In Malaysia, patent is governed by the Patents Act, 1983 and Patents Regulation 1986. A patent is the grant of a property right to the patent owner, issued by the Patent and Trademark Office, more widely known as Malaysian Intellectual Property Office (MyIPO). The right of a patent is the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention in Malaysia.

Malaysia became the 131st contracting state of the PCT on 16th August 2006. With that, the PCT international Application can now be filed at Malaysian Intellectual Property Office (MyIPO). However, please note that PCT does not lead to the grant of an "international patent" but provides a unified procedure for filing patent applications to protect inventions internationally. Patentability Inventions An invention is patentable in Malaysia if it fulfills with three basic requirements

Apart from protection for patents, Malaysian Patents Act also grants protection to utility innovation. A utility innovation is intended to provide intellectual property rights for those incremental and lower level inventions that would not be sufficiently inventive to qualify for patent protection. It is not required to meet the test for inventive step as with a patent.