Malaysia joined with fellow ASEAN members states to showcase their intellectual property products for the first time at the 65th World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) General Assembly in Geneva in July 2024.

The exhibition, titled Creative and Sustainable ASEAN, promoted intellectual properties and creative industries from around ASEAN. Malaysia’s participation was led by the Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO) and the Permanent Mission of Malaysia to the United Nations in Geneva.

Bernama, the Malaysian news agency, reported that the Permanent Mission issued a statement saying that products exhibited included traditional arts and cultural heritage, including batik and Malaysian handicrafts, as well as products that have received geographical indication recognition, including Bario rice, Sarawak pepper, Sarawak layer cake, Melaka dodol and Terengganu songket.

“Besides benefiting from agreements administered by WIPO, Malaysia also collaborates with the organization in various aspects of national intellectual property ecosystem development and advancement, particularly through capacity-building programmes and technical assistance,” the Permanent Mission’s statement to Bernama said.

Earlier in the year, MalayMail reported that Malaysia’s National Film Development Corporation (Finas) will collaborate with MyIPO in an effort to increase IP registration among actors and art practitioners.

Finas chief executive officer Azmir Saifuddin Mutalib told the news source that the move was important so that actors and artists would be able to generate continuous income through methods including distribution sales and remixes (re-recordings of works), besides protection against piracy in the film industry.

“When we talk about business, the value of IP is very important,” he said. “Sometimes producers only see box office movies this year, maybe the second year too, but when we hold the IP and rights to the work, we can monetize it in multiple ways.”

“Let’s say we have a movie genre that was a hit in the ’80s, if someone wants to remix that movie now, we can claim that we have the IP. But basically, it depends on the quality of the work, then monetization can be done,” he said after appearing as a guest on Bernama TV’s Apa Khabar Malaysia programme in May 2024.

In April, MyIPO sponsored National Intellectual Property Day in Putrajaya, an event designed to encourage and support business owners, innovators and creators to register their IP, including talks on how IP can help safeguard rights and workshops which helped participants learn to navigate legal frameworks and maximize the value of their intellectual assets.

All of this suggests that the Malaysian IP regime will continue to develop in line with the government’s efforts to continue Malaysia’s transformation from a production-based economy to a knowledge-based economy, which will keep the country’s IP lawyers busy into the foreseeable future. It is with this ongoing investment in tech-intensive industry that we turned to IP professionals in the region in order to understand better what clients in Malaysia will need in the future. Asia IP asked a large number of professionals – mostly in-house counsel and corporate legal managers – what they were looking for from their legal service providers. From their answers, we have compiled our list of Malaysia’s IP Experts, those lawyers who understand what their clients need and are able to provide them with the best practical advice.

While two powerhouse firms employ nine of the lawyers on our list, the rest of the list reflects a growing diversity of practices in Kuala Lumpur, with lawyers from a number of young and relatively young firms receiving recognition as IP Experts.

Not surprisingly, Shearn Delamore & Co. (Karen Abraham, Michelle C.Y. Loi, Jyeshta Mahendran, Indran Shanmuganathan and Timothy Siaw) placed five lawyers on our list, while Skrine (Leela Devi Baskaran, Pei Yee Kuek, Melissa Long and Charmayne Ong) placed four.

Henry Goh & Co. (Yen Yen Oon and Dave A. Wyatt); Josephine, LK Chow & Co. (Cyndi Chow and Khaik Kew Peh); KASS International (Geetha Kandiah and P Kandiah); LAW Partnership (Suraran Singh Sidhu and Brian Law); Marks & Clerk (Chris Hemingway and Gerald Samuel); Raja, Darry & Loh (Phye Keat Chew and Yvonne Ong); RDS Partnership (Zhi Jian Lim and Bahari Yeow); Tay & Partners (Lin Li Lee and Kim Poh Ng); and Wong Jin Nee & Teo (Bong Kwang Teo and Jin Nee Wong) each placed two lawyers on our list. All in all, 34 different firms placed at least one lawyer on our list.

Our survey includes only those lawyers working at law firms in Malaysia. Most of the lawyers named to our list have multiple practice specialties. Many of them are litigators, while others concentrate on prosecution work or provide strategic advice.

All of them have something in common: they are Asia IP’s IP Experts for Malaysia.

– GREGORY GLASS

Malaysia’s IP Experts is based solely on independent editorial research conducted by Asia IP. As part of this project, we turned to thousands of in-house counsel in Asia and around the world and asked them to nominate private-practice lawyers, including foreign legal consultants, advisers and counsel.

The final list reflects the nominations received combined with the input of the editorial team at Asia IP, which has nearly 50 years of collective experience in researching and understanding the legal market in Southeast Asia.

All private practice intellectual property lawyers working at law firms in Malaysia were eligible for inclusion in the nomination process; there were no fees or other requirements for inclusion in the process.

The names of our 50 IP Experts are published here. Each IP Expert was given the opportunity to include their biography and contact details in print and on our website, for which a fee was charged.