Intellectual property, creativity and innovation in ASEAN

This chapter traces the onset of a wave of intellectual property reforms to the 1980s, when ASEAN countries came under pressure from the United States and the European Union to reform their intellectual property laws. It follows the impact of the WTO TRIPS Agreement and the more recent bi- and multilateral agreements. It discusses the ASEAN Working Group on Intellectual Property Cooperation, and the latest ASEAN IPR Action Plan as well as the role of intellectual property in the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and the performance of ASEAN countries in the recent WIPO World Intellectual Property Indicators. The chapter presents short summaries of the contributions in this volume, starting with developments in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar. Chapters on ASEAN free trade agreements and the ASEAN-China strategic partnership for intellectual property place the discussion into the context of global and regional developments. A further part presents comparative chapters on the specific intellectual property issues of digital copyright infringements, intellectual property in agriculture, intellectual property enforcement, and pharmaceutical patents. The chapter concludes that developments have been fast, but that ASEAN countries cannot easily follow blueprints of intellectual property policies successfully used by North East Asian countries such as Japan, South Korea and China in the past. For further successful intellectual property reforms within ASEAN, proactive and collaborative intellectual property policies will be required.