緬甸沒有商標法!怎么辦？

緬甸，即緬甸聯(lián)邦共和國，位于亞洲東南部，近年來，中緬貿(mào)易發(fā)展迅速，投資合作方式多元化，中國已成為緬甸最大的貿(mào)易伙伴。在商品服務(wù)出口緬甸前，中國企業(yè)因為知識產(chǎn)權(quán)保護意識的提升，紛紛提前布局緬甸商標注冊，然而，緬甸尚未加入巴黎公約、馬德里協(xié)定及其議定書，更無商標法正式實施。如何在這樣的國家保護自己的商標權(quán)利？針對眾多企業(yè)的困惑，寧海在緬甸的合作伙伴Ho Vinh Thinh律師為我們解答了幾個常見問題：

1.問：緬甸有商標注冊嗎，如何注冊？

答：原文Up to now, there is still no legislation in Myanmar giving a proprietary right to a mark upon registration and regulating the use and enforcement of trademark in Myanmar. However, in practice, trademarks are registered under the Registration Act by filing a Declaration of Ownership [Trademark Declaration]. Such registered Trademark Declaration is considered as "Registration". The "Registration" alone does not give the declarant (registrant) the right to ownership. The first use and development of economic value of the trademark are important consideration. However, registration provides the declarant with the corroborative evidence of use if action has to be taken in the courts of law regarding ownership. In addition, the registration is a relevant evidence for purpose of determining the date since which the declarant had intended to claim his trademark.

翻譯：目前為止，緬甸尚無正式的商標法規(guī)，也無法賦予商標專用權(quán)，但實踐中，申請人向官方登記處遞交商標聲明書，登記后視為所謂的”注冊”。僅僅登記式的“注冊”不足以賦予商標專用權(quán)，商標的在先使用以及使用產(chǎn)生的經(jīng)濟價值也是實現(xiàn)商標權(quán)利的重要部分。如有糾紛訴諸法庭，這種登記式“注冊”是可作為有效使用證據(jù)的，其“注冊”日期也用于判定注冊人從何時開始在緬甸聲明商標權(quán)利。

2.問：緬甸商標注冊需要什么材料？

答：原文For the registration of trademark in Myanmar, the following documents are required:

a Power of Attorney needs to be notarized and diplomatically attested at the Myanmar Embassy or Consulate in your country as well. Please be very noted that the both requirements by the notarization and consulate are required .

the Declaration of Ownership needs only the signature of the responsible official of the applicant who signed on the Power of Attorney.

翻譯：注冊緬甸商標需要如下材料：

委托書，簽署后公證及領(lǐng)事認證，兩程序缺一不可。

商標聲明書，簽署后公證，簽署人需與委托書簽署人一致。

3.問：緬甸商標登記的程序如何？

答：原文To define the registration of trademark, the Myanmar Registry will endorse the Declaration with the trademark registration number and granting date and return it to the trademark owner. The Myanmar Registry does not issue a certificate of trademark registration.Normally, the average time from filing up to the registration will be about [3] month.

翻譯：緬甸當?shù)毓俜降怯浱帟谏暾埲诉f交的商標聲明書上簽署，賦予注冊號和注冊日期，然后歸還原件，登記處不會另行制作注冊證下發(fā)，通常登記程序在3個月左右。

4.問：除了官方登記，是否還有其他保護措施？

答：原文Cautionary notice.The registration is not complete solution to protect of trademark in Myanmar. So, the publication of Trademark Cautionary Notice in local newspaper should be done after the registration of trademark. The purpose of publishing a Cautionary Notice is to inform the public about the registration and claim to ownership and warning against the potential infringement. In addition, the publication of a Cautionary Notice is necessary since the Registry Office does not allow searches by third parties, therefore the only way for the public to know about the trademark ownership are through Cautionary Notice. The publication of Cautionary Notice together with registration will strengthen the trademark ownership in case disputes or passing-off action. However, the publication of a Cautionary Notice is NOT mandatory by any law. It is an established practice in Myanmar.

The estimated cost for publishing a Cautionary Notice depends on kind of newspaper on which the Cautionary Notice is to be published and the size of the space required.

翻譯：有，商標公告，在緬甸僅僅登記不能視為完整的保護策略，應(yīng)該在當?shù)貓罂献芳涌枪?。公告的目的是告知公眾我們的商標?quán)，以及警告有可能發(fā)生的侵權(quán)行為。此外，公告的另一個必要性在于緬甸當局的登記資料是不接受第三方查詢的，唯一一個讓公眾知曉我們商標權(quán)的方式就是報刊公告。公告會增強商標的保護效力，尤其是在仿冒之訴中有重要作用，雖然不是法定程序，但卻是緬甸當?shù)丶s定俗成的做法。

刊登的費用取決于在哪類報刊上進行公告，以及公告所占版面。

5.問：緬甸商標可以查詢嗎？

答：原文Please be informed that the search report is our private search only, not issued officially. Our private searches were conducted based on publication of the Cautionary Notices in all daily newspaper and most of the journals, which is updated from 1982 until now. So, such private searches are only helpful to the trademark owners up to an extent of trustworthy decision on whether to proceed with the application for registration of a subject mark by the established fact that registered trademarks are usually followed by publication of the Cautionary Notice in the local English newspapers. However, the publication of Cautionary Notice is not compulsory by any law in Myanmar. That is why the private searches cannot guarantee the registrability of searched trademarks. Therefore, the private searches are considered as relative ground before the filing.

翻譯：緬甸商標檢索并無官方庫，只是民間資料檢索，基于1982年至今的各類報刊刊登過的商標公告。這種檢索的默認條件是商標登記后都會進行后續(xù)報刊刊登，從而用檢索結(jié)果為申請人提供決策。事實上刊登并非法定的必經(jīng)程序，因此民間庫資料并不齊全，檢索也不能保證效力，僅供參考。

6.問：如何續(xù)展緬甸商標？

答：原文Although indeed, the renewal is the re-registration of trademark and there is no statutory requirements for renewal, we normally suggest the client to use the “Declaration of Ownership for renewal of trademark” which includes the information of the previous registrations three years ago in order to protect effectively their trademark rights in case of dispute, infringement, passing off before the court. 

翻譯：目前而言續(xù)展實際就是重新申請一次，官方并沒有法定的要求，我們建議使用“續(xù)展聲明書”格式，在聲明書中提及三年前的老注冊，以此更有效地保護商標權(quán)，防止爭議、侵權(quán)、仿冒。

● 綜上，緬甸本身商標法律法規(guī)存在缺陷，商標權(quán)難以得到完善的保護，商標所有人就應(yīng)更加重視，在緬甸正式實施商標法前，采用當?shù)氐耐ㄐ袘T例，窮盡可行的方式，注冊登記加報刊刊登，每三年追加續(xù)展及報刊刊登，盡可能全面地保護商標權(quán)利。