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© 2019 AESS Publications. All Rights Reserved.
OVERVIEW OF COMPLIANCE WITH THE AGREEMENT ON TRADE-
RELATED ASPECTS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS (TRIPS
Agreement) IN ADDRESSING ISSUES CONCERNING PATENT WHICH
RELATES WITH COMPETITION LAW: MALAYSIA POSITION
Haliza A. Shukor
1+
Nazura Abdul Manap
2
1
Faculty of Syariah and Law, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, Malaysia.
2
Faculty of Law, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia.
(+ Corresponding author)
ABSTRACT
Article History
Received: 9 September 2019
Revised: 10 October 2019
Accepted: 13 November 2019
Published: 19 December 2019
Keywords
TRIPS agreement
Patent law
Patent license
Competition law
Malaysia.
TRIPS Agreement acknowledged that some licensing restrictions contained in a patent
license contract may contravene the principles of competition law. Hence, adoption of
appropriate measures to address issues concerning patent license which relates with
competition law has been expressly provided by the TRIPS Agreement in its various
provisions. Malaysia as a signatory of the TRIPS Agreement is expected to comply
with the recommendations in addressing issues concerning patent license and
competition law. Therefore, it is the purpose of this article to identify extends of
compliance by Malaysia with respect to the suggestions provided by the TRIPS
Agreement. The result shows that Malaysia adopts the recommendations provided by
the TRIPS Agreement in its legislation, particularly the Patents Act 1983.
Contribution/ Originality: This study contributes in the existing literature on patent and competition law as a
result of a new law introduced by the Malaysian government known as the Competition Act 2010 and the recent
Malaysia Competition Commission (MyCC) Guidelines on Intellectual Property Rights and Competition Law.
1. INTRODUCTION
Restrictions contained in a patent license may contravene the principles of competition law because the
exercising of rights by patent owners is monitored by laws other than the patent law, such as the competition law
(Stakheyeva, 2018). As a result, scholars such as Michael (2002), Hovenkamp (2013), Ioannis (2017) and Gregory
(2018) have pointed out factors contributing to it and provide recommendations to solve the issue. The problem had
also been discussed at the initial drafting of the TRIPS Agreement during the Uruguay Round so that signatories of
the TRIPS Agreement were aware on the issues surrounding intellectual property. The TRIPS Agreement, which
is one of the World Trade Organizations’ (the WTO) document came into existence as a result of Uruguay Rounds
negotiations which was held under General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) (WIPO, 1997). Council for
Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights under the WTO is assign to manage the operation of TRIPS
Agreement (Adamantopoulus, 1997). The WTO Agreements generally provides basic rules to be adhered by
governments in framing their domestic policies and practices in the following areas; international trade in goods
and services and intellectual property rights. Some examples of WTO Agreements include the Multilateral
International Journal of Asian Social Science
ISSN(e): 2224-4441
ISSN(p): 2226-5139
DOI: 10.18488/journal.1.2019.912.672.680
Vol. 9, No. 12, 672-680.
© 2019 AESS Publications. All Rights Reserved.
URL: www.aessweb.com