Intellectual property rights and agro-based natural product: Malaysian legal perspective

Malaysia is a country which has been blessed with plethora of natural resources and product such as plants and animals. It is an established fact that the agriculture sector part of our natural product contributed substantially to the growth and development of the Malaysian economy. At the same time, it falls as part of the property which must be protected to ensure its sustainability. This paper will look into the right and protection of agro-based natural product specifically to the plant varieties and geographical indications from Intellectual Property Rights perspective in Malaysia

Empowering Personal Representatives’ Statutory Duties in Administration of Deceased’s Estates

In Malaysia, law requires for the appointment of personal representatives before the deceased estates can be distributed. There are numbers of statutory duties and power of personal representatives related to deceased estates. However, anecdotal evidence showed personal representative are not in the know on what should be done once appointed. This article aims to discuss the basic duties of personal representatives. The discussion adopts the doctrinal content analysis method. This paper concludes that the express provision pertaining to the basic roles and duties of personal representatives in Malaysia is not clear which can contribute to problems in managing deceased estates. Keywords: deceased estates, personal representatives, powers, Malaysia eISSN: 2398-4287© 2022. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians/Africans/Arabians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v7iSI11.416

Towards formulating a specific legislation on the law of presumption of death in Malaysia

The existing law in Malaysia authorized an evidence of existence of physical body before the law recognized the end of presumption of life of person. Hence, problem may arise where a person has been missing and his whereabouts is not known to the person close to them as no declaration of dead can be made as there is no body to support the contention. This article seeks to examine the specific law in England & Wales namely Presumption of Death Act 2013 in order to suggest an appropriate legal framework on presumption of death in Malaysia. For this purpose, the discussion adopts the doctrinal analysis by examining the existing primary and secondary materials includes statutory provisions, case law and other legal and non-legal literatures relating to the presumption of death and missing persons. This article concludes that there is a need to propose a specific legislative act to harmonize the uncertainties in the existing legal framework. There must be a statutory recognition of ‘specific peril’ rules to circumvent the hardship of seven years common law waiting period. The law must have following features which are, the court must have jurisdiction's over the property of the missing person; notice to the presumed missing person must be attempted; the lapse of time before the presumption can be raised must be reasonable and there should be some safeguard for the missing person should he return

Administration of estates in Malaysia: stepping into the shoes of person under legal disability

Administration of estate law in Malaysia uphold the interest of legal beneficiaries especially those who are categorized as a person under legal disability upon the death of a person. Their vulnerability is the key element that justifies the needs for legal protection. This question is relevant as persons under legal disability may become a subject of abuse. One question that needles this aspect of the law is to what extent the law protects the interest of a person under disability in administration of the estate. The discussion covered the issue of a person under a disability as beneficiaries and also personal representatives. For this purpose, the paper analyses relevant statutory provisions as provided by the Probate and Administration Act 1959, Rules of Court 2012 and other relevant statutes. An analysis of the decided cases is also made to identify the judicial approach in protecting the person under disability. This article infers that the law prescribes a regulation in terms of a person under disability rights in the administration of estates in Malaysia. However, the application is not consistent as regard to minor and unsound mind. The law put extra emphasis on minor but silent in terms of unsound mind. Therefore, to ensure the interest of a person under disability is comprehensively protected, the law should be improved accordingly

Pemilikan harta intelek dalam hubungan pekerja dan majikan: Satu tinjauan perundangan

Harta intelek boleh didefinisi sebagai sesuatu yang boleh dituntut ke atas produk keintelektualan manusia. Ia merupakan sejenis harta yang boleh dimiliki dan diempunyai di mana melaluinya pemilik berhak memperolehi pendapatan. Harta intelek berkait rapat dengan daya kreativiti seseorang pengkarya. Setiap pemunya akan mempunyai hak eksklusif untuk memonopoli penggunaan setiap karya tersebut sama ada untuk menjual, membeli, menyewa, memindahmilik dan juga mewasiatkannya. Jika seseorang itu menghasilkan sesuatu karya dalam kapasitinya sebagai seorang individu yang tidak terikat dengan mana-mana pihak atau organisasi, pengkarya akan memperolehi hak milik sepenuhnya ke atas karya atau rekaan tersebut. Namun begitu, persoalan hakmilik akan timbul jika karya atau rekaan itu dihasilkan oleh seseorang dalam hubungan pekerja dan majikan. Oleh itu, artikel ini akan mengupas mengenai hak seorang pekerja terhadap sesuatu karya menerusi undang-undang hak cipta dan rekaan menerusi undang-undang paten yang dihasilkan dalam urusan biasa pekerjaan atau perkhidmatannya di mana semua hasil karya dan rekaan tersebut tidak lagi menjadi miliknya secara eksklusif

Geographical indication: Its contribution and legal protection in Malaysia and Indonesia

Geographical indication is one of the intellectual property law regimes. It is known as “the Sleeping Beauty” of the intellectual property world. It is so as although they have been around for a time in memorial, the widespread awakening as to their business value and economic contribution only occurred in recent years. Therefore, this paper seeks to establish the legal protection under geographical indication in Malaysia and Indonesia with special reference on its contribution to the economic growth

Presumption of death law in Malaysia: the case of missing persons

The snags indispensable matters in managing the affairs of person who has disappeared and remained absent without explanation are both bountiful and thought-provoking. If it is not known whether a person is alive or dead, the status of his personal law remains uncertain and his properties are rendered virtually useless. At present, there is no specific legislation which deals with presumption of death in Malaysia despite of many cases had occurred in the past. To cater the issue, the judiciary has followed the common law doctrine of presumption of death rules to handle long-term unexplained absences. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the current legal framework of presumption of death in Malaysia. This article adopts the doctrinal analysis by examining the existing primary and secondary materials gathered from multiple sources including statutory, case law and other legal and non-legal literatures relating to the presumption of death in Malaysia. This article concludes that there are various laws that governed the matters relating to the missing person to be presumed dead. The variety of laws has constantly post hardship to the family members. For the Muslim, even though they have two options to choose, in reality they actually need to go to both court. Firstly, they need to attend the Syariah High Court to dissolve the marriage after the expiry of 4 years and secondly, they need to go to Civil High Court after another three years to settle the matters relating to estate administration

Safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in Malaysia: a legal analysis on The National Heritage Act 2005

Generally, there exist three distinct categories of heritage recognised under the law namely, tangible heritage, intangible heritage and natural heritage. The alertness of the unpredictability of the categories and the interconnectedness in heritage is growing. In the light of the scenario, Malaysia introduced National Heritage Act in March 1, 2006 replacing two previous Act which are Treasurer Trove Act 1987 and Relics and Antiquities Act 1976. This Act is based on UNESCO Convention to Safeguard the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Hence, this paper aims to analyse the sufficiency of provision relating to the safeguard of intangible cultural heritage in the National Heritage Act 2005. This article adopts the doctrinal analysis by examining the existing primary and secondary materials gathered from multiple sources especially the National Heritage Act 2005, other legal and non-legal literatures relating to the intangible cultural heritage in Malaysia. This paper concludes that although the current legal provisions existing in National Heritage Act 2005 are still inadequate and there are still rooms for improvement to better safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage in Malaysia

'Standing' room only: A vintage issue in estate administration claims

The doctrine of standing or locus standi governs the rule of competency of a person that submits their grievances to the court. A beneficiary, usually an incompetent plaintiff due to the lack of locus standi, is not a qualified litigant to seek the court’s intervention in administering the deceased’s estate. The prevailing legal position in Malaysia is that the estate beneficiaries are not authorized to bring forth any action against any party on behalf of the estate, until a sealed order of the letter of representation has been presented. The fundamental issue in question is whether the doctrine of standing has denied the inherent right of beneficiaries to exploit the deceased’s estate. Hence, in light of this scenario, this paper aims to analyse the tendency of the court on deciding cases that relates to the standing of beneficiaries who are not personal representatives, when they submit claims on behalf of the estate. In this context, this paper uses the content analysis method to analyse past concluded cases and relevant legal provisions. This paper concludes that the Federal Court had whittled down the strict rule that beneficiaries should first obtain the grant of letters of representations for deceased’s estates by providing the locus standi to submit any legal claims on behalf of the estates. Therefore, by allowing the claims made by the beneficiaries, the court has acknowledged the existence of special circumstances that can be applied to exceptional cases

Hak selebriti di era digital: penguatkuasaan di bawah undang-undang Malaysia

Selebriti bermaksud menjadi terkenal. Golongan selebriti juga merangkumi sesiapa sahaja yang menarik perhatian awam termasuk pelakon, penulis, ahli politik, peragawan, ahli sukan, pemuzik, penyanyi, personaliti televisyen, eksekutif perniagaan. Kertas kerja ini membincangkan hak dan perlindungan undang-undang terhadap selebriti dalam era digital. Sebagai contoh, hak selebriti untuk hidup, reputasi, maruah serta identiti (termasuk nama dan imej). Dapatan akhir merumuskan bahawa tidak terdapat undang-undang khusus untuk melindungi hak selebriti di Malaysia. Secara kesimpulannya, hak selebriti boleh dikuatkuasakan menerusi beberapa cabang undangundang sedia ada seperti undang-undang harta intelek, undang-undang berkaitan privasi dan undang-undang siber