Copyright

Copyright protects works such as literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, sound recordings, performer's performances, broadcasts and derivative works. Copyright law grants two sets of rights, Economic Rights and Moral Rights.

Economic rights serve to protect the economic interests of the owner, such as the exclusivity to reproduce the works in any form (including photocopying, recording etc); to perform to the public or dissemination of copies to the public by sale or transfer of ownership.

Moral rights are personal rights which aim to protect the work of the owner, including the right to oppose changes in the copyright that could harm the reputation of the creator and the right to remain anonymous.

Being a party to the Berne Convention Treaty, copyright automatically subsists upon creation of a work into material form. Countries that have signed the Berne Convention are afforded "National Treatment" which means international owners and Malaysian owners are treated exactly the same in Malaysia.

Although there is no formal system of registration of copyright in Malaysia, there are various accepted methods to show ownership of copyright. Owners may execute a statement under oath (by way of Statutory Declaration) to affirm its ownership or alternatively, owners may opt to deposit the copyright work under the Voluntary Notification of Copyright procedures.

Our team at PRO IP has extensive experience in all the areas concerning copyright and our services include:

  • ​providing advice relating to protection, infringement and enforcement of copyright-related matters,
  • ​research on copyright laws,
  • ​action against IP piracy,
  • ​commercialisation of copyright work like licensing, grants, contracts.