MYANMAR needs better intellectual property protection, a key factor for promoting foreign investment and technology transfer, as well as for boosting industrial development, legal experts told Myanmar Times.

“Securing worldwide intellectual property rights (IPR) is becoming an extremely important issue. It is highly critical to ensure an adequate IPR protection system to develop Myanmar’s economy,” said Daw Khin Mar Mar Latt, Supreme Court lawyer and legal consultant at Home Lawyers Yangon.

According to the World Trade Organisation and Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement agreed on January 1, 2000, all the Least Developing Countries – including Myanmar – will have to finish drafting IP laws by the end of 2005, she said.

In order to protect intellectual property rights adequately, it is important not only to set up an appropriate legal system, but also to upgrade system practices, Daw Khin Mar Mar Latt said.

Myanmar became a member of the WTO and World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in 1995 and 2000 respectively.

Intellectual property laws are currently being drafted by the Office of the Attorney General, Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology.

With the high-level of innovation across sectors including pharmaceuticals and information technology industries, as well as the constant release of new products by the entertainment industry, pertinent laws are obligatory to protect patents and copyrights.

“In the current information technology era, things are moving quickly and the subsequent abuse of intellectual property is widespread,” Daw Khin Mar Mar Latt said.

She added that protection of online business was particularly necessary.

Dr Saw Yu Win, a lawyer at Russin and Vecchi, an international legal consultant agrees that changes must be made: “We have copy right law, although it must be updated. But there are no trademark, (industrial) design and patent laws concerning IPR,” she said.

Trademarks can be registered at the Yangon Registration Office of the Settlements and Land Records Department under direction 13, a statute which came into effect when Myanmar was under British rule.

Dr Saw Yu Win said that in other countries there is usually an office specifically for trade mark registration with a computer system that determines whether a similar trademark or copyright has already been granted.

“So disputes rarely occur in such countries,” she said.

“In Myanmar registration alone cannot protect ownership of the trademark because there is a possibility someone else has already registered a similar trademark,” Dr Su Yu Win said.

U Min Sein, a Myanmar Supreme Court lawyer, says that such disputes create a lot of additional work because often other related documents must be examined.

Under existing laws, “trademark disputes are solved civically, or criminally, or both under the relevant exiting laws only”, says U Saw Soe Phone Myint, a lawyer at Russin and Vecchi. Updated laws should competently cover everything related to such disputes, he added.

Dr Maung Maung Lay, chairman of Myanmar Pharmaceutical and Medical Equipment Entrepreneurs Association, says that inadequate laws cause problems for the general public.

He said that India is earning millions of dollars a year producing fake pharmaceuticals.

Previously the Indian government gave life sentences in such cases but now companies are sending their fake products abroad to avoid new laws which can result in capital punishment.

“These fake products mostly flow into less developed countries, including Myanmar – they can be extremely hazardous for the general public,” Dr Maung Maung Lay said.

He said a lack of IP laws allows people to use fake products including brake pads and spare parts for vehicles, and pharmaceuticals, which is very dangerous.