7th Note

Intellectual Property 

Patent

A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention, which is a product or a process that provides a new way of doing something, or offers a new technical solution to a problem.

A utility innovation is an exclusive right granted for a "minor" invention which does not require to satisfy the test of inventiveness as required of a patent.

Any person may make an application for a patent or for a utility innovation either alone or jointly with another person. The word "person" is not limited to natural persons and thus also includes, for example, a company.

A patent is protected 20 years from the date of filing and a utility innovation is protected 10 + 5 + 5 years from the date of filing subject to use

A patent or utility innovation protection gives the owner of the patent/utility innovation the exclusive right to stop others from manufacturing, using and/or selling the owner's invention in Malaysia without the owner's consent or permission.

Copyright

Copyright is the exclusive right given to the owner of a copyright for a specific period. Copyright protection in Malaysia is governed by the Copyright Act 1987. There is no system of registration for copyright in Malaysia.

A work that is eligible is protected automatically upon fulfillment of the following conditions:- 

• sufficient effort has been expected to make the work original in character;
• the work has been written down, recorded or reduced to a material form; 
• the author is qualified person or the work is made in Malaysia or the workis first published in Malaysia

Works eligible for protection are;

• literary works;
• musical works;
• artistic works;
• films;
• sound recordings;
• broadcasts; and
• derivative works

These works shall be protected irrespective of their quality and purpose for which they were created.
However, the copyright protection shall only extend to expression and not ideas, procedures, methods of operation or mathematical concepts as such.


Copyrights in a work vests initially in the author (writer, composer, maker of the work, etc). However, where the making of a work is made by an employee in the course of his employment, unless there is any contrary agreement, the copyright in the work shall be deemed to vest in the person who commissioned the work or the employer. The author's right is transferable by assignment, testamentary disposition or by operation of law, in which case the assignee shall be the owner.