TUESDAY-18TH DECEMBER 2007- Sabah to have Intellectual Property High Court

Sabah to have Intellectual Property High Court
KOTA KINABALU: The Government will set up the Intellectual Property High Court at six locations in the country. “The court which will operate in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Johor, Perak, Sabah and Sarawak will have the jurisdiction to hear into appeals for intellectual property cases,” Deputy Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk S. Veerasingam said when launching the State-level Intellectual Property Seminar here yesterday. Those operating in East Malaysia are called Borneo Intellectual Property High Court while the ones in Peninsular Malaysia are called Malaya Intellectual Property High Court.
Veerasingam urged Malaysians to register their intellectual properties to protect their rights. “The Government wants to protect our own intellectual properties which can help to develop our country’s economy,” he said. “The Sessions Court in Jalan Duta (Kuala Lumpur) has already solved 26 of the 184 registered cases. This is a good sign that our society has already realized the importance of their intellectual properties right,” he added. Veerasingam also explained that the public is not aware of the Trade-Related Aspect of Intellectual Property Right (TRIPS) agreement that protects geography signal as one of the intellectual properties components.
According to him, three of the four geography signals that have been registered in Malaysia are from Sabah local products, namely Sabah Tea, Kopi Tenom and Borneo Virgin Coconut Oil. The deputy minister also said in Sabah alone there were 22 potential local products to be registered for intellectual properties under the geography signal component such as Belacan Papar, Tambunan’s Ginger and Beaufort’s Sweet Lime. “We hope more entrepreneurs will register their intellectual properties so that their products will be more unique and special than the other products in the market because they have the geography signal right,” he added.