According to Art. 110 of the Patent Law, where the applicant’s residence or principal place of business is outside the territory of the State, the patent application may be applied through the representative or patent agent who is registered in the prescribed manner by the Department in accordance with the provisions of this Law.

Myanmar is not a party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

The Myanmar Copyright Law grants broad exemptions from economic rights, generally referring to the concept of 'fair practice.' Under Art. 24, an individual may reproduce a published work without the Rights Owner's authorisation solely for personal use. However, this reproduction must not result in the misuse of the literary or artistic work or infringe upon the legal rights of the Rights Owner. Notably, this exemption does not apply to the reproduction of works in the following categories: (i) architecture, such as buildings, (ii) musical works, (iii) whole or partial databases on digital platforms, and (iv) computer programs.

Myanmar has not signed the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty.

Myanmar has not signed the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Performances and Phonograms Treaty.

Myanmar lacks a comprehensive framework in place that provides effective protection of trade secrets, but there are limited measures addressing some issues related to them. Protection for confidential information comes from the law of contract, so there is no means of protection where no contractual relationship exists. The secret know-how will only be protected on the basis of a mutual legal relation created by agreements (non-disclosure or confidentiality agreements/clauses) signed with subcontractors, licensees, etc., obliging them to keep the information confidential, as well as agreements signed with employees under which they have a duty not to disclose the confidential information, both during the term of their employment and after its termination, and also obliging them (contractors, licensees, employees, etc.) not to use it for competition purposes.
Additionally, Section 19 of the Competition Law 2015 ('the Competition Law') refers to disclosing or using secrets of another business. In particular, no businessman shall, in respect of disclosing secrets of any other business, carry out any of the following acts: infringing security measures protected by the lawful owners of business secrets by accessing and collecting business secrets and information related to such secrets; using or revealing information of business secret without permission of the lawful owner of such business; deceiving a person with an obligation to maintain secrets or abusing the confidence of such person in accessing, collecting, or revealing business secrets and information related to such secrets.

It is reported that there is no obligation for passive infrastructure sharing in Myanmar to deliver telecom services to end users. However, it is practised in both the mobile and fixed sectors based on commercial agreements.

Section 3 of the State-Owned Economic Enterprise Law No. 9/89 stipulates that certain activities, including telecommunications services, are reserved exclusively for the State. However, the Government retains the authority to permit, via notification, the execution of these reserved activities through joint ventures between the Government and other individuals or economic organisations. It has been observed that the Government frequently grants exceptions to the exclusive rights of SOEs in various economic sectors, including telecommunications, by allowing joint ventures or issuing special licenses.

It is reported that the military directly controls two of Myanmar's four telecommunications service providers, including military-owned Myteland and Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT), originally state-owned and the country's main telecommunications operator. The other two service providers, ATOM (formerly Telenor) and Ooredoo, were run by independent foreign companies prior to the coup but are now owned by companies linked to the military.

Myanmar is not a signatory of the 1996 World Trade Organization (WTO) Information Technology Agreement (ITA) nor the 2015 expansion (ITA II).

It is reported that Malaysia does not require functional separation for operators with significant market power (SMP) in the telecom market. However, since 2015, there has been an obligation for accounting separation.

According to Paragraph 5 of Directive 1/2022, the submission of tenders is open to all, except in the specific cases detailed in Paragraphs 4, 6, 7, and 8. Moreover, Paragraph 13 provides that procurement from international sources may be conducted in instances where the required goods are unavailable within the domestic market or where no authorised dealer has been designated by the manufacturer to distribute the foreign product locally.

Chapter 3 of the Myanmar Telecommunications Law stipulates that any person, department, or business organisation, inside Myanmar or from abroad, willing to provide the following facilities and/or telecommunication services shall apply to the Directorate of Communication under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology for permission and licence for the following services: (i) Network facility services (NFS); (b) Network Services (NS); and (ii) Application services (AS).
It is reported that the government issues tenders upon granting telecommunications licenses. The Government determines from a policy standpoint how many operators to let in. In addition, in 2020, it was reported that the government of Myanmar reportedly threatened to cancel licenses unless their holders complied with demands to block websites, including news outlets. Local government officials also stressed the need for providers to obtain permits to lay fibre-optic cables, build towers, and install Wi-Fi devices.

Pursuant to Directive No. 1/2017, the establishment of a commercial presence is mandated for the provision of services related to government procurement. As part of the qualification process, applicants are required to submit evidence demonstrating that they are registered companies in Myanmar and have fulfilled their relevant tax obligations.

Myanmar has not appended the World Trade Organization (WTO) Telecom Reference Paper to its schedule of commitments.