With Myanmar’s new Trademark Law set to come into force on April 1, enabling legislation has now been issued to grant certain courts jurisdiction to hear claims under the law. This provides trademark owners with an avenue to file claims under the Trademark Law for the first time, and is a very positive indication that no further delays to implementation are likely. The Trademark Law grants the Supreme Court of Myanmar the power to establish an Intellectual Property Rights Court. The Supreme Court can also assign new jurisdiction to existing courts pending the establishment of the Intellectual Property Rights Court. The enabling legislation, which takes the form of five notifications issued by the Supreme Court, accordingly confers jurisdiction on several existing courts. This includes the jurisdiction to hear criminal and civil complaints and appeals against decisions of the trademark authorities. The High Court of Yangon Region and the High Court of the Regions and States are also given appellate jurisdiction to hear appeals against the orders, decisions and judgments of other appointed courts. No further information has been given on whether or when a separate Intellectual Property Rights Court will be established. This development confirms that brand owners—who previously had no recourse to specialized courts in Myanmar regarding the enforcement of their trademark rights—will soon be able to pursue cases. Moreover, the issuance of these notifications gave a strong confirmation that the Trademark Law would indeed take effect on April 1, as planned. As we explained in a previous update, a date for the “grand opening” has yet to be announced, meaning it will still be some time before marks that were refiled during the “soft opening” will be given a filing date and before applications for all other marks can be filed. However, it is expected that the

Myanmar’s State Administration Council has specified the enforcement date of the country’s 2019 Trademark Law as April 1, 2023—confirming a recent announcement from Myanmar’s Intellectual Property Department (IPD) to certified trademark representatives in the country. The official public announcement came in Notification No. 82/2023, which was dated March 10, 2023, and published in the government-owned daily newspaper the following day. The planned next step is the promulgation of the Trademark Rules to establish substantive procedures on trademark-related matters for trademark applications under the new system. The rules, which are necessary to establish procedures for collecting official fees, are expected to be issued in March 2023. Once the Trademark Rules are established and the Trademark Law comes into force, the second phase of the IPD’s “soft opening” period will commence—expected to occur on April 3, 2023, if there are no further changes. In this second phase, mark owners can pay the official fees for trademark applications filed within the first phase of the soft opening. According to IPD officials, marks recorded under Myanmar’s old system or used in the country can still be filed together with payment during the soft opening’s second phase, either in person by the mark owner or through a certified representative via the online system. Even if such a previously recorded mark is registered after April 1, 2023, the application during the second phase can still reserve the earliest possible filing date under the new first-to-file system. This second phase will continue until the “grand opening” of the IPD commences, unless officials make further announcements to the contrary. IPD officials have confirmed that the earliest possible filing date of the new system will be the date of the IPD’s grand opening. In light of the ongoing and planned developments, the grand opening is expected to occur

Vietnam’s Law on Intellectual Property was comprehensively amended in 2022 (“2022 IP Law”), and the amended law came into effect (with the exception of a few provisions) on 1 January 2023. Along with amendments of substantive matters, the revised version also touches upon the requirements for providing IP representation (agent) services, at both the organizational and individual level. Requirements for Organizations Article 154 of the previous IP Law provided the following conditions for organizations to act as IP representation service organizations: The organization is a lawfully established and operating law-practicing enterprise, cooperative or organization, or a scientific and technological service organization, except for foreign law-practicing organizations operating in Vietnam. The organization has the function of providing IP representation services stated in its business registration certificate or operation registration certificate. The head(s) of the organization or a person(s) authorized by the head(s) of the organization has a certificate for practicing IP representation services. While the first requirement remains unchanged, the 2022 IP Law has removed the second requirement, and revised the third requirement to be more relaxed. Specifically, the amended provision only requires that there must be at least one individual holding a certificate for practicing IP representation services in each IP representation service organization. (Regarding the second requirement, while it is no longer stated in the IP Law, this does not mean that any organization can practice IP representation services, because this is a conditional business line and only organizations who meet the conditions for providing such services, provided in other legislation, can do business in this field.) Requirements for Individuals At the individual level, the law both tightens and loosens the requirements. Under the former law, to be granted a certificate for practicing IP representation services, the individual must: Be a Vietnamese citizen with full capacity for civil

Vietnam’s amended Law on Intellectual Property of 2022 (“Amended IP Law”) took effect on January 1, 2023, with the exception of a few provisions. However, subordinate legal documents (bylaws) providing necessary details and guidance on the new law still have not been issued, leaving some aspects of the law’s implementation in a state of limbo. This has caused a particular challenge for applications for establishing industrial property rights that were filed before January 1, 2023, but remain pending at the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam (“IP Office”). While waiting for the official bylaws to be promulgated, the IP Office has issued some internal protocols for handling applications in this interim period. Partial Grant of Protection Titles The Amended IP Law mentions, for the first time, the possibility of partial granting of protection titles for industrial property objects. Under the amended Article 118, the IP Office can issue a notice of its intention to grant partial protection to the allowable parts of a patent/design/trademark application. However, as an interim protocol, the intention to partially grant protection has been temporarily put on hold until further guidance is issued. Security Control on Patents For patent applications based on Vietnamese inventions, if there are any corresponding patent applications filed overseas, the IP Office will suspend the examination until the official new bylaws on security control are provided. Applications for Designs which Are Not Visible During Use The IP Office imposes a specific mechanism on design applications filed from August 1, 2020, until January 1, 2023, in which the designs are not visible during the exploitation of the utility of complex products. Accordingly, even if a notice of intention to grant was issued but there was no decision on granting by January 1, 2023, the IP Office will issue a new notice on the