By Amir Murshidi

For years, Malaysia’s copyright system has lived with a paradox.

On paper, copyright protection in Malaysia has always been strong—automatic, transnational and Berne-compliant. In practice, however, creators, businesses and practitioners alike have grappled with a less elegant reality: a voluntary notification system that drifted between manual queues, intermittent online availability and procedural friction.

That chapter is now closing.

With effect from 02 December 2025, the Malaysian Intellectual Property Office (MyIPO) has officially reinstated online filing for Copyright Voluntary Notification (CVN). This time with a system that is leaner, faster and strikingly pragmatic. The return of online filing may appear administrative on the surface, but in substance, it marks a pivotal recalibration of how copyright evidence is generated, deployed and enforced in Malaysia.

Back Online. This Time, for Real.

Online filing for copyright notification is not new to Malaysia. It existed before, disappeared at times, and then returned sporadically, leaving users uncertain whether the digital route was reliable or merely provisional.

This time feels different.

The latest announcement signals a clear institutional commitment to a digital-first copyright administration.

Under the new system, applicants can submit CVN applications entirely online, upload the relevant work, make electronic payment and, most notably, receive an electronic certificate almost instantly.

The process imposes only minimum formal requirements and builds upon earlier procedural simplifications, thereby streamlining the evidentiary process without compromising its legal utility.

This is not a cosmetic upgrade. It is a structural reset.

No Registration, And That Is Precisely the Point.

To appreciate why this development matters, one must first dispel a persistent misconception: Malaysia does not have a copyright registration system.

As a Berne Convention signatory, Malaysia recognizes copyright automatically upon the creation of an original work. No filing, no registration and no certification are required for rights to arise. A Malaysian work is protected not only domestically, but across all Berne-member countries, by default.

This legal position remains unchanged.

What MyIPO offers is not registration, but voluntary notification a subtle distinction with significant consequences.

Evidence, Not Ownership.

Copyright Voluntary Notification does not create rights.

It records them.

In legal disputes, particularly infringement actions, the burden often shifts swiftly to evidence:

Who created the work?
When did it come into existence?
Is this a derivative work or an original expression?

A CVN certificate serves as prima facie documentary evidence of authorship and subsistence. While courts remain free to assess all surrounding facts, having a MyIPO-issued certificate is often the difference between procedural clarity and evidential chaos.

In short, automatic protection answers whether a right exists. Voluntary notification answers how efficiently that right can be enforced.

Streamlining Completed: Speed, Not Swearing.

One of the most practical reforms in Malaysia’s copyright notification framework predates the revived online system but is now fully realised.

The removal of the Statutory Declaration requirement marked a decisive shift away from rigid evidential formalism. The new online platform operationalises that reform, allowing applicants to proceed without sworn statements and with only essential information and documentation.

The result?

A process that is faster, more accessible and better aligned with the realities of modern content creation, where speed of documentation often matters as much as subsistence of rights.

A Telling Trend: Filings Are Surging.

Data speaks louder than policy statements.

Malaysia recorded a 28% increase in copyright filings in 2024, followed by a 32% rise in 2025. This is not coincidental. This upward trajectory reflects a maturing awareness among rights holders that while copyright is automatic, proof is strategic.

The reinstated online system is therefore not merely responding to demand.

It is actively accelerating it.

The Law Still Stands, But the World Has Moved.

Malaysia continues to rely on the Copyright Act 1987, last amended in 2022. While the Act has evolved incrementally, the creative ecosystem has transformed dramatically.

Artificial intelligence, generative content, NFTs, immersive media, platform-driven exploitation and algorithmic authorship now dominate the copyright discourse globally. Questions surrounding authorship, ownership, originality and liability are no longer hypothetical. They are operational.

The reactivation of online CVN filing is a strong administrative signal. The next question is legislative:

Will Malaysia’s copyright framework expand boldly to match the technological realities it now administrates?

The moment calls not for cosmetic amendments, but for a jurisprudential renaissance in copyright coverage, one that grapples head-on with emerging technologies while preserving the foundational principle of creator protection.

A Quiet Reform with Loud Implications.

This may not be a headline-grabbing reform. There is no new right, no radical statute, no doctrinal upheaval.

Yet, for creators, businesses and practitioners, the implications are anything but quiet.

Malaysia has reaffirmed a simple but powerful proposition:

Copyright may be automatic, but certainty is engineered.

And now, it is just a click away.