Welcome
to Sabahlaw.com, a website to educate the public about the laws in Sabah, Malaysia.
Voire dire
Sabahlaw is sponsored by Chris Kwan, Barrister and Solicitor (High Court of Australia) and Registered Patent Agent (Malaysia Number : PA/2009/0201) See his video on appeal process before the USPTO Board (approx 11 mins).
See his brief explaination on patenting in Malaysia (this was made 2009 so it may be outdated)
Inventor for US Patents 7493279, 7487126, 7461010, 7395234, 7376612, 7376612. For all your patenting consulting in Malaysia or USA, contact me. Please take note, if you have a great idea for patenting for god sake do keep everything a secret until you file a PROVISIONAL application first. It costs less than USD 100 to file in US and even less in other countries. You do not need to have CLAIMS in your provisional. Claims is the machinary of your patent and is need for non-provisioonal application, you need to get legal assistance there unless you are a brilliant legalist yourself. Unless you are not into patent business software I suggest the US as you can do online and does not require a local agent to act on your behalf. Remember that US Patent Regime has changed in 2012 when AIA was enforced. The most important change is that your competitors can challenge your patent (after issuance) by IPR process within 12 months (for patent applicaton after AIA was implemented or anytime for those before). It kinda dilutes the value of your patent because you are forced to go through further examination (102/103) after issuance. as preparation, you should never disclose to anyone or write any paper or publication as these can go AGAINST you (before filing a provisional). Even if you failed to disclose about your paper or even advertisement (which is bad) or the examiner cannot find them during prosecution and allowed your patent application, this does not mean you are safe. Your competitor can still show in Court that you had disclosed this to the world and therefore unpatentable. Also filing a patent application does not mean you will get patented otherwise everyone can get one. Becareful in some countries like China and Malaysia ("developing status") they have a second tier regime call "petty patent" or "innovation patent". In Australia this regime will be revoked in Aug 2021 but there are still plenty of innovation patents around. They are useless as they are not "examine" for obviousness (the critical threshold). Go for the FULL patent as in US and you will 20 years (from date of first application).
Below is a link to my last US Patent for peer to peer payment using prepaid card which took more than 13 years to get making it one of the longest, and unless you have the time and $$, I suggest you focussed on your invention.
Chris kwan has also recently involved in privacy law which is challenging for those who are not technically inclined. This is the link to his introduction paper
This is a video on privacy using upwork as an example (10 mins) as explained to a child
We also came across an interesting video about a local council using its approving authority to extract concession from landowners in Sandakan. For example in this case, the local council wanted the landowner to give up land proposed for a reserve road in exchange for approving its development plan. The reserve road was on the same land but not part of the development. By giving up, this means the local council need not pay a dime which is bad. It may be educational for those who are interested.
Please note that there is a newly minted Advocates (Website) Rules 2013 governing how Advocates can promote themselves by using websites. This website complies with Advocates (Practise and Etiquette) Rules 1988, clauses 45-50, in particular clause 46. "An advocate shall not do or cause or allow to be done anything with the primary motive of personal advertisement, or anything calculated to sugget that it is so motivated." Please note that Sabah and Sarawak come under the Jurisdiction of the High Court of Sabah & Sarawak (formerly known as Borneo) and therefore Advocates are not permitted to promote or self-advertise unlike those of our counterparts under the High Court of Malaya which is governed by a different Act. To avoid confusion, reference to Bar Council of Malaysia actually means those having the rights to practise in Malaya (West Malaysia). There is now a self-"regulatory" body in Sabah named Sabah Law Society (SLS) which issues "annual" certificate (AC) and members have to use this to apply for practising certificates (PC) issued by the High Court starting from 2017. Sabah Law Society charges an very hefty annual membership fee $500 and Disciplinary Fund $250. One cannot practise with AC, so the question is why should we need this AC ? The thing is that when one is applying for this AC, one has to pay the membership fee first before SLS considers. Another issue is that there is potential conflict of interest as AC is approved by the Executive Committee (another practising lawyer going through your documents including accounting reports, imagine if this lawyer does not like you as an opponent in Court) not SLS nor delegated to an independent person. Refusal means we have to go to Court and challenge this "SLS" decision. You must check with the High Court of Sabah & Sarawak to ascertain the status of an Advocate in Sabah & Sarawak. To be able to practise in Malaysia as a whole means the Advocate has to be admitted in High Court of Sabah & Sarawak in the state of Sabah, High Court of Sabah & Sarawak in the state of Sarawak and the High Court of Malaya (3 PCs). Incidentally one can only be admitted as an Advocte in Sabah & Sarawak but in Malaya as Advocate & Solicitor (fused profession). An Advocate in the State of Sabah or Sarawak can practise as a Barrister or Solicitor but it is common for both practices to be under the same firm even though this contravenes the convention in England (The Advocates Ordinance requires the Advocate to follow the practices in England as defined under Intrepretation 2(1)" “to practise in Sabah*?means to perform in Sabah?
(a) any of the functions which in England may be performed by a member of the Bar as such; or
(b) any of the functions which in England may be performed by a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Judicature as such;".
3.A list of sabah laws Quick reference to "knowing" the local framework. You will notice that since Sabah joined with Malaya/Sarawak/Singapore to form Malaysia in 1963, she has effectively been left with land and religion power. Note Singapore left (or was kicked out) on 9.8.1965 and never looked back
Have you ever wonder why we have 2 jurisdictions in Malaysia (Malaya and Sabah & Sarawak) ? Even though the three independent states came together with Singapore to form Malaysia (Singapore left later in 1965), the legal frameworks remains. This is why we have lawyers in Sabah under its own Advocates Ord and those in West Malaysia under the LPA. Sarawak has its own Advocates Ord too. So do you want to know the differences or lack of differences ? Click here
"CURRENT ADVOCATES ORDINANCE" in pdf, 1953 . This is now a Federated law ie out of control of State of Sabah and includes plenty of amendments like introduction of a Annual Certificate (A/C) by the Law Society and using this AC to apply to the Court to get your PC. The power to amend Advocate Ord is based on the Ninth Sch in the Federal Constitution at 4. Civil and criminal law and procedure and the administration of justice,
including—...(a) constitution and organization of all courts other than Syariah Courts;
(b) jurisdiction and powers of all such courts;
(c) remuneration and other privileges of the judges and officers presiding over such courts;
(d) persons entitled to practise before such courts;
). I also notice that it requires 30% of membership to initiate any EGM (far exceed 10% for Companies)