Over the last forty years, ideas and innovation have become the new capital of the day.  Intellectual Property is a tool of economic development that can produce wealth for the creative and entrepreneurial segment of the population. Managing Intellectual Property well can help increase revenue streams of businesses and enhance shareholders’ value. As a class of property that includes intangible creation of the human mind, Intellectual Property also protects technology innovations, enhance brand recognition and increase competitive advantage for products and services in the global marketplace. 

Intellectual Property includes patents, utility models, copyright, industrial designs, trademarks, plant variety protection, integrated circuits design, genetic resources, trade secret, traditional knowledge, geographical indications and domain names. It plays an important role in the achievement of national and regional socio-economic development goals of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). It is also a critical tool in encouraging transfer of technology, and stimulating innovation and creativity that will lead to  a competitive, innovative, and dynamic ASEAN as envisioned in the AEC Blueprint 2025.

Regional cooperation in the field of IPR began with the goal of providing a firm basis for economic progress and expedite the realization of ASEAN Free Trade Area among the ASEAN Member States (AMS).  AMS signed the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Intellectual Property Cooperation (the IP Cooperation Agreement)  in December 1995 to promote cooperation in the field of intellectual property rights and to explore appropriate intra-ASEAN cooperation arrangements.  Article 3 of the IP Cooperation Agreement  on the Scope of Cooperation envisaged ASEAN Member States in cooperative activities that shall aim to “strengthen ASEAN intellectual property administration; enhance ASEAN cooperation in intellectual property enforcement and protection and to explore the possibility of setting up the ASEAN patent and trademark system”. Details and modalities to implement such cooperative activities shall be done through an IP action plan under the framework of this agreement.

IPR cooperation in ASEAN is spearheaded by the ASEAN Working Group on Intellectual Property Cooperation (AWGIPC), which was established in 1996 to formulate the details and modalities to implement the cooperative activities.  Several sub-committees have since been set up under the AWGIPC, namely the Task Force on Trademarks, the ASEAN Task Force on Patent Examination Cooperation, the ASEAN Network of IP Enforcement Experts (ANIEE) and the Intellectual Property Academy Working Group (IPAWG) to support the work of the AWGIPC. 

The AWGIPC is also tasked to facilitate ASEAN’s work:

• to accelerate the pace and scope of IP asset creation, commercialization and protection;
• to improve the regional framework of policies and institutions relating to IP and IPRs,
• to promote IP cooperation and dialogues within the region as well as Dialogue Partners and organizations;
• to strengthen IP-related human and institutional capabilities in the region, including fostering greater public awareness of IP and IPR issues and implications, 

Progress have been made in recent years on enhancing work-sharing arrangements, establishing regional IP databases and promoting the use of common guidelines for examination.

There have been several action plans on IPRs covering all these aspects, the latest being the ASEAN IPR Action Plan 2016-2025.  The ASEAN IPR Action Plan 2016-2025 comprised of four strategic goals, i.e. 

1. A MORE ROBUST ASEAN IP SYSTEM IS DEVELOPED BY STRENGTHENING IP OFFICES AND BUILDING IP INFRASTRUCTURES IN THE REGION;
2. REGIONAL IP PLATFORMS AND INFRASTRUCTURES ARE DEVELOPED TO CONTRIBUTE TO ENHANCING THE ASEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY;
3. AN EXPANDED AND INCLUSIVE ASEAN IP ECOSYSTEM IS DEVELOPED; AND
4. REGIONAL MECHANISMS TO PROMOTE ASSET CREATION AND COMMERCIALIZATION, PARTICULARLY GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS AND TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE ARE ENHANCED. 

Implementation of these strategic goals will improve ASEAN’s IP systems and increase the confidence of IP users. The four Strategic Goals comes with 19 initiatives and 56 deliverables which encompass many aspects in IP systems, infrastructures, platforms and mechanisms, and are set out briefly as follows:

1. Improved patent, trademark and industrial design services
2. Improved IP services in timeliness and quality of output
3. Collective Management Organisations (CMO)
4. Harmonised formality requirements for trademarks and industrial designs
5. Accession to Madrid Protocol, Hague Agreement and Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)
6. Accession to WIPO-administered treaty
7. IP Academy
8. Technology Transfer Offices (TTO), and Innovation Technology Support Offices (ITSO)
9. Search services and online filing systems
10. Improved databases
11. ASEAN IP Portal
12. IPR Enforcement
13. IP Network
14. ASEAN IPR Helpdesk
15. Regional Accreditation for IP practitioners
16. IP awareness for MSMEs and creative sectors
17. IP valuation
18. Commercialisation of GI
19. Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Cultural Expressions (GRTKTCE)

Other than initiatives and deliverables identified in the AIPRAP 2025, more IPR initiatives, priorities, goals and objectives can also be found in the ASEAN Digital Integration Framework Action Plan (DIFAP) 2019-2025 and ASEAN Innovation Roadmap (AIR) 2019 to 2025 and its Implementation Plan. ASEAN DIFAP provides coordination mechanisms to enhance enforcement of intellectual property rights in the digital environment; and  on policy adoption to support creativity, entrepreneurship, and the flourishing of technology. 

It is further complemented by the AIR which focuses on the development of multiple IP licensing option and the development of guidelines for block chain on Smart Contracts for crypto digital assets.