International Activities

JIPA Representatives' visit to Myanmar and Thailand

　　　During November 21 to 25, 2016, the Southeast Asia WG of Asia PJ dispatched a 7-member delegation led by Mr. Kumagai, a Vice President, to 10 IP-related agencies/institutions in Myanmar and Thailand listed below. The purpose of the dispatch was to provide the agencies/institutions with suggestions about ASEAN countries-related problems collected from JIPA's members and request them to relieve the problems. This year, the JIPA representatives visited Thailand, in which the IP-related law had continuously been revised, and Myanmar, to which Japanese companies had increasingly expanded their business.

Myanmar

　　Myanmar Customs, IP Department under the Ministry of Education, Myanmar Police Agency

Thailand

　　Royal Thai Police and Investigation Bureau, Department of Intellectual Property (DIP), Intellectual Property
　　and International Trade Court, Royal Thai Customs, JETRO Bangkok

　　　In Myanmar, the delegation members visited the IP department, which had been incorporated from the Ministry of Science and Technology into the Ministry of Education, and asked the Director, Dr. Moe Moe Thwe, whom we had met in Tokyo, for early establishment of the IP law and information disclosure. In response, Dr. Moe explained, "The IP bill has not officially been submitted to the Diet yet and will probably be submitted around the middle of 2017. Also, the design law and the trademark law are likely to be preferentially established."
　　　Additionally, in Thailand, the delegation members met the Deputy Director General of DIP, Mr. Suphat, whom we had also met in Tokyo. They heard about the status of legal revisions of patents and other kinds of intellectual property and requested the adoption of examination based on absolute novelty of patents and the introduction of a divisional application system, for example. In response, Mr. Suphat presented the following information: "Although we are moving forward to meeting some of your requests, DIP aims to first eliminate the backlog and achieve faster examination."
　　　All the agencies/institutions that the delegation visited were sincere in responding to the agenda items and questions from JIPA, and the meeting was fruitful.
　　　Additionally, Asia strategy PJ members have been becoming able to talk directly with key persons from individual countries in recent activities. Moreover, amid the period in which ASEAN, mainly the ASEAN Working Group on Intellectual Property Cooperation, made efforts to achieve more efficient examination in the individual countries, the delegation members took this opportunity to feel that face-to-face talks with the key persons were important.

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