EIFL and our partner, the Malawi Library and Information Consortium (MALICO), responded to a public consultation organized by the Parliament of Malawi on two new legislative bills - Bill No. 1 of 2025 to establish a new Companies, Registrations and Intellectual Property Centre, and Bill No. 2 of 2025 to amend the Copyright Act to accommodate the new Centre.                

EIFL and MALICO welcomed the Bills, in particular, the designation of the new Centre as the Copyright Office, and the transfer of responsibility for the administration of Malawi’s Copyright Act from the Copyright Society of Malawi (COSOMA) to the new Copyright Office. The new structure aligns with standard international practice, and it will clarify the role and responsibilities of each agency for libraries and other institutional users of the copyright system, as well as for the general public. We also recommended that a representative of the National Librarian should be among the ministerial appointees to the new Centre.