Lawyers from Tilleke & Gibbins’ intellectual property team have written the Vietnam chapter of Practical Law’s IP in Business Transactions Global Guide, a high-level comparative overview of intellectual property laws and regulations across 34 jurisdictions.

Getting the Deal Through – Licensing 2021, published by Law Business Research (part of the Lexology network), provides a comprehensive guide to licensing in 18 countries around the world with contributions by several leading international law firms. Alan Adcock, partner and deputy director of intellectual property, Siraprapha Claassen, consultant, and Kasama Sriwatanakul, attorney-at-law from Tilleke & Gibbins’ Bangkok office, co-authored the Licensing 2021 Thailand chapter, which covers the following topics: Laws: Unfair Contract Terms Act, Trade Competition Act, pre-contractual disclosure, registration of international licensing, implied obligations, Civil and Commercial Code, Trademark Act, Patent Act, and Trade Secrets Act. Intellectual property issues: Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, PCT, TRIPs. Contesting the validity of licensor’s IP rights, invalidity and expiry of IP rights, evidence of use, licensing unregistered IP, opposability requirements, sub-licensing, co-owners, trade secrets, and copyright. Software licensing: perpetual licensing, import/export restrictions, improvements and modifications, user restrictions, and legal developments. Competition law: Trade Competition Act, specific restrictions on licensing agreements, and significant court decisions. Indemnification, disclaimers, and damages: prevalence and enforceability of indemnity provisions and contractual waivers of damages. Termination: conditions, indemnity, agency, and impact on sub-licenses. Bankruptcy: impact of licensee bankruptcy on licensor and vice versa, protection, and rights to terminate. Dispute resolution: governing law, arbitration, enforcement, injunctions, contractual waivers Royalties and payments: currency conversion, tax, remittance restrictions, and jurisdiction-specific payments. The Thailand chapter is available below as a PDF. Tilleke & Gibbins also contributed the Vietnam chapter to Licensing 2021. To browse all 18 jurisdictions covered by the guide, please visit the Getting the Deal Through website.

Attorneys from Tilleke & Gibbins’ office in Hanoi have written the Vietnam chapter for Getting the Deal Through – Licensing 2021, a comparative guide to licensing law and practice in 18 countries around the world. Licensing 2021 provides an overview of a wide range of licensing relationships, including licensing of copyrights, trademarks, and patents; software licenses; technology transfer agreements; and franchise agreements. The book also addresses issues of royalties and other payments, taxes, competition law, and termination of licensing relationships. The Vietnam chapter was authored by Linh Thi Mai Nguyen, Son Thai Hoang, and Chi Lan Dang of Tilleke & Gibbins’ trademark team, along with corporate and commercial attorney Tu Ngoc Trinh, who has extensive experience in franchising and competition law. The Vietnam chapter is available below as a PDF. Tilleke & Gibbins also contributed the Thailand chapter to Licensing 2021. To browse all 18 jurisdictions covered by the guide, please visit the Getting the Deal Through website.

As many are already aware, following the change of government in Myanmar on February 1, 2021, a draft Cyber Security Law was proposed which attracted widespread criticism. However, less attention has been paid to significant amendments to two existing laws, some of which have a similar effect to parts of the draft Cyber Security Law. In other words, while the draft Cyber Security Law has not progressed further and is under public scrutiny, significant elements of it have found their way into law in Myanmar by other routes. Because these amendments are already law, it is very important that individuals and businesses in Myanmar understand their implications. Amendments to the Law Protecting the Privacy and Security of Citizens The Law Protecting the Privacy and Security of Citizens (2017), or the “Privacy Law,” was amended on February 13, 2021, less than two weeks after the military government came into power. These amendments chiefly address the power of the government to conduct searches, seizures, and arrests; to extend detention without judicial oversight; and to carry out broad surveillance and investigation activities that could intrude on individual privacy. The amendments accomplish this by suspending various sections of the Privacy Law for as long as the State Administration Council (the military body now governing Myanmar) is in power. The suspended sections include the following: Section 5: Search, seizure, and arrest without civilian observation The relevant part of Section 5 of the Privacy Law states, “The responsible authorities shall … when acting in accordance with existing law, not enter into a person’s residence or a room used as a residence, or a building, compound or building in a compound, for the purpose of search, seizure, or arrest, unless accompanied by minimum of two witnesses who should comprise Ward or Village Tract Administrators…”. The suspension