Last week, leading businesses, legal experts and government officials met in Kuala Lumpur at INTA's 2019 Asia Conference: 'Brands in Changing Times' to exchange practical advice on adapting to innovation and changes in the way consumers interact with brands in the region.

Our Head of IP Strategy, Wai Yeng Chan, and Senior Associate, Victoria Armstrong, attended the conference to share their experiences with, and learn from, the other 200+ delegates.

Key takeaways from the discussions included the following:

  • Malaysia will be acceding to the Madrid System for international trademark registration on 27 December 2019;
  • With the enactment of new patent, trademark and design laws earlier this year, a new intellectual property office has been created in Myanmar;
  • New border enforcement measures are being put in place in Singapore (including the expansion of the current law to allow rights holders to request inspection and seizure of infringing exports (as well as imports);
  • Singapore's Intellectual Property (Dispute Resolution) Bill was passed in August this year which, amongst other things, clarifies that IP dispute arbitration binds the parties only and not the rest of the world;
  • There is a new geographical indication registry in Singapore;
  • WIPO has a new IP portal that provides a unified interface to navigate across WIPO's online IP services (a useful tool for monitoring the development of competitors' trademark applications);
  • Online retailers such as eBay and Lazada have developed and improved upon their IP take down procedures and platforms allowing rights holders to sign up for automatic protection in certain circumstances as well as requesting the removal of content which infringes their unregistered rights;
  • Strategic use of influencers and targeted promotional campaigns are helping businesses reach out to consumers that are increasingly spending more time on social media;
  • Changes are incoming to Chinese trade mark law, including the revision of bad faith rules in relation to registration; and
  • India has released draft guidelines on intermediary liability for online infringement as well as a draft e-commerce policy.

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