On October 26, 2018, the Supervisory Committee for Motor Vehicle Import, a branch of the Ministry of Commerce, released Notification No. 1/2018 in regard to the importation of vehicles in Myanmar in 2019. Under the new legislation (which is largely similar to the 2018 notification that it replaces) only left-hand drive vehicles, or machines that cannot be classified as either right-hand or left-hand drive, will be permitted for importation. In addition, the updated law stresses the importance of importing new vehicles by classifying permitted vehicles based on their year of manufacture.

The ease with which counterfeiters are able to hide their identity online, simply by hiding behind a username, can often complicate the protection of IP rights. However, if an infringer’s anonymity can be pierced, it can yield huge seizures of counterfeit products, make great strides in protecting valuable intellectual assets, and close major distribution channels.    

A new Ministerial Regulation was published in the Royal Thai Government Gazette  on November 20, 2018, requiring existing business operators who are engaged in direct sales or direct marketing activities to place a guarantee with the Office of the Consumer Protection Board of Thailand (OCPB) within 90 days, i.e. by February 17, 2019.