First waves of IP reform

Official fees

One notable change is a significant increase in official fees across the board by about 30 to 60 percent. This is the first fee increase in more than 13 years for trademarks and 15 years for patents. We trust that the extra funds will help to expand the workforce and productivity of the Malaysian Intellectual Property Office (MyIPO), and so benefit IP owners.

Having said that, the fee changes for patents include the unwelcome introduction of additional official fees when filing a new application. This change serves only to add to the administrative burden on both agents and MyIPO, and so is contrary to the overall theme of the other rule changes: streamlining procedures and shortening prosecution timeframes.

Expedited examination

There are now formal provisions for requesting expedited examination of both trademarks and patents. For trademarks, a request has to be filed within four months of the initial application date, whereas for patents, there is no time limit, provided the application has already been laid open to public inspection and a request for examination has been submitted.

In either case, justification for the expedited examination is required in the form of a Statutory Declaration. A non-refundable official fee is also payable. The grounds on which expedited examination may be considered are: