IP Education and Networking

One of the most important factors for the success of an intellectual property system in a country is the public understanding of the benefits of intellectual property. Even though most ASEAN countries have acceded to the WTO or are considering acceding thereto, countries are still facing a number of challenges pertaining to intellectual property rights. The most important one is the lack of knowledge, familiarity and understanding of the concept of intellectual property both in its utilisation among the general public and the private sector and its administration within public offices.

An urgent need for the development of intellectual property in ASEAN countries is to improve knowledge and understanding of IPR and its impact on trade, industry, economic, social and cultural development.

During the Fourth ASEAN Summit held in Singapore in January 1992, ASEAN leaders directed that ASEAN should help hasten the solidarity and the development of a regional identity by considering ways to further strengthen the existing network of leading universities and institutions of higher learning in the region. The idea was later developed into the ASEAN University Network (AUN). The main objective of the AUN is to strengthen the existing network of co-operation among leading universities in ASEAN, by promoting co-operation and solidarity among ASEAN scholars and academics, developing academic and professional human resources, and promoting information dissemination among ASEAN academic community.

On 15 December 1995, the ASEAN governments promulgated the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Intellectual Property Cooperation. This scope of co-operation identified in Art. 3.4 stipulates activities to promote "networking of intellectual property...centres of excellence on intellectual property...exchange of intellectual property personnel and experts". 

In 2004/2005, substantial efforts were undertaken under ECAP II addressing more targeted audience.  In this regard seven scholars from ASEAN countries spent four months at the Munich Intellectual Property Law Centre (MIPLC) based at the Max Planck Institute in Munich (Germany) and two months at the Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute in London (UK) to study IP teaching and possible ASEAN IP Curriculum. (more information)

During the ECAP II "EU-ASEAN Colloquium on a Common Postgraduate IP Curriculum and Syllabi Template for ASEAN Countries" held in Singapore on 17 to 18 August 2005, and the subsequent Regional ECAP II Regional Committee meeting, it was decided that each country needs to develop its own IP curricula to cater for national needs and that ASEAN University Network (AUN), as the facilitator, assume the coordinating role among ASEAN universities. It was also proposed, that an ASEAN Handbook on IP Teaching and Training could be prepared as a resource to support the development of these national curricula.

A further goal of ECAP II is also to promote the creation of a network between ASEAN universities as well as between ASEAN and European universities. A networking can be achieved by bringing the various players together to promote the teaching and training of IP. Similar to AUN, the European Intellectual Property Research Institutes Network (EIPIN) comprises of universities in Europe which are foremost in research and teaching in applied IP law.

To achieve this goal, the first co-operation activity between EIPIN and AUN was organised under ECAP II and consisted in fact finding missions during August and October 2006 to Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.  The objective was to survey the present status of IP national tertiary education and IP teaching materials in these countries and to provide important information to be used in the drafting of the ECAP II Regional Handbook on IP teaching and training.

An EU-ASEAN network on IP education was finally launched with the signature of the EIPIN/AUN Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on 22 November 2006 during the EU-ASEAN Colloquium on IP Education in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  Furthermore the ECAP II Regional Handbook on IP teaching and training was also presented at this event. 

To build on past achievements and monitor the progress made in drafting and developing IP education in the region, an ECAP II/AUN Regional Conference on IP Education and Networking is organised on 28-30 May 2007 at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.  This event seeks to:

1)  Promote the drawing up of national IP curricula for law and non-law students within ASEAN countries
2)  Promote and further discuss on the Regional Handbook in IP teaching and training
3)  Establish a regional IP University Network in ASEAN within the framework of the AUN.
4)  Co-ordinate efforts of other stake holders and donors in the region to promote the dissemination of IP Education.

With these combined efforts, the path for a self-sustained IPR network in ASEAN will be set. In turn, the network can assure a proper dissemination of IPR to support the introduction of IP curricula in the region. Through the linkage with the EIPIN network in Europe an exchange of experiences will also be assured.

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The section of this website is built to be used as an instrument to follow up the development on IP education in the region.

The development of this inter-regional co-operation is updated regularly for the following issues:

-  EIPIN universities members

-  AUN universities members

-  AUNIP

-  IP Curricula in ASEAN

-  IP networking

-  Events and news on IP Education

-  Publications

Please contact ECAP II Press Officer, Ms. Ruthairat Dauguet rdauguet(at)ecap2.net, for any feedback and suggestions.