The Kuala Lumpur High Court found the Road Transport Department (RTD) director-general liable for copyright infringement involving the Madani special vehicle registration number plate bidding programme. The ruling was delivered on July 14, 2026, with the court ordering RTD to pay RM40,000 in damages and RM25,000 in costs to the plaintiff Hasan Azhari Hashim [1, 2, 3, 4].
Hasan Azhari Hashim is the director of Ilham Madani Sdn Bhd and the creator of a copyrighted proposal paper for the Madani 1 to Madani 9999 special vehicle license plates series [1, 2, 4]. He submitted this proposal to the Malaysian prime minister several times in 2023, aiming to launch the plates officially, but RTD rejected the proposal in April 2023 on policy grounds [3, 4].
Despite the rejection, in October 2024 the RTD and Road Transport Department (JPJ) launched their own public bidding exercise for the Madani number plates. Hasan alleged that RTD used his copyrighted promotional artwork without permission during this bidding, leading to the copyright infringement claim [1, 2, 3, 4].
Hasan’s lawyers issued a letter of demand in late 2024 seeking RM1.3 million in damages from the federal government [1, 2, 3]. The RTD director-general denied the allegations in court [4]. However, the court ruled in favour of Hasan after a lawsuit filed on January 15, 2025, and ordered compensation significantly less than the amount sought [1, 2, 3, 4].
Rajesh Nagarajan, Hasan’s lawyer, said the judgment "sends an important message that intellectual property rights are not diminished simply because the alleged infringer is a public authority. Copyright belongs to its creator, and the law applies equally to every person and every institution, including the government" [2].
The case marks a rare judicial finding of copyright infringement against a government agency in Malaysia. The RTD has yet to announce whether it will appeal the High Court’s decision.
