Digital Era and Intellectual Property Challenges in Malaysia

Abstract

The world is undergoing a digital transformation where everyday connections are done among people, businesses, data, and processes online. The digitalisation is taking shape and undermining conventional notions about how businesses are structured, how firms interact and how consumers obtain services, information, and goods. Issues of piracy and infringement of IPRs raise concerns surrounding the enforcement of legal measures for (IPRs) protection. The paper seeks to explore the challenges of IPRs protection towards the world of digitalisation. This research utilities secondary data and semi-structured interview with government officials who are directly involved in the IPRs. The findings reveal that the challenges dwell in the issues of the rise of technology which requires advanced technology to cope with it, the lack of enforcement officer to monitor the entry point to the country, the issues of cross border where the agencies need to cooperate with international agencies, lack of awareness among the public, territorial limitation and the piecemeal of the institutional framework. Finally, recommendations on how to improve the enforcement are offered.