Recently, The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) published a new survey report aptly called "The Investment Climate of South-East Asia" pursuant to a survey conducted amongst 234 senior corporate executives contemplating investments in several countries in the South East Asia region. The Economist conducted the survey under sponsorship from the United States Chamber of Commerce in […]
Publications
Victims of E-Job Offers identified in Malaysia
The immense erudition found on the Internet has greatly affected the evolution of today's way of life since everything can be found on the Internet from songs to movies, facts of news to items on sale and even Job Offers! There is no longer a need to flip through the carbon staining newspaper pages to […]
Malaysia’s National Intellectual Property Policy (NIPP)
The Malaysian government in July 2007 has officially announced and launched the much talked about National Intellectual Property Policy. The main undertaking of this policy is to develop intellectual property as a new engine growth for the enhancement of social and economic prosperity. This new policy that this will be achieved by ensuring that the […]
Malaysia Cyber Rogues Unleashed – The relevance of Intellectual Property Rights
Cyber Rogues who fake websites to deceive buyers into making them believe that the goods are real and being delivered are overwhelmingly increasing in Malaysia. The number of computer security intrusions in 2005 were approximately 660 cases involving business transactions involving '.com' and '.net' websites, 42 non-governmental organizations that involves the '.org', 79 cases involving […]
Malaysia Cultivating a culture of “going original”
The Malaysian Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs ("MTDCA") in July launched the campaign "Ops Sikap Tulen", which means 'to cultivate in people a culture of going original', in order to intensify its combat against software piracy. This innovative campaign has been launched to educate the public to respect intellectual property rights. The Minister […]
Data Exclusivity: Impact of the Malaysia – US FTA
Export oriented policies together with large inflows of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) have been the main driving force behind Malaysian economic growth. Developed countries have been promoting Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and based on precedent FTAs, the main emphasis is on intellectual property rights, medical technology and pharmaceuticals. After entering into a Free Trade Agreement […]
Access to sites slashed in clearout on Internet scams in Malaysia
Malaysian government authorities have recently embarked on a series of crackdowns on cyber scams, blocking access to six illegal investment websites and raiding the offices of an Internet firm in Kuala Lumpur, the nation's capital. The local daily STAR recently reported that the Securities Commission (SC) had identified six websites under close scrutiny: www.abbfund.com or […]
A brief update on compulsory licensing and infectious diseases in ASEAN
Compulsory licensing has been a point of great dispute, with opinions torn between the rights of patent owners and accessibility to lifesaving, affordable drugs to the general public. The high cost of patent-protected pharmaceuticals and the inherent prevalence of infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and avian influenza are fueling demand for generic drugs and […]
Malaysia Trade Marks and Open Source Software
Source codes of open source software are developed and distributed through licences known as the general public licence (GPL). However, the trade marks of the software developers are not distributed along with these source codes. While distributors' brands and trade marks belong to them, the underlying source code belongs to the open source community. Therefore, […]
Malaysian Patents Act evolves
The Malaysian Patents Act 1983 and Patents Regulations 1986 have recently been subjected to several amendments in view of developments in the nation's patent scene. One of the most important amendments to the Act is the amendment to Section 34 pertaining to public inspection of files relating to patent applications. In line with the practices […]