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Friday, December 07, 2018, 16:56
A call for closer IP cooperation among policymakers
By Yang Han
Friday, December 07, 2018, 16:56 By Yang Han

Themed "Dialogue with IP Policymakers: The Roadmap for Global IP Ecosystem", the Business of IP (BIP) Asia Forum is held in Hong Kong on Dec 6-7, 2018. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Global policymakers need to come together to create a favorable environment for intellectual property (IP) rights protection in today’s innovation era, according to experts and officials of international organizations attending Business of IP Asia Forum on Dec 6 and 7.

Under the theme Dialogue with IP Policymakers: The Roadmap for Global IP Ecosystem, international IP experts gathered at panel discussions during the Business of IP (BIP) Asia Forum, held in Hong Kong on Dec 6. 

It is worth mentioning that, in particular, growing economies such as China and Brazil today invest more in branding than high-income countries did when they were at comparable state of development

Wang Binying, deputy director general of World Intellectual Property Organization

Freddy Harris, chair of ASEAN Working Group on Intellectual Property Cooperation (AWGIPC), said on the first day of the forum that there should be no manual registration for patents and copyrights over the next three to four years, “because everything must be online,” he said. 

Established in 1967, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. 

“For the infrastructure of the office and the human resources – in some countries we still have a problem with the backlog,” he said, citing a buildup of trademark registration and patent examination cases. 

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“So human resources must rise up and give some training or we add to the human resources in the office,” said Harris, who is also director general of intellectual property at Indonesia’s Ministry of Law and Human Rights. “But the problem is the budget.”

ASEAN should harmonize IP regulations among its 10 member states through international best practices, and the harmonization is about protecting local needs, traditional knowledge, genetic resources and simple patents in industrial design, said Harris. 

Harris said his office in the ministry will focus on industrial design in the coming year to improve IT software and business process reengineering. 

The utilization of data can bring opportunities for policymakers as data can take the internet of things and artificial intelligence forward in the era of Industry 4.0. Yet there are also challenges, said Harris. 

For example, with the advancement of 3D printing technology, there are more opportunities for objects protected by patents or industrial design rights to be distributed in the form of 3D data.

ALSO READ: China's innovation capacity grows as IP protection enhanced

Wang Binying, deputy director general of World Intellectual Property Organization, speaks during the Business of Intellectual Property Asia Forum in Hong Kong. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Noting that trademark serves as an important part of a branding strategy, Wang Binying, deputy director general of World Intellectual Property Organization, said the application growth of trademarks has grown for the eighth consecutive years. 

“It is worth mentioning that, in particular, growing economies such as China and Brazil today invest more in branding than high-income countries did when they were at comparable state of development,” said Wang.

“There are currently some 43.2 million trademarks in force across the world, and a conservative estimate suggests that global branding investment by companies in 2011 stood at US$466 billion,” said Wang. “This also shows how important the branding is.”

Antony Taubman, director of Intellectual Property Division at the World Trade Organization (WTO), said: “IP was initially seen as somehow the problem or an exclusion from trade, and it was gradually understood as part of the value-added that we find in trade and goods. 

“Ultimately, as economists and trade policy people began to understand the importance of the intangible components of trade, it was included as trading services.”

In 1994, IP rules were first introduced to the multilateral trading system with the WTO’s Agreement of Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, or TRIPS. 

As trade is being redefined every day through new business models, it is key to understand the potential social and economic benefits that trade brings, and how it works together with IP, said Taubman. 

Themed "Dialogue with IP Policymakers: The Roadmap for Global IP Ecosystem", the Business of IP (BIP) Asia Forum is held in Hong Kong on Dec 6-7, 2018. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Though people now realize that IP ownership is a critical factor in many merger and acquisition transactions, finding the appropriate jurisdiction to enforce IP rights globally is difficult, said Taubman. He hopes all parties can work together to adapt to new changes and improve the multilateral trading system. 

Harris of AWGIPC hopes that international standards can speed up to cope with the changes, which are not only in the form of hardware like equipment or new technologies, but also in the field of software that encourages product “servitization” and creating new markets that will be a significant factor. 

Cross-border enforcement is another challenge, said Harris. For example, when a product from Indonesia goes to another country, some problems might arise related to the trademark, patent and design. 

Among the speakers addressed at the panel was also Jacqueline Bracha, deputy director of the Israel Patent Office. The session was moderated by Winnie Tam, an international arbitrator and mediator as well as chairman of the Hong Kong Communications Authority. 

Held in Hong Kong from Dec 6 to 7, the BIP Asia Forum saw about 80 internationally acclaimed speakers sharing their insights on various IP-related topics in areas including the Belt and Road Initiative and the Greater Bay Area.

Themed "Dialogue with IP Policymakers: The Roadmap for Global IP Ecosystem", the Business of IP (BIP) Asia Forum is held in Hong Kong on Dec 6-7, 2018. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

WIPO officials Lingfei Bai, head of PCT Operation Section 3, and Benoit Aperce, information officer of Madrid Information and Promotion Division, introduced WIPO’s global services for protecting intellectual property abroad.

The Department of Justice of HKSAR co-organized a panel on global IP protection strategy in tech-innovative century that featured speakers including Secretary of Justice Teresa Cheng, Zhao Meisheng, deputy director-general of Intellectual Property Utilization Promotion Department of the National Intellectual Property Administration in Beijing, and Andrew Liao, senior counsel and past member of the Executive Council of HKSAR.

Dr H Purushotham, chairman and managing director of National Research Development Corporation of India, briefed the audience on IP commercialization strategies of Indian research development institutions.

Other panelists also discussed challenges and opportunities in safeguarding brands in the new economy and conducting business online, open innovation and entrepreneurship and the journey from start to growth, opportunities for the IP industry under the Belt and Road Initiative and the Greater Bay Area, technology commercialization and industry collaboration, the new forces of artificial intelligence, protection of IP rights under international investment law, and new IP issues in data-driven innovation among others.

Prime Sarmiento contributed to the story.

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