By Thein Thein Win
Myanmar, also called the “Golden Land”, is known for its many ancient golden pagodas, sacred Buddhist monasteries and gilded monuments. Myanmar people adore yellow gold (“Shwe” in the Burmese language) with gold being a common investment and store of value. It is no surprise then that locals also use “Shwe” as a name not just for people but also as business names in the hopes that the person or business bearing the name would also be successful, special and have a propensity for wealth creation like its namesake. Seeing the popularity of “Shwe”, it would be interesting to see how “Shwe”-related trademarks in Myanmar will fare now that Myanmar has enacted its new Intellectual Property Laws – which includes the Trademark Law – in early 2019.