Patenting Services - Malawi

Obtaining a patent in Malawi

Intellectual property rights protect the interests of creators by giving them property rights over their creations, and enable an enterprise’s customers to distinguish its business from its competitors by identifying its products and services as original. These rights are twofold. Copyright relates to artistic creations, such as novels, music, paintings, and cinematographic works. Industrial property rights, on the other hand, are broader and cover industrial, commercial, agricultural, extractive industries and manufactured or natural products.

In Malawi, Copyright Society of Malawi (COSOMA) is responsible for copyrights while industrial property rights are the responsibility of the Department of Registrar General.

Services of COSOMA

• Promote and protect the interests of authors, performers, translators, producers of sound recordings, broadcasters, publishers and, to collect and distribute any royalties or other remuneration accruing to rights holders in respect of their rights
• Maintain registers of works, productions and associations of authors, performers, translators, producers of sound recordings, broadcasters and publishers
• Publicize the rights of owners and give evidence of the ownership of these rights where there is a dispute or an infringement
• Print, publish, issue or circulate any information, report, periodical, book, pamphlet, leaflet or any other material relating to copyright, expressions of folklore, rights of broadcasters, performers and producers of sound recordings
• Co-operate with any associations in Malawi
• Devise programs on promotion, introduction and training programs on copyright and related rights, to which end it may co-ordinate its work with national or international organisations concerned with the same subject matter

Eligibility for copyrights

An author of any work shall, by the mere fact of its creation, enjoy an exclusive property right in the work. Literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work shall not be eligible for copyright unless:

• it is original in character;
• it is a derivative work.

A work is eligible for copyright its form of expression, its quality or purpose for which it was created.

Duration of copyrights

In the Malawian context, the duration of copyrights protection is as below:

• during the life of the author and for 50 years after his death;
• in the case of a work of joint ownership, during the life of the last surviving author and for 50 years after his death;
• in the case of anonymous or pseudonymous works, for a period of 50 years from the date on which such work was first published or made available to the public, whichever date is the latest, or if the work has not thus been made available to the public within 50 years of it having been created;
• in the case of any audio-visual work, until the expiration of 50 years from the date on which such work is first published or otherwise made available to the public with the consent of the author, whichever date is the latest, or if the work has not thus been made available to the public within 50 years from the making of the work 50 years from the making of the work;
• in the case of a work owned by the Government, for 50 years commencing from the date on which the work was first made available to the public, or, if the work has not thus been made available to the public within 50 years from the making of the work, 50 years from the making of the work; or
• in the case of a work of applied art which is subject to production on an industrial scale, until the expiration of 25 years from the date on which the work was first published, or, if the work has not been published within 50 years of it having been made, for a period of 50 years from the date on which the work was made.