Regulations Concerning The Prescribed Period To File Request For Substantive Examination

Question 4
Clarify the time limit to file the request for substantive examination.
My own database calculates the said deadline as 11/07/2009. This date is correct when referring to the Section 27 of the Malaysian Patents Act - request for substantive examination that can be found within CLEA at the WIPO website.
According to the document: *Advice to applicants - time periods/ Request for examination, the Request for Examination should be filed within 4 years from the international filing date of the application that is 11/07/2007.
We obviously have to update the Malaysian patent law into our database to have this deadline correctly calculated.
Then could you please send us the specific details concerning the modification of Section 27 (i.e. Official date of the amendment, quotation, copy of the official text)?

Answer 4
Under the Malaysian PCT rules, in national phase entry for applications entering the national phase the request for substantive examination is 4 years from the international filing date of the application. In this case it will be 11th July 2011.

Yes, you need to update the Malaysian Patent Law in your database. Please note that that Malaysian Patents Act has been amended on 16th August 2006.
Currently there are 2 ways to enter a Patent in force in Malaysia that is (1) the PCT Route and (2) Paris Convention Route.

The modification to Section 27 is only to take into account Malaysia's PCT national phase entry. The most significant amendments is that the term of deferment for applications filed on or after 16th August 2006 will be 5 years from the filing date.

Under the old law, for cases which have their examination deferred, the request for full substantive examination must be filed within 3 years from the date of filing whereas for modified substantive examination must be filed within 4 years. Under the new law, there is no such provision. Therefore the request for full or modified substantive examination can be filed at any time until the 5th year.

However, the request for full or modified substantive examination or the request to defer examination must be filed within 2 years from the filing date.