On 1 June 2024, the State Administration Council ("SAC") issued Notification 106/2024, stating that the Patent Law enacted as the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Law No. 7 in 2019 has come into force on 31 May 2024. The effective date of the Patent Law is yet to be announced.
To qualify for patent protection in Myanmar under the Patent Law, an invention must meet three essential requirements, namely (i) novelty; (ii) inventive step; and (iii) industrial applicability. The statutory provisions concerning eligible applicants for patent rights, as outlined in Section 15 of the Myanmar Patent Law 2019, determine who has the right to apply for and be granted patent protection for an invention. These provisions are essential for ensuring that the appropriate parties are recognised and rewarded for their contributions to the invention and innovation process.
As per Section 15 (a), the primary eligible applicant is the inventor, who has the right to apply for patent protection and has hir/her name listed on the patent. Additionally, the rights can be exercised by the licensee (someone who has obtained permission to use the invention) or the transferee (someone who has acquired the rights from the inventor).
Under Section 15 (b), in cases where the same invention is independently invented by multiple inventors, the one who submits the patent application first or legally obtains the earliest date of priority (if there’s a claim for priority) shall be entitled to patent rights. This ensures a fair system for determining priority when multiple inventors come up with the same invention.
