There is a report this week about Malaysia's "IP Monetization" program as articulated by PM Najib Razak. From that news, "We need to be
competitive in our bid to become a high-income nation that is not dependent on
traditional and physical resources but is based on new sources of wealth such
as intellectual property.
"To ensure the
country's continued momentum in making intellectual property a new source of
wealth, we have a responsibility to be more innovative and creative as well as
to constantly create value added in order to come up with high-impact products
and technologies for the local and global markets," he said at the
National Intellectual Property Awards 2015 today.
Najib, who is also
finance minister, said the effectiveness of initiatives to strengthen the
national intellectual property ecosystem was shown by the 6% average annual
rise in applications.
This shows the
potential of intellectual property to contribute to national economic growth,
he said, adding the government had agreed to consider providing an allocation
to encourage intellectual property rights applications as part of efforts to
raise the number of registrations. Some 42% of intellectual property rights
applications are from within the country.
Well and good. Kuala Lumpur is just 4 hours away by car from Singapore, the center of IPR protection and the richest economy in the ASEAN. The interdependence between the two in trade and investments, both physical and non-physical/intellectual commodities, is high.
More and more, the world is moving towards high value products and services production and trade. New mobile phones, flat or curved tv, other appliances and furnitures with sleek, modern or exotic designs, etc. are all guided by new ideas that were non-existent and unimaginable just a few decades ago. And these ideas are protected by various forms of IP protection -- patent, copyright, trademark, service mark, industrial designs, circuit designs -- to protect the innovators and inventive people and enterprises from copycat ones.
The program or strategy is good, except that PM Razak is still embroiled in a huge corruption scandal that greatly diminishes his credibility and effectivity in initiating new programs.
On a related note, I saw from a World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) website the various IP laws and IP-related laws of Malaysia.
They have a law for each type of IP. Being a non-lawyer, I am not sure if this is better than a single, big and long law that covers all types of IP that we have here, the IP Code of the Philippines (RA 8293) enacted in 1997. One advantage of one law for each type of IP perhaps is that if we revise or amend in the future one aspect, say only the patent system or copyright system, it will not affect the whole big law -- and cause some confusion.
Nonetheless, establishing clear property rights for the people, physical or non-physical property, is one of the most important functions of any government. More important than endless welfarism and political populism.
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See also:
IPR and Innovation 21: Recent News + IPN Assistance to Asian Think Tanks, February 15, 2015
IPR and Innovation 24, The US-China IP cooperation dialogue, August 18, 2015
Hi Nonoy, thanks for writing about Malaysia's IP Monetization strategy. Being from Malaysia, I must say that the PM's comments are nothing new. Intellectual Property has been touted as a major thrust since Tun Dr. Mahathir's time. However now is the age of startups and disruption, and with Malaysia's rising startup ecosystem (they are trying to nurture one), there is a possibility that IP could be given more emphasis than before. You did rightly point out the scandal that is plaguing the premier. Hope that gets settled soon. As for the various IP being under different statutes, we've not had any problem with it so far. But you might be right that it streamlines the whole approach towards IP by making all IP under one statute. I see that happening elsewhere. In 2012, Malaysia combined the Rules of Court for High Court and lower courts into the Rules of Court 2012. My own blog is at www.patentsmalaysia.com.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kevin. I saw your blog, nice. Will visit it regularly.
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