established by the Locarno Agreement Establishing the International Classification of Industrial Designs, 1968. An application for the registration of an industrial design may be made in Burmese or English and must include the following:

- the applicant's name, address, identity card number (personal passport or Myanmar Citizenship Review card number, the entity is required to provide a legally established registration number);

- Notarized documents of the appointed local agent (if applicable);

- Fill in the creator's name, nationality and address (if applicable) using the required form;

- Locarno classification and sub-classification of products related to industrial designs;

- Drawings, photographs or graphic representations of industrial designs;

- Description of products in Locarno classification;

- A written explanation of the expression of the industrial design (maximum 100 words);

- The number of industrial designs (up to 100, all products must belong to the same Locarno classification); and

- Postponement of the publication period (if applicable).

The relevant competent authorities have not yet published the application fees and application forms for matters related to industrial designs.

Relevant suggestion

In the next step, the Myanmar Intellectual Property Office (MIPD) will announce the forms and official fees for handling matters related to industrial designs, a step that is expected soon, given that the effective date of the law has been announced. Therefore, right holders should start assessing their portfolios and prepare for the requirements for registration in order to secure their legal rights to industrial designs in Myanmar.

About the Copyright Law

On August 7, 2023, MIPD announced that the new Copyright Act is expected to come into force in October 2023 and the corresponding rules will be issued in due course. The new Copyright Act will repeal the Copyright Act 1914, which was enacted more than a century ago and is still in force.

With Myanmar's efforts to establish a framework for the protection of copyright works that meets modern needs, the new Copyright Law heralds a new era of copyright protection in Myanmar.

Main feature

A key feature of the Copyright Act is its protection of foreign copyrighted works, which represents a shift from the current situation where only creative works published in Myanmar or created by Myanmar citizens are protected. The existing regulations pose a significant challenge to foreign companies seeking to protect their works under Myanmar's current copyright system.

When the new Copyright Law comes into effect, works published in Myanmar for the first time will be protected by copyright; If the work has been published publicly in another country, the publication of the work in Myanmar within 30 days from the date of its first publication in a foreign country, regardless of the author's nationality or habitual residence, will also be protected by copyright (Chapter 7 "Scope of Application" of the Copyright Act). This paves the way for foreign rights holders to enforce copyright and other related rights in Myanmar.

The process of modernizing Myanmar's copyright system can also be seen in the new concepts introduced in the new Copyright Law:

- Computer programs can now be protected as literary or artistic works (Chapter 13 of the new Copyright Act);

- A distinction is made between the economic and moral rights of copyright owners (Chapter 10 "Economic and Moral rights" of the new Copyright Act), where the protection of the moral rights of authors, such as the right to authorship and the right to preserve the integrity of the work, is now enshrined in law;

- Chapter 19 of the new Copyright Act provides for the establishment of collective management organizations, which are given the right to act on behalf of rights holders in respect of copyright or related rights;

With the rise of digitization around the world, Chapter 15 of the new Copyright Act strictly prohibits unauthorized deletion or alteration of digital rights management information and circumvention of technical protection measures.

With the introduction of the new Copyright Law, the protection period of various rights will also be in line with international standards and practices. For example, a copyright in a literary or artistic work lasts for the life of the author and for 50 years after his death; The term of protection of applied artistic works is 25 years from the date of creation of the work (Chapter 9 "Term of Copyright" of the new Copyright Act). At the same time, the author of the work enjoys moral rights for life.

The new Copyright Act also provides for a voluntary copyright registration system (Chapter 16 of the New Copyright Act "Registration of copyright or adjacent rights"). Although authors or copyright owners can now register these works "so that there is sufficient evidence" to prove the above rights, this does not change the fact that copyright protection arises automatically without registration.

Illegal act

The new Copyright Law, like the existing law, provides for civil and criminal prosecution for copyright infringement.

However, the new Copyright Act makes it an offence to copy, disseminate or distribute copyrighted works to the public without the consent of the right holder, as well as to possess and/or import infringing goods for commercial purposes (Chapter 23 of the New Copyright Act, "Offences and Penalties"). These offences are punishable by imprisonment of not more than three years and/or a fine of up to 1 million Burmese yuan (about US $660). Repeat offenders will be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison and fined up to 10 million Burmese yuan (about $6,600). The extent of these penalties represents a significant increase over the current system.

Importantly, Section 12 of the new Copyright Act, Limits and Exceptions of Economic Rights, also provides for various defences against copyright infringement. These statutory "fair use" defenses include, among other things: reporting current events; The library reproduces literary and artistic works for non-commercial purposes such as study, teaching or private research; Make a copy of your computer program as a backup for personal use.

Relevant suggestion

In summary, the new Copyright Law aims to align Myanmar's copyright regime with international standards, thereby raising the standard of protection for literary and artistic works, as well as related performers, phonograms and broadcasting rights.

In addition, the newly established Intellectual Property Court (Chapter 22 of the new Copyright Act) and the Customs Department (Chapter 21 of the new Copyright Act) have been given greater enforcement powers, which also supports the modernization of Myanmar's copyright environment.

Right holders should now prepare for the new Copyright Law to come into force by reviewing current and future works in Myanmar and understanding whether these works, including foreign works, are eligible for protection. Rights owners should also be prepared to apply for a voluntary registration of copyright ownership to identify evidence of rights, which will facilitate licensing arrangements regarding copyrighted works and enforcement action against unauthorized third party use.

(Compiled from www.lexology.com)