Intellectual property · Malaysia
Trademark registration in Malaysia
Malaysia rewrote its trademark law in 2019: Madrid, multi-class filings, sound and scent marks, and one up-front fee. We search, file with MyIPO, draft from the pre-approved list, use the expedited track where it fits, and watch the register so the mark stays yours.
Why register
What a registered mark gets you in Malaysia
Malaysia is first-to-file with a common-law footnote: an unregistered brand can sue for passing off, which means proving years of goodwill in the High Court instead of showing a certificate. Registration decides ownership cleanly, and the filing date decides priority. Here is what the certificate gives you once it's yours.
The exclusive right to your name
Registration gives you the exclusive right to use the mark for your registered goods and services across Malaysia, and the legal standing to stop anyone else using it or anything confusingly close: competitors, copycats, and the distributor who decides the brand should be his.
The enforcement toolkit
KPDN enforcement raids, customs seizure of counterfeit shipments under the 2019 Act, and takedowns on Shopee, Lazada, and TikTok Shop all run on the certificate. With it, you are enforcing. Without it, you are writing letters nobody must answer.
An asset, not just a defense
A registered mark can be licensed to your distributor, franchised, or sold outright, and it's what acquirers and investors look for when they price your Malaysian business. At RM950 per class in official fees, paid once, for ten years of protection renewable forever, it's the cheapest asset you'll ever put on the balance sheet.
What can be registered
Almost anything that identifies you, if it's distinctive.
A registrable mark identifies your business rather than describing the product. Generic and purely descriptive terms are refused, and so are marks confusingly similar to existing registrations in your classes.
Word marksBrand names, company names, taglines, and letter or number marks, the most common filing.
Logos & devicesVisual symbols and graphic elements, registered as you use them.
Combined marksWords and graphics together, protecting the lock-up as a whole.
Shapes & 3D marksThe form of a product or its packaging, provided the shape is not functional.
Color marksRegistrable with the Pantone code in the description, where the color has acquired distinctiveness.
Sound, scent & motion marksThe 2019 Act opened the door wide: sound (filed with an MP3), scent, holograms, positioning, and motion sequences, each with its required description.
Every application names the goods and services it covers, grouped under the Nice Classification's 45 classes, and one application can cover several classes. Malaysia rewards careful drafting directly: a specification adopted from MyIPO's pre-approved list files at RM950 per class instead of RM1,100, and moves through examination with fewer queries. Marks with non-Roman letters or foreign words travel with their translation and transliteration.
The process
How registration works
Five stages with MyIPO, examination before publication, and one fee at the start covering the whole journey. Plan nine to fourteen months from filing to certificate when nothing is contested; the expedited track can compress the entire process to under seven.
1
Search and registrability checkDays
We search MyIPO's records and the Madrid designations for identical and confusingly similar marks in your classes, and assess the mark against Malaysian practice on distinctiveness. A descriptive mark can be rescued by long use here, but it's an uphill case, and you should know which case yours is before paying for it.
2
FilingDays
We file through MyIPO's online system as your registered agent with a Malaysian address for service, no notarization needed. The drafting decision happens here: a specification from the pre-approved list locks the RM950 rate and a smoother examination, and series marks (up to six close variants of one mark) ride along for RM50 each.
3
Examination6–12 months
MyIPO examines formality and substance together: distinctiveness on absolute grounds, conflicts with earlier marks and Madrid designations on relative grounds. Office actions are answered on your behalf. Where you have a valid reason (an infringement underway, an imminent launch), the expedited examination track can take a compliant application from filing to registration in under seven months.
4
Publication and opposition2 months
The accepted mark is published in MyIPO's Intellectual Property Official Journal, opening a two-month window for oppositions. They are uncommon, but when one lands the proceedings are real: notice, counter-statement, evidence rounds. We watch the window and handle the defense.
5
Registration and certificateOn approval
With the window closed or any opposition resolved, the mark registers and the certificate issues, with no second fee: the filing fee you paid at the start carried the application all the way through. Ten years of protection from the filing date, renewable indefinitely. What keeps it alive from here is worth reading twice.
The checklist
Key requirements for trademark registration in Malaysia
The documents and details MyIPO needs before the application can be filed. The list is short, nothing needs notarizing, and most clients send everything in one email.
- A clear representation of the mark. The logo file in high resolution, or the word mark exactly as you use it; non-traditional marks travel with their required extras (an MP3 for sound, a Pantone code for color, a description for shape, scent, or motion).
- What it covers. Your products or services, described in your own words; we map them to the Nice classes and, wherever possible, to MyIPO's pre-approved list, which files cheaper and examines smoother.
- Applicant details. The full legal name and address of the person or company that will own the mark.
- An appointment of agent. Foreign applicants file through a registered Malaysian trademark agent with a local address for service; the appointment is simply signed, no notarization, and we handle it inside the service.
- Priority documents, only if applicable. Where you're claiming priority from an application filed abroad within the last six months.
Keeping it alive
No use declarations here. Registrations still die in four ways
Malaysia doesn't require the periodic use filings the Philippines does, which lulls owners into treating the certificate as permanent. It isn't, and the failure modes are predictable.
Missed renewalsProtection runs ten years from the filing date. Renewal files within the six months before expiry, with a grace period after at a surcharge. A lapse opens a gap, and in a first-to-file system, gaps get filed into.
Three years of non-useA mark unused in commerce for three continuous years can be revoked on application under the 2019 Act. Keeping dated evidence of use (sales, listings, packaging, campaigns) is cheap insurance against a claim that otherwise turns into archaeology.
Unwatched publicationsThe opposition window is two months from publication in MyIPO's journal. If nobody is watching it for you, a confusingly similar mark passes the examiner once and registers; stopping it afterwards means invalidation proceedings instead of a two-page opposition.
Stale recordsAssignments, name changes, and address changes recorded with MyIPO keep the certificate enforceable, the renewals smooth, and the customs recordation valid, since those systems check the register, not your letterhead.
Our service builds all four into the engagement: the renewal calendared a decade out, use evidence kept with the file, a watch on the journal, and the register kept current as your company changes.
What it costs
MyIPO charges one fee, up front: RM950 per class where the specification comes from the pre-approved list, RM1,100 where it doesn't, covering the application through to registration with no separate publication or certificate fees. Emerhub's fee for the search, filing, and prosecution is quoted on request per class, with office actions, oppositions, and renewals quoted as they arise.
Why Emerhub
Filed by the team that's already here.
Already on the ground
The same Kuala Lumpur team that handles incorporations, WRT licensing, and product registrations files your trademark. Most marks ride alongside a market entry, and the timing between the two is part of the advice.
A straight answer before you spend
If the search shows your mark is weak, descriptive, or already taken, we tell you before you pay filing fees, with options: adjust the mark, add distinctive elements, build the acquired-distinctiveness case, or challenge what's blocking you.
We keep it alive
Many providers file and disappear. Malaysian registrations are won and lost at the renewal, the three-year use rule, and the two-month opposition window, so ours come with the calendar and the watch built in.
Common questions
Malaysia trademark FAQs
Specific questions about registering and keeping a mark in Malaysia.
Does registering my company protect my brand name?
No. The company name registered with SSM only stops someone from registering an identical company name; it gives no trademark rights. Your brand needs its own MyIPO registration, and until it has one, anyone can file for it, including your distributor.
How long does registration take?
Nine to fourteen months from filing to certificate when nothing is contested: examination in six to twelve months, the two-month publication window, then registration with no further fee. Where you have a valid reason, an infringement underway, an imminent launch, the expedited track can take a compliant application from filing to registration in under seven months. Protection runs from the filing date once registered.
What does it cost?
One official fee, paid at filing: RM950 per class where the goods come from MyIPO's pre-approved list, RM1,100 where you need your own wording, with no separate publication or certificate fees afterwards. Series marks add RM50 per variant. Our fee covers the search, the filing, and the prosecution to certificate, quoted per class; contested matters are quoted as they arise. Schedule a call with your mark and product list and we'll give you the exact figure.
Someone already registered my brand. What can I do?
It depends where their filing stands. If it's within the two-month publication window, we oppose. If it's registered, the routes are invalidation proceedings, a revocation application once the mark has sat unused for three continuous years, or, where you genuinely traded here first, a passing-off claim, Malaysia's common-law remedy, which is valuable, expensive, and no substitute for having filed first. Negotiated purchase and coexistence are also real options. We assess which fits before you spend on any of them.
Do I need a local agent to register?
Foreign applicants file through a registered Malaysian trademark agent with a local address for service. The appointment is simply signed, no notarization, and we handle it inside the service, acting as the address where official notices land with people who act on them inside the deadlines.
What is the Nice Classification, and can I file multiple classes?
The international system that groups all goods and services into 45 classes. Your registration protects the mark in the classes you file, so the class choice defines the protection. Malaysia allows multi-class applications, with the official fee counted per class, and rewards specifications drawn from MyIPO's pre-approved list with the lower RM950 rate and a smoother examination.
What happens if someone opposes my application?
They have two months from publication in MyIPO's journal. The proceedings run on paper: notice of opposition, your counter-statement, then evidence rounds, with the Registrar deciding and appeals to the High Court. Oppositions are uncommon in Malaysia, but a contested case adds months, and we tell you honestly when a coexistence deal is the better outcome.
Do I have to prove I'm using the mark?
There are no periodic use declarations in Malaysia. The use rule bites differently: a mark unused for three continuous years can be revoked on application, so the protection is only as strong as your evidence of use. We keep dated proof (sales records, listings, packaging, campaigns) with the file, so a revocation claim meets a wall instead of a gap.
Can I use the Madrid System instead of filing locally?
Yes; Malaysia joined the Madrid Protocol in December 2019, alongside the new Act, so you can designate it in an international application. MyIPO examines the designation under the same rules, and a provisional refusal still needs a registered Malaysian agent to answer it. For a Malaysia-only filing, the national route is usually simpler; for a multi-country program, Madrid with local support for the refusals works well.
How does renewal work?
The registration renews every ten years, counted from the filing date. The renewal files within the six months before expiry, with a grace period after it at a surcharge and a further restoration window beyond that; miss them all and the mark lapses, and in a first-to-file system someone may be waiting for exactly that. We calendar yours the day the certificate issues.
Protecting a brand in Malaysia?
Talk to our Kuala Lumpur team
A free, no-obligation consultation: thirty minutes with our Kuala Lumpur team to check your mark, settle the classes, and map the filing, including what to do if someone got there first.
Emailmalaysia@emerhub.com
Phone / WhatsApp+60 17 684 9718
OfficeC-18-6, KL Trillion
Kampung Datuk Keramat
50400 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Kampung Datuk Keramat
50400 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia