The Importance of Registering Your Trademark in Malaysia

So you’ve gotten your business up and running, you’re making a reasonable profit and are now looking to expand and grow your business further. To help with that goal you’ve designed a distinctive trademark to help your business stand out from your competitors. It is very important for you to register this trademark as soon as you can.

Why is it so important to register your trademark? Before we can answer that question, we will first show what having a trademark does for your business:

     1.    Indication of origin of goods and services: Having a trademark on all your products allows consumers to immediately tell that these products come from you.

     2.    Indicator of Quality: Depending on their experience with your products, consumers will come to expect all products bearing your trademark to be consistently the same quality. Do make sure that experience is a positive one!

     3.    Advertising: The distinctiveness of a trademark and the expectation of quality that in conveys makes it a useful tool for advertising your goods and services.

     Ok, so how does registering my trademark protect me?

     Well, registration protects the three main functions of trademarks that we have previously discussed. This is accomplished by granting you ownership of the registered trademark.

     Ownership grants you exclusive rights to commercially utilise your trademark and/or license a 3^rd party to do the same on your behalf. Concurrently, others would be prevented from doing the same with YOUR trademark that you’ve registered.

     What happens if I don’t register my trademark?

     Firstly, not registering your trademark means that you can’t claim ownership of said trademark. This effectively prevents you from reaping most of the benefits of having a trademark to begin with.

     Secondly, you’d also run the risk of a competitor taking advantage of all of your marketing and promotion efforts by utilising a similar trademark. Worse, he could even use the exact same trademark and register it as his own. This not only prevents you from using the trademark that you’ve put so much work into, it also means all the marketing efforts including the advertising fees that you had incurred ended up benefiting your competitor instead!

     Alright, you’ve convinced me, how do I register my trademark?

     While you can technically handle the registration yourself with the Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO), it is best to seek the assistance of a Registered Trademark Agent who’d be able to advise you on the process. We recommend going to a Trademark Agent who’s also a Lawyer, just in case any legal complications comes up (like say, someone objecting to your trademark by claiming that it is infringing on their trademark). Further information on registering trademarks in Malaysia can be found at the MyIPO website.

*The above article is written by Chew Chit Jin, Admin Officer of Messrs Esther Ong Tengku Saiful & Sree. Kindly feel free to contact us should you have any query.

*You may contact us at:

Address: 51-1, Jalan USJ 10/1A, Taipan Triangle  47620 Subang Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.
Tel        : 603-56379700
E-mail  : etscare@lawyermalaysia.com