MELAKA, Aug 22 — The level of intellectual property awareness among local entrepreneurs especially small and medium enterprises (SME), is still low, Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Datuk Rosol Wahid.
He said only 8,360 applications for registration of trademark were received by the Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO) from January to June this year.
Trademark registration only requires entrepreneurs to pay a fee of RM950 for a protection period of 10 years.
Rosol said under the 12th Malaysia Plan, the government had allocated RM4 million for the Intellectual Property Filing Fund 2.0 for a four-year period beginning this year.
“The fund covers fee financing for the filings of all intellectual property components such as trademark, patent, industrial design, copyright and geographical indication.
“Therefore we encourage SMEs in the country to immediately register with MyIPO to protect their intellectual property,” he told reporters after officiating the 67th Asean Working Group On Intellectual Property Cooperation (AWGIPC) meeting, here today.
Also present was MyIPO director-general Abdul Haris Lakar.
Rosol said the Intellectual Property Filing Fund 2.0 was also introduced to help ease the financial burden of SME entrepreneurs, thus encouraging them to register their products online or at the nearest MyIPO office.
Earlier, he said the 67th AWGIPC Meeting would serve as the best platform for Asean member states to discuss and exchange information on intellectual property.
“It will discuss the programmes that have been implemented as outlined under the 28 initiatives of the Asean Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Action Plan 2011 – 2015 and 19 initiatives of the Asean IPR Action Plan 2016 – 2025,” Rosol said.
The 67th AWGIPC Meeting which took place here for five days beginning today was attended by about 45 senior officials of intellectual property offices of Asean member states.
— Bernama
