Myanmar – Announcement of Grand Opening Date of Intellectual Property Office

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Written By Tim Noel

A new Trade Mark Law in Myanmar entered into force in April 2023, and the Grand Opening of the Intellectual Property Office happened on 26 April 2023.

Since 1 October 2020, applications have been filed during the IPO’s “soft opening period”. Applications filed under the soft opening period are expected to receive an application date which will be the Grand Opening date. Applicants were advised that the official fees and the Power of Attorney form had to be submitted to the IPO before the Grand Opening date. However, the official fees, and the Power of Attorney form, were only published by the IPO in March. This has inevitably resulted in the fees and forms being submitted in respect of many applications before the Grand Opening date.

The IPO’s servers have crashed on a regular basis since the Grand Opening due to the high volume of applications submitted, which has delayed the filing of the outstanding forms and fees. Because of this, the deadline for submitting the supporting forms and fees was extended several times. However, the final deadline of 30 June 2023 has now passed.

The server issues at the IPO have inevitably led to delays in processing filing receipts for the official fees and Powers of Attorney. Very few filing receipts have been received so far, and the filing receipts merely confirm the date on which the official fees and the Power of Attorney were submitted. It had been assumed that the filing receipt would confirm the official filing date of the application, but the IPO has advised that the official filing date will only be revealed when the examination report has been issued.

 
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Author: Tim Noel

Tim is a Chartered Trade Mark Attorney and manager in the Trade Marks department. He is responsible for overseeing and managing the day-to-day operations of the department, and offers free advice clinics to members of the public as well as sitting on the INTA Trademark Office Practices Committee.

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Tim Noel

Tim is a Chartered Trade Mark Attorney with over 17 years of experience supporting clients in all aspects of IP services.  He oversees and manages the department on a day-to-day basis.

Tim holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Bristol University and joined Lysaght in 2014 with eight years of experience in the IP industry.

Tim is responsible for prosecution work, in addition to registration and renewals in more complex jurisdictions. Tim also works on a number of contentious matters and opposition cases.  As well as his client portfolio and managerial responsibilities, Tim is a member of CITMA and volunteers for the free advice clinics to members of the public as well as sitting on the INTA Legislation and Regulation Committee.

In 2016 Tim was awarded the Postgraduate Certificate in Intellectual Property (with Merit) from Bournemouth University and became a Chartered Trade Mark Attorney in 2018.

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