Outcomes of the Third Japan-ASEAN Heads of Intellectual Property Offices Meeting held in Kyoto (April 2013)

On April 14, 2013, the Japan Patent Office (JPO) and the Intellectual Property Offices of the Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) (hereinafter referred to as the "IP Offices") held the third ASEAN-Japan Heads of Intellectual Property Offices Meeting in Kyoto. At the meeting, the JPO and ASEAN IP Offices agreed that, as new items, the cooperation program (the Action Plan) should additionally include the promotion of their cooperation in certain areas, such as measures against counterfeit products in collaboration with the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) and other organizations, the enhancement of IT support to share examination information with the IP Offices, and the strengthening of Japan's support to the IP Offices to impart the JPO's examination practices.

It is expected that this agreement will promote the development of the intellectual property infrastructure in ASEAN countries along with helping to properly protect and utilize the intellectual property rights of Japanese companies in these countries.

1. Background

As ASEAN countries have been showing remarkable economic growth in recent years and are expected to expand their markets, it is expected that these countries will become more important trade partners for Japan in the future. It is also forecast that according to the rise in their national income levels, the importance of intellectual property rights in the countries will grow since the rights are a tool to protect high-value-added services and products. In this context, there is an urgent need for Japan to improve the industrial intellectual property systems and operations in ASEAN countries in order to address Japanese companies' expanding of their businesses there.

In February 2012, the JPO established the ASEAN-Japan Heads of Intellectual Property Offices Meeting as an opportunity for high-level officials from the JPO and the IP Offices in ASEAN countries to exchange views, aiming to provide Japan's cooperation in the development of a system to protect intellectual property rights in ASEAN countries, which aims to achieve economic integration by 2015. At the meeting, the Offices adopted a cooperation program, including the fostering of human resources and support for the introduction of IT.

2. Enhancement of the ASEAN-Japan cooperation program

On April 14, 2013, the third Japan-ASEAN Heads of Intellectual Property Offices Meeting was held in Kyoto, and the JPO and ASEAN IP Offices agreed to include the following new items in the cooperation program:

• Promoting ASEAN-Japan cooperation in certain areas, such as measures against counterfeit products, through enhanced collaboration with related organizations, such as ERIA and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
  As ERIA is an organization to provide policy recommendations to certain meetings such as East Asian Summit and ASEAN summit meetings, and the WIPO is an organization exclusively for intellectual property rights under the United Nations, it is expected that Japan's cooperation with ERIA and WIPO and its collaboration with policy recommendations presented by the organizations, as well as in efforts related to cooperation with emerging nations, will promote the development of an environment to protect intellectual property rights in ASEAN countries, such as measures against counterfeits products.
• Enhancing the JPO's IT introduction support through establishing a common system infrastructure on which the JPO and the IP Offices are able to share examination information.
  Utilization of a common system infrastructure is considered to improve user-friendliness, such as the smooth query of examination information in ASEAN countries. At the same time, the infrastructure will help the IP Offices to easily access the current states of patent documents examined in other countries, which will lead to the promotion of sharing the work related to patent examination among the countries.
• Enhancing the JPO's support to the IP Offices to impart the JPO's examination practices, such as patent classification systems, approaches to search prior art documents, and seminars on the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH)
  Sharing knowledge between the JPO and the IP Offices on the JPO's examination practices, such as patent classification systems and approaches to search prior art documents, is expected to improve examination quality in the IP Offices.

3. Future prospects

The JPO will continue to endeavor to support the business activities of Japanese companies in ASEAN countries through dialogues with the IP Offices as well as by providing proper cooperation to the countries to meet the needs there.

JPO Commissioner with Heads of the ASEAN IP Offices

[Last updated 16 February 2024]

Contact Us

International Policy Division Policy Planning and Coordination Department Japan Patent Office Tel:+81-3-3581-1101 (ex. 2561) E-mail:PA0800@jpo.go.jp