Investors are eagerly watching Myanmar for signs of stability following the November general election, the country’s first free elections in 25 years. Official results released gave the National League for Democracy (NLD) – the party of long-time opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi – an absolute majority of seats in both chambers of the national parliament, enough to ensure that its candidate would become president.

Lawyers who are interested in intellectual property matters in Myanmar will have a front-row seat to the new government. One of their own, U Myint Lwin, a lawyer and proprietor of U Myint Lwin Law Office in Yangon, was elected to Parliament on the NLD ticket, defeating his Union Solidarity and Development Party opponent by 19,129 votes to 1,866. 

He hopes, he said on the sidelines of the November Asian Patent Attorneys Association meeting in Okinawa, Japan, to play an important role in pushing intellectual property legislation through Parliament once the NLD takes control early in 2016. 

“I am an IP lawyer and an MP, so I can initiate [sending IP laws through],” he said. “If I [were not an MP], I would have no authority, and I [wouldn’t be able to] initiate anything. But I can explain to my party – and the party is powerful – and we can push it through.”

Myint Lwin has worked extensively, even before his election to Parliament, to promote intellectual property laws in Myanmar, through working with the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Myanmar Chamber of Commerce and international organizations such as INTA, IPAN (the Intellectual Property Associates Network) and others. 

He says he has discussed the importance of IP laws with Aung San Suu Kyi, who will oversee a much larger picture about the future of Myanmar. “She has to think about the constitution, she has to promote the economy, she has to think about job creation. My side, I’m like a housekeeper; there’s particular work I have to do. I’ll be on the inside to open the door for IP.”