律所新闻

Further to our client alerts dated on 31^st March 2020, 3^rd April 2020 and 16^th April 2020, the Malaysian Government has decided to extend the Movement Control Order (“MCO”) by two weeks until 12^th May 2020. The Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (“MyIPO”) has issued an official directive as follows:-

Deadlines, hearings and certification of documents

1. Manual filing of trademark, patent and industrial design applications which involve claiming of priority date falling within 18^th March 2020 to 12^th May 2020 will be extended to 18^th May 2020. Nonetheless, applicant is encouraged to file such applications by 13^th May 2020 in accordance with Article 4(C)(3) of Paris Convention.

2. Deadline for payment of annuity and renewal fee (if manual filing is required) has been extended to 1^st June 2020.

3. Deadline to respond to any office action issued by MyIPO has been extended to 1^st June 2020.

4. All other deadlines and procedure remains unchanged as per our client alert dated 31^st March 2020.

Further, MyIPO has also issued a practice direction pursuant to the Trademarks Act 2019 which came into effect on 24^th April 2020. MyIPO’s Practice Direction No. 1/2020 sets out the requirements to be complied with by an applicant or registered proprietor of a trademark who is interested in the filing of any forms under the Trademarks Act 1976 (“repealed Act”) with the Registrar of Trademarks, or applications or requests under the Trademarks Act 2019 together with the payment of the prescribed fee during the period of MCO.

From the effective date of the Practice Direction No. 1/2020, all payments of the prescribed fees in relation to the forms under the repealed Act, or applications or requests under the Trademarks Act 2019 may be made to the Registrar of Trademarks through online bank or interbank transfers.

By complying with this Practice Direction No. 1/2020, an applicant or registered proprietor of a trademark shall be deemed to have fulfilled the requirement of the filing the documents with the Registrar in any other manner as directed by the Registrar according to paragraph 30 of the Guidelines of Trademarks 2019.

We are attending to clients’ matters and instructions as promptly as we could in the circumstances. As part of our Firm’s Business Continuity Plan (BCP), all our partners and lawyers are working from home and may be contacted at their respective email addresses and mobile phones.

Please feel free to contact us should you need clarification or our assistance.

* This Alert is intended for general information of the clients of our Firm. It should not be regarded as legal professional advice. If you need advice based on specific facts, please feel free to contact us.