Intellectual property, farmers' rights and agriculture in the ASEAN countries

This chapter shows the diverging interests within ASEAN regarding agricultural policies and intellectual property. It shows the influence of free trade and economic partnership agreements in expanding intellectual property rights in agriculture introduced after the WTO TRIPS Agreement. Only the small and wealthy states of Singapore and Brunei offer simultaneous patent and plant variety protection for plant material. Larger ASEAN countries attempt to balance the interests of the seed industry with those of traditional farming. UPOV member Vietnam constitutes a special case. Surprisingly advanced in view of low international pressure are the laws in ASEAN’s least developed countries. Geographical indication protection is attributable to TRIPS and FTA negotiations, in particular with the EU, but seen as largely beneficial. Further developments will depend on the influence on governments of industry lobbies and trading partners, on the one hand, versus ‘food sovereignty’ movements of NGOs and farmers, on the other hand.