Information Disclosure Statement In Malaysia

Question 1
Is there a “duty of disclosure” according to Malaysian Patent Law? Is a patent application required, upon filing of an application or anytime afterwards, to actively disclose to the Malaysian Patent Office any references or Search Reports that the applicant knows about?

Answer 1
Please note that in Malaysia, there is no requirement for, or “duty of disclosure” (of references etc) by law, at the present time. The same is true for search reports, but the applicant is strongly advised to offer search reports to the Malaysian Patent Office as they will be very useful to expedite the prosecution of the application. The Malaysian patent system is rather similar to the UK system in many ways, and often dissimilar to the US system.