A decade ago, in 2015, Asia IP visited Yangon, the commercial centre of Myanmar, for the first time, in search of Myanmar’s long-promised (and longer-awaited) suite of intellectual property laws.  

The excitement on the ground at the time was palpable: the country once known as Burma was finally free of global sanctions and was responding by loosening restrictions, reforming its currency and updating its foreign investment laws as quickly as it could, hurtling towards the 21st century at breakneck speed. 

Things were slow to develop, for sure, but Myanmar was gradually moving forward with a slate of modern intellectual property laws. Since the military coup in February 2021 led to an ongoing civil war, IP has understandably taken a back seat, and while there is still the occasional announcement about something new in that realm, intellectual property protection is mostly a remote thought these days. 

That said, more than 7,000 trademarks were registered between May 1, 2024, and April 30, 2025. “The IP Department has made promising progress for rights holders,” said Moe Mynn Thu, a principal and head of trademarks and brands at Rouse in Yangon, writing on the firm’s website. “On May 1, 2024, Myanmar began publishing trademark applications for opposition every month. Within 10 months, approximately 9,870 applications, including 7,066 registered marks, had been published.” 

Applicants from 54 jurisdictions had filed trademark applications in the first year. Local applications topped the list (2,428 applications), followed by Japan (1,301 applications), Thailand (1,056 applications), the United States (1,001 applications) and China (780 applications).  

Moe Mynn Thu noted that approximately one-fifth of all applications were filed for goods and services relating to the health industry, and just less less than one-fifth for those in the agriculture sector, according to the Nice Classifications specified in the applications.  

He also noted that processing at the IP Department has been faster than the previous year. “Policies and procedures have also become more stable. However, there are still areas for improvement, particularly in relation to the accuracy and proper management of data,” he wrote. 

He also says that the IP Department has a backlog of notifications to issue in relation to opposition actions that it has received since 2024. “So far, it has received and published over 10,000 applications for opposition. The lack of a specified timeline to issue notifications regarding opposition actions delays trademark applications refiled in 2020,” he said. 

With the current circumstances in Myanmar, and an election due in December 2025 and January 2026, any parties interested in IP protection in Myanmar will likely find that to be a tall order. That said, there is a growing handful of lawyers with experience in Yangon who do top-level, international-quality work, whom Asia IP is pleased to name to our list of Myanmar’s IP Experts. 

LawPlus Myanmar (Khin Khin Zaw, Nilar Win and Thae Ei Shwe Zin) had three lawyers named to our list in 2025. HT IP Law Firm (Thein Aung and Aung Khine Oo), MZ & Partners IP Law Firm (May Thazin Aung and Tin Win), Tilleke & Gibbins (Khin Myo Myo Aye and Yuwadee Thean-ngarm), U Myint Lwin Law Office (U Myint Lwin and Khine Khine Tun) and U Nyunt Tin Associates (Kyaw Moe Htet and Aye Aye Khaing) all had two lawyers named to the list. Lawyers from a total of 13 law firms were named to our list in 2025. 

Most of the lawyers named to our list have multiple practice specialties. Many of them are litigators, while others concentrate on prosecution work or provide strategic advice.  

All of them have something in common: they are experts in their fields and, in one way or another, they provide extra value for their clients. They are Asia IP’s Myanmar’s IP Experts. – GREGORY GLASS 

Myanmar’s IP Experts is based solely on independent editorial research conducted by Asia IP. As part of this project, we turned to in-house counsel in Myanmar, Southeast Asia and elsewhere around the world, as well as Myanmar-focused partners at international law firms, and asked them to nominate private-practice lawyers including foreign legal consultants, advisers and counsel.  

The final list reflects the nominations received combined with the input of the editorial team at Asia IP, which has more than 50 years of collective experience in researching and understanding Myanmar’s legal market. 

All private-practice intellectual property lawyers in Myanmar were eligible for inclusion in the nomination process; there were no fees or any other requirements for inclusion in the process. 

The names of our 20 IP Experts are published here. Each IP Expert was given the opportunity to include their biography and contact details in print and on our website, for which a fee was charged.