On 30 January 2019, Industrial Design Law No. 2/2019 – Myanmar’s Design Law were passed into legislation, providing a framework for the protection of rights over the external visual design of objects.
The law lays out a comprehensive framework for the protection of rights over the external visual design of objects (i.e. the aesthetic design, rather than the practical). It will be implemented through administrative bodies (particularly the Intellectual Property Office) and enabling legislation that will be established and implemented in due course.
1. General information
For an industrial design to be registrable under the law it must be domestically and internationally novel (i.e. not disclosed or exhibited to the public and free of imitation) before the application is made, or novel before the date of a priority right application from another jurisdiction was made if applicable.
Successful applications will result in protection for five years from the application date, renewable within six months of expiry for a further five years, twice (i.e. up to a maximum of 15 years in total). Applications filed within six months from the date of filing in a member country of the Paris Convention, or in another World Trade Organization member state, will enjoy a right of priority, and be accorded the same priority date.
2. Applications under the new law
Applications should contain the following information:
- The request for grant of industrial design;
- The applicants’ names, nationalities or countries of incorporation, and addresses;
- The designers’ names, nationalities, and addresses;
- The representative or agent’s name, national registration card number, and address;
- Drawings, photographs of the industrial design and the applied product for which the industrial design is to be used.
- Descriptions of the designs;
- Priority documents, if applicable.
The Directorate of Designs and the MIPO may stipulate additional required documents and information from time to time.
The effective date of the Industrial Design Law will be announced at a later stage. As with the Trademark Law, released at the same time, applications for registration are not yet being accepted under the Industrial Design Law, as the administrative structures necessary to do so are still being established. No timeline has been set out for the required implementing regulations and the establishment of the Intellectual Property Office. We will provide details as they become available.
For more information on this development, or to enquire about any of the steps above, please contact our Myanmar office at info@havip.com.vn or on +84912.418.948
