The Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO) has recently announced that Industrial Designs Regulations 1999 has been amended and the amended Industrial Designs (Amendment) Regulations 2012 has been published on MyIPO’s website. Please click here for a copy of the Industrial Designs (Amendment) Regulations 2012: Industrial Designs (Amendment) Regulations 2012.
The Industrial Designs (Amendment) Regulations 2012 will come into force on 15 February 2012.
With the Amendment, we are pleased to inform you that MyIPO will now allow industrial design applications to be filed electronically. Previously, MyIPO only accepted patent and trademark applications to be filed electronically.
Also, Malaysia now requires any document or any part of the document given or sent or filed with the MyIPO that contains or consists word or words in characters other than Roman or in a language other than Bahasa Malaysia (national language of Malaysia) or English, shall be accompanied by a translation or transliteration in English.
Malaysia will also require applicants to submit a certified or verified translation of the earlier application in Bahasa Malaysia or English within 3 months from the date of request from the Examiner.
The biggest issue that our clients and associates must take note that with the amendments to the Regulations is that Malaysia has now increased the official fees for filing, handling and renewing industrial design matters in Malaysia. The increase in fees seems to apply across the board and some new fees have also been introduced and it has been reported that the new fees will be enforceable on industrial design applications that will be filed on or after 15 February 2012.
The new fees will also apply to all registered industrial designs, if the official renewal fees to renew registered industrial designs are paid on or after 15 February 2012.
However, for all those pending applications (applications filed before 15 February 2012), MyIPO has confirmed that the official fees payable will be based on the old fees.
Accordingly, we would strongly recommend that our clients who intend to file industrial design applications in Malaysia to file the applications before or on 14 February 2012 to take advantage of the old and cheaper official fees.
Please do not hesitate to write to us at info@adipven.com if you need any further clarifications on this matter.