Malawi Parliament yesterday made significant strides in enhancing the country’s intellectual property framework by passing Bill No. 1 of 2025: Companies, Registrations, and Intellectual Properties Centre, and Bill No. 2 of 2025: Copyright (Amendment).
This Bill seeks to establish the Companies, Registrations, and Intellectual Property Centre which shall be a semi-autonomous Government agency with its legal personality and shall assume the functions of the Department of the Registrar General.
The Centre shall be responsible for the registration and regulation of companies, businesses, and trusts. The administration of collateral registry;, administration and supervision of insolvencies;administration of the intellectual property rights regime;, and assessment and collection of revenue prescribed under relevant laws.
The establishment of the Centre is in line with the Malawi Intellectual Property Policy under which the Government identified as a priority, the need to establish an effective institutional framework for modernizing the administration of intellectual property rights.
The legislators also passed the copyright bill which seeks to amend the Copyright Act Laws of Malawi to effect changes consequent upon the enactment of the Companies, Registrations, and Intellectual Property Centre Bill 2025.
The Bill recognizes the office of the Registrar General established under the Companies and Intellectual Property Center Bill as the office of Registrar of Copyright. With the proposed amendment, the Registrar of Copyright will be responsible for copyright administration while the Copyright Society of Malawi COSOMA, will be responsible for the collective management of the rights of copyright owners.
