On 15 February 2011, Malaysia introduced laws to allow expedited patent examination under the Malaysian Patents Act 1983, pursuant to the Patents (Amendment) Regulations 2011. The implementation of expedited examination is aimed at reducing patent pendency, by expediting and accelerating allowance and issuance to grant of a patent.

The expedited examination program is only applicable for Paris Convention and/or non PCT applications. Regulation 27E (1) of the Patent (Amendment) Regulations 2011 states that ”An applicant who requests or has requested for substantive examination under regulation 27 may request the Registrar to undertake an expedited examination of the application once it has been made available for public inspection under section 34 of the Act.” Therefore,as provided in Regulation 27E (1), Applicants can submit a request for approval for expedited examination, with the prescribed payment, after eighteen months from the priority date or filing date of the Malaysian application.

Applicants who opt for expedited examination will be required to respond to an examination report within three (3) weeks from the date of mailing of the examination report, compared to the normal route or an ordinary examination process which provides a two (2) months reponse time from the date of mailing of the examination report. Failure to respond to the examination report within the stipulated timeline will result in the request of expedited examination being withdrawn and the normal examination process and timeline will apply to the case

The expedited examination program is particularly beneficial to obtain earlier grant of a patent. Earlier issuance facilitates prompt and rapid action in obtaining an injunction (and damages) in infringement actions in court.