ASEAN Bintulu Fertilizer Sdn Bhd v Wekajaya Sdn Bhd & Another Appeal [2017] 1 LNS 1574
It has always been said that “justice delayed is justice denied”. One issue that arose in this case was whether an arbitral award ought to be set aside due to the fact that there was a four-year delay in delivering the arbitral award. It took about 10 years from the commencement of the arbitration proceedings to the delivery of the award.
It was argued by the appellant that delay in delivering the award is injurious to public good and that the arbitrator could not have properly evaluated the evidence, given the fact that the arbitrator took four years after close of submissions and five years after evidence was recorded to deliver the award.
The Court of Appeal, in refusing to set aside the award, held that delay cannot be the sole reason for appellate intervention and that an arbitrator’s conduct cannot be challenged unless bad faith can be established.
For further information regarding dispute resolution matters, please contact
Expedited Examination of Patents and Trademarks in Malaysia
Patent and trademark owners wishing to fast track the prosecution process of their trademark and patent applications in Malaysia can take advantage of expedited examination. A substantial period in the length of examination of patent and trademarks lies in the examination process. Applications are generally examined in accordance to the filing date and, in order to fast track this process of waiting in line for examination, patent and trademark owners can take advantage of the expedited examination process.
A request for expedited examination is, however, subject to fulfilment of certain conditions. Accepted reasons that satisfy these conditions are inter alia:
national or public interest;
ongoing infringement proceedings or evidence showing potential infringement;
registration is condition on obtaining monetary benefits from the Government or institutions recognised by the Registrar;
the applicant already has a plan to commercialise the invention;
the invention relates to green technologies; or
any other reasonable grounds.
A request for expedited examination of a patent can be made after 18 months from the priority date or filing date of the Malaysian application. For trademarks, an expedited examination request must be made within four months of filing an application. It is important to note that the expedited examination process does not avoid the normal prosecution process of a patent and trademark application. There can be circumstances when an expedited examination will be converted to a normal application, for instance, when there are substantive objections or oppositions to a trademark application or when the timelines for response to a patent examination report are not met.
Generally, a trademark can be registered within seven months and a patent within 20 months from the date of application/priority date using the expedited examination process. Seeing that intellectual property protection provides a competitive edge to intellectual property owners, the availability of expedited examination is an attractive option to accelerate the process of acquiring protection and fully realising the true value of their patent and trademark registration rights.
For further information regarding intellectual property law matters, please contact
TAX CASE Ketua Pengarah Hasil Dalam Negeri v CIMB Bank Berhad [unreported]
In this case decided earlier this month, the High Court had dismissed the appeal of the Director General of Inland Revenue (“DGIR”) and affirmed the decision of the Special Commissioners of Income Tax which:
allowed the taxpayer’s capital allowance claims on the capital expenditure incurred in acquiring customer databases (intangible asset) from another bank; and
discharged the penalties imposed by the DGIR under Section 113(2) of the Income Tax Act 1967 in full.
This is a landmark case as it is the very first case in Malaysia on whether capital allowances can be claimed on capital expenditure incurred in acquiring intangible assets.
Goods and Services Tax (“GST”)
The first ever public rulings were issued by the Royal Malaysian Customs Department (“RMCD”) recently and they were on:
Imposition of Penalty (Public Ruling No 1/2017) — issued on 1 November 2017; and
Supply by Healthcare Professional (Public Ruling No 2/2017) — issued on 1 November 2017.
The revised versions of the following Industry Guides have been published on the RMCD’s GST website:
Insurance and Takaful (revised as at 2 November 2017); and
Travel Industry (revised as at 30 October 2017).
For further information regarding tax and revenue law matters, please contact
This Alert is issued for the information of the clients of the Firm and covers legal issues in a general way. The contents are not intended to constitute any advice on any specific matter and should not be relied upon as a substitute for detailed legal advice on specific matters or transactions.
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