Intellectual Property in Asia: ASEAN, East Asia and India

This paper covers parts of Asia with very significant recent developments in intellectual property (IP) law. IP reform in the region was initially driven by the concerns of industrialised countries about the lack of IP protection in Asian ‘miracle’ economies. More recently, it has become an important topic in free trade and economic partnership agreement negotiations. The developments in the individual countries are discussed in the context of an ‘Asian development model’, which has often combined short and generalised laws with numerous implementing decrees and administrative discretion. This has allowed for the selective adaptation of IP models from elsewhere, with some countries now strongly promoting higher IP standards to their regional neighbours. Different historical pathways to development and local circumstances suggest, however, that it is difficult to develop regional role models for others or to explain differences about IP exclusively with the divide between ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ countries.