Patent Executive, Mr. Liew Chee Keat and Trademark Executive, Ms. K. Geetha have returned to office after undergoing a month of training in their related area of Intellectual Property under experienced European Patent and Trademark Attorneys in a leading IP firm in Paris, France.
Archives for August 2007
Intellectual Property Courts Set Up
The Malaysian Government has set up specialized courts to handle Intellectual Property suits.
There are 15 Sessions Court, at least one Sessions Court in each state and 6 High Courts recognised as “special designated courts” to handle Intellectual Property disputes. The High Court will be in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Johor, Perak, Sabah and Sarawak.
The Sessions Court will hear criminal offence under the Trade Descriptions Act 1972 and Copyright Act 1987 and Optical Disc Act 2000. In Malaysia, infringement of patents and industrial designs are not criminal offences but only civil offences.
Malaysia is Now a Member of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)
Foreign applicants should take note. For all PCT applications filed after 16 August 2006, Malaysia can be designated in any PCT application.
Malaysian applicants can from the same date, file PCT applications in Malaysia. This is a more cost-saving and strategic way of securing patent rights in foreign countries if applicants are interested in more than 3/4 countries.
Trademark Owners & Dot Asia
The asia domain extension has been introduced and trademark owners with their marks registered anywhere in the world should highlight September 2007 in their diaries as the registration period for them opens then. There are three phases for these type of applicants: