ASEAN IP Offices Discuss Regional Trademark System

The national intellectual property offices of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) this week are advancing work on developing a regional trademark registration system, according to European Union sources working with them.

The meeting is taking place from 18-20 February, and includes combined consultation meetings on trademarks, designs and IT. A backgrounder is available here. The trademark meeting draft agenda is here, design meeting agenda here, and IT meeting agenda here [all pdf].

The members of ASEAN are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Representatives of the IP offices met in Bangkok, Thailand with representatives of the European Union and the World Intellectual Property Organization. All offices have representation at the meeting, a source said.

Topping the agenda was the prospect of a regional trademark system, according to a release from the EU-funded ARISE+IPR programme. Meeting delegates discussed the scope of a feasibility study to be carried out by ARISE+IPR, which it said “will consider aspects such as legal infrastructure, operational set-up, fee structures, stakeholder interests, and the impact on national trademark systems.”

“At this stage, the trademark meeting aims to obtain further feedback from the ASEAN IP offices on the scope of the feasibility study,” a spokesperson for the EU IP Office told Intellectual Property Watch. The process and timeline for developing the trademark system “will depend partly on the results of the feasibility study, which is foreseen to commence over the coming months,” he said.

The feasibility study was called for under the ASEAN Intellectual Property Rights Action Plan 2016-2025, which lists it under initiative 9, “Improve service delivery of AMSs through connected online services, including patent, trademark, copyright and industrial design search systems, and online filing systems.”

A regional trademark system “would potentially reduce the time for businesses to register their trademarks across all ten ASEAN Member States and create greater certainty on registration procedures, ultimately improving the ease for businesses to operate in the region and fostering new investment,” ARISE+IPR said in the release.

“Currently, businesses are required to file a separate trademark application in each ASEAN Member State, or consider an international filing through the Madrid system for participating countries,” it said. “Regional trademark systems already operate in the European Union (EU) and in the French-speaking African states (OAPI).”

“The discussions today represent a significant step forward on the path of regional integration and the convergence of IP systems in ASEAN, and towards the economic benefits that result,” ARISE+ IPR Project Leader Ignacio de Medrano Caballero was quoted as saying during opening proceedings.

Other regional initiatives discussed included updates to the ASEAN trademark examination guidelines and the establishment of an ASEAN IP academy, ARISE+IPR said.

“The feasibility study on a regional trademark system is one of a series of activities being conducted by the five-year, EU-funded ARISE+ IPR programme to promote regional integration of intellectual property regulation in ASEAN Member States,” it said.

The aims of ARISE+IPR, which has EURO 5.5 million in funding over 5 years (and launched in March 2017), include:

• Enhance participation of ASEAN Member States in international IP treaties and global systems
• Contribute to institutional capacity building towards more efficient ASEAN IP offices
• Increase political and public awareness of the importance of IP protection and enforcement
• Reinforce the capacity of ASEAN businesses to commercialise and protect their IP rights
• Provide tailor-made support to Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar to promote IP rights and innovation

“ARISE+ IPR operates concurrently with another EU-funded project also implemented by the EUIPO, IP Key SEA, which shares the same thematic and geographical scope,” according to the release. “Each programme has a distinct focus and approach, with ARISE+ IPR targeting economic integration within ASEAN and IP Key SEA focusing on fostering convergence in the area of IP between individual Southeast Asian nations and the EU, particularly with a view to supporting bilateral trade agreements with comprehensive chapters on intellectual property rights, whether concluded or under negotiation, as well as IP dialogues.”

 

Image Credits: DIP Thailand