News and Updates

Finally the “Grand Opening” of Myanmar’s new Trade Mark Laws has taken place. The following salient points to note are:

(1)        Applicants who refiled their trade mark applications during the First Phase of the Soft Opening (1^st October 2020 to 31^st March 2023) must file Form TM2 (authorisation form) and pay the application fee by 30 June 2023.

(2)        Applicants who refiled their trade mark applications during the Second Phase of the Soft Opening (from 3 April 2023 to 30 June 2023) must file Form TM2 and pay the application fee by 26 October 2023.

(3)        Applicants who hold the endorsed Declaration of Ownership under the old Declaration Regime of actual use in Myanmar before 1^st April 2023 may refile their trade mark application by 26 October 2023.

(4)        New applications without prior use in Myanmar may be filed from 26 April 2023.

Each Applicant is required to execute only one notarised Form TM2 for any number of applications. A photocopy will suffice unless the original is requested by the Trade Marks Office.  If you intend to protect your trade marks in Myanmar, we advise you to note the above timelines. Please contact us if you have any questions.

hslegal LLP

June 2023

The accelerated examination option in Singapore under the SG IP FAST PROGRAM is now extended for 2 years from 30 April 2022 to 30 April 2024. Click on this link to recap the timelines under the SG IP FAST PROGRAM for Patents, Trademarks and Designs. Read More

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hslegal LLP is pleased to announce that Murgiana Haq, Tasneem Haq and Ferzana Haq are ISTMA Registered Trade Mark Agents. ISTMA is the Institute of Singapore Trade Mark Agents. All members of ISTMA are permitted to use the designation ISTMA Registered Trade Mark Agent having met the eligibility criteria for membership and maintaining their membership with the Institute annually. This designation is significant as this status attributes professionalism and expertise in trade mark agency work.

Draft New Supreme Court of Judicature (Intellectual Property) Rules

In October 2018, MinLaw held a public consultation on reforms to enhance access to our court system for IP disputes. This included an optional, simplified track for IP litigation. This new track, called the “Simplified Process for Certain Intellectual Property Claims”, will be implemented when the new Supreme Court of Judicature (Intellectual Property) Rules 2022 (“new Rules”) come into force on 1 April 2022. Read More

ISTMA is an acronym for the Institute of Singapore Trade Mark Agents which is a professional-only organisation comprising high calibre trade mark service providers in Singapore such as agents, lawyers, consultants and advisers. ISTMA represent professionals who protect the rights and interests of trade mark owners. hslegal LLP’s Murgiana Haq as President of ISTMA offers a round-up of ISTMA’ acitivities in 2021 and what is ahead for the coming year. Read more here; http://istma.sg/news/istma-2021-round-up/

Singapore’s government recently launched an initiative to increase enterprises’ access to IA/IP advisory and IA/IP-related services. An enterprise-centric online platform named “IP Grow” will be created to help enterprises identify IA/IP challenges in their business journey and connect them to the right IA/IP service providers and solutions. This is an initiative by IPOS International. IP Grow brings together IP-related service providers and innovators across ASEAN for information exchange,
networking and collaboration opportunities. Read More

To strengthen Singapore’s value proposition as a regional and modern services hub, the Government has begun work on the Singapore Intellectual Property Strategy 2030, or SIPS 2030, for short. SIPS 2030 is a national effort to guide the on-going development of Singapore as a global intellectual property hub. One of the key thrusts of SIPS 2030 is to build Singapore as a trusted and credible hub for intangible asset valuation. Read More

We successfully represented a Singapore based pharmaceutical company (the “Complainant”) in a dispute before WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre against a domain name that closely resembled the Complainant’s trade mark and which was purportedly used for an unlicensed e- pharmacy website by the Respondent. The Respondent claimed that its business is based in Singapore but investigations ultimately revealed that the Respondent had a UK based address.

The disputed domain name was registered by the Respondent under the country code top level domain (ccTLDs) name “.IO”’ which stands for “British Indian Ocean Territory”.   Domain name disputes involving the ccTLDs are governed by the .IO Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, which is a variant of the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy administered by WIPO. Read More

Singapore will implement enhanced border enforcement measures from 21 November 2019. These enhanced measures will come into operation with the entry into force of the European Union – Singapore Free Trade Agreement and will apply to rights pertaining to trade marks and copyright. Read More