In Myanmar, trademarks are currently registered at the Registry of Deeds under the Registration Act.
Trademarks are registered by filing a Declaration of Ownership at the Registry of Deeds, along with a notarized and legalized Power of Attorney. In order to file a Declaration of Ownership of a mark, the following documents and information are required:
- Full name, address, and nationality of the applicant;
- A Power of Attorney, which has been duly certified by a Notary Public and legalized by the Embassy of Myanmar;
- A simply signed Declaration of Ownership;
- A specimen of the mark; and
- List of goods according to the International Classification (a multiple-class application is allowed).
Once filed, the Declarations of Ownership are registered within three months of filing, assuming there are no technical deficiencies in the Declaration.
On October 1, 2018, a new Myanmar Registration Act (the “New Act”) took force. The New Act requires:
- Filed documents to be in the Myanmar Language; or
- If the filed documents are not in the Myanmar Language, a translation of the filed documents must be submitted along with a certification from a Myanmar Notary Public.
Thus, going forward, Declarations of Ownership, Powers, and any other documents filed with the Myanmar Registry of Deeds must meet the specified Myanmar Language requirement. This process will result in additional work and small additional fees.
Under the draft New Myanmar Trademark Law (the “Law”), trademark application filings and other filings at the new Trademark Office can be in either the Myanmar Language or English.
As the Law still awaits approval by the Lower House of Parliament and the Myanmar President, the Law will likely come into effect in 2019 as opposed to 2018. We will report back further on the progress of the Law.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions on the above.