IPOPHL heralds ASEAN’s leap in enabling recovery, competitiveness thru IP at WIPO General Assemblies
October 4, 2021
The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL), which chairs the ASEAN Working Group on Intellectual Property Cooperation (AWGIPC), highlighted at a global gathering the region’s intensified collaboration to use intellectual property (IP) to achieve faster recovery and competitiveness in a post-pandemic world.
During the 62nd World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) General Assembly (GA), which started on Oct. 4, 2021, IPOPHL Director General and AWGIPC Chair Rowel S. Barba highlighted the new IP deliverables the ASEAN Member States have agreed to undertake, and thanked WIPO for expressing its interest to support the new areas of work for the next few years.
The new goals, which are in line with recent global and technological developments, focus on strengthening areas relating to copyright, patents and enforcement of IP rights online.
Barba assured that ASEAN continues to work in streamlining its processes and providing ease to all types of IP rights holders as it embraces digital transformation.
“ASEAN IP Offices are working closely to modernize our processes, quickly adapt to changes, and maximize opportunities to increase efficiency and improve the delivery of services to our stakeholders, especially the MSMEs,” Barba said.
Barba also lauded the successful completion of WIPO’s regional plan for ASEAN, as well as the ongoing consultations for the ASEAN members’ respective country plans which will ensure regional and national efforts are aligned with WIPO’s Medium Term Strategic Plan 2022-2026.
The development will give ASEAN “a comprehensive and effective monitoring tool to ensure positive impacts will yield from WIPO’s support and technical assistance,” according to the AWGIPC chief.
The AWGIPC chair also congratulated WIPO on the successful launch of the Global Innovation Index for 2021.
The region is pleased that Singapore has maintained its rank in the top 10 most innovative countries in the world; Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand have moved up in the rankings from last year; and Viet Nam was cited as one of the countries that hold the record for innovation overperformance for 11 years in a row.
Meanwhile, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam are above expectations for their respective levels of development.
The Philippines and Viet Nam are among the middle-income economies that are systematically catching up, and are seen to have the potential to change the global innovation landscape for good, while Malaysia is in the top three of upper-middle economies.
Barba also highlighted recent accessions to WIPO administered treaties, namely of Lao PDR’s to the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Treaty in November 2020; Viet Nam’s to the Budapest Treaty in March 2021 and the Philippines’ to the Beijing Treaty on Audio-Visual Performances in April 2021.
“We greatly appreciate the technical support and assistance that WIPO provided in making these milestones possible,” Barba said.
“We look forward to the further enhancement and strengthening of our partnership with WIPO as well as the cooperation with all the other WIPO Member States,” the AWGIPC chief added.
The GA is an annual event that gathers WIPO’s 193 member-states to provide updates on their individual progress and together build cooperation toward future policy directions.
