A welcome by Stephane Passeri
ECAP III Director, PMU Manager

The ASEAN Project on the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights (ECAP III) started on 1 January 2010, based on a Financing Agreement signed on 21 October 2009 by the European Commission (EC) and the ASEAN Secretariat (ASEC), and a Contribution Agreement signed on 18 December 2009 by the EC and the European Patent Office (EPO).

ECAP III is a follow-up of ECAP I, which was implemented from 1993 to 1997 with a focus on industrial property rights and strengthening of ASEAN national IPR systems, and ECAP II, which was implemented from 2000 to 2007 and which related to the whole range of IPRs.

The Beneficiary of ECAP III is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), established in 1967. The ASEAN currently encompasses 10 Member Countries: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. 

The budget of ECAP III is 5,100,000 €, including 4,500,00 € contributed by the EC, and 600,000 € by the EPO, for an implementation period of 4 years.

Strong intellectual property rights (IPR) protection is crucial to fostering trade, and achieving the goals and benefits of global integration. Countries with high standards of IPR protection tend to attract more investment, stimulate more innovation, thereby developing more rapidly. Countries with inadequate protection are often vulnerable to patent, copyright, and trade mark infringements that hinder trade flow and economic development.

One of the core objectives of the European Union relations with Asia is to strengthen the mutual trade and investment flows. To this end, the EU has launched a series of economic cooperation programmes, including ECAP III.

The overall objective of ECAP III is to further integrate ASEAN countries into the global economy and world trading system to promote economic growth and reduce poverty in the region. The project aims to facilitate ASEAN regional integration through the establishment of a regional institutional capability within ASEC to support policy coordination and drafting of new policies, preparing for Summits and developing existing national and regional structures towards regional ASEAN integration. The actions to be undertaken by the project are to be considered, where applicable, supportive of the EU-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement negotiations as far as IPR issues are concerned.

ECAP III aims at facilitating ASEAN regional integration by building capacity in the ASEC and the ASEAN Member States to manage and benefit from a reinforced IPR system, and intends to meet this aim by implementing activities in the following five project components:

Component I: Capacity building and regional cooperation for IP enforcement and regulation in ASEAN

• Purpose: to enhance technical capacity and skills of all the human resources involved in handling IPR enforcement and regulations
• How: training, technical assistance, on-the-job training, workshops and seminars involving enforcement officials and authorities, in particular IPO staff, civil and criminal judges, prosecutors, police and customs officers
• Result: IP enforcement frameworks and procedures in ASEAN are strengthened and harmonised across the region in line with best practices

Component II: Improving the legal context and administration of IPRs in ASEAN countries harmonised with international and regional commitments to IP standards

• Purpose: to further develop regional harmonisation of legal and administrative frameworks for protecting IPRs and to upgrade the quality of IPR administration services for IPRs
• How: analyses and feasibility studies on simplification and harmonisation of IP procedures; training and technical assistance on modernisation/automation of Intellectual Property Offices (IPOs); assistance related to IP legislation and regulations
• Result: IPR legal, regulatory and administrative frameworks are transparent, complete and efficient

Component III: Using IP as a tool for economic development and integration in ASEAN

• Purpose: to accelerate the pace and scope of IP asset creation and commercialisation inside ASEAN and to promote greater public awareness of the role of IP in this context
• How: studies of government policies and incentives to firms and universities promoting R&D leading to IPRs; studies on the enhancement of Geographical Indications (GI) as a marketing tool in ASEAN; awareness raising activities (eg. IP days and advertisements)
• Result: the capacities of IPOs and other institutions are developed to provide business development services to entrepreneurs and firms, and increased IP awareness inside ASEAN

Component IV: Structured expansion of IP education, training and research institutions and programmes within a common ASEAN-wide regional network

• Purpose: to create an effective regional university IP network as a resource for IP education, to establish IP teaching at both graduate and under-graduate level for students in ASEAN, and to introduce IP education in schools
• How: continuation of project on the establishment of ASEAN University Network on IP (AUNIP); assistance for the creation of national IP teachers networks; building on the IP Curriculum Handbook developed under ECAP II; development of IP curricula and teaching materials; assistance to universities and R&D institutions to develop IP policies and services
• Result: improved range and quality of IP education on an ASEAN regional basis

Component V: Enhanced capacity of ASEC to support, monitor and coordinate regional policies and work streams on IP including support to ASEAN institution building

• Purpose: to support ASEC to assume a key role in supporting and coordinating the implementation of regional IP policies and programmes, such as the ASEAN IPR Action Plan
• How: technical studies and consultations on the feasibility of regional systems of IP protection; seminars on IP as a tool for development; provision of ASEAN-wide databases on key IP statistics and data; development of knowledge-based resources, installation of an ASEAN IP help-desk
• Result: human and institutional IP capabilities of ASEC are enhanced to enable ASEC to assume a key role in IP in the region

ECAP III will focus on five concrete results, which link directly to the implementation of the ASEAN IPR Action Plan and the ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint, as well as to the EU-PCA with individual ASEAN Member States and to the EU-ASEAN FTA negotiations as applicable. All of the results and main activities are set within the overall context of the importance of IPRs as a tool for economic and technological development, as well as boosting growth for poverty reduction, and the priority requirements for human and institutional capacity building linked to IPRs for implementation and coordination of ASEAN’s regional policy goals and economic integration agenda.

Regional and national activities will run in parallel, considering the need to make national achievements towards regional integration.