At the time of writing, Malaysia has yet to accede to the Budapest Treaty. For some years now, accession to the Treaty has been one of a number of key Intellectual Property Rights Protection (IPR) issues brought up by the United States of America in ongoing trade negotiations such as the Free Trade Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. However, local civil society groups have continuously lobbied against Malaysia conceding ground on various “red line” issues including such IPR matters.