Korean Intellectual Property Office to Strengthen Bilateral Cooperation with ASEAN Countries

The Korean Intellectual Property Office is strengthening bilateral cooperation with ASEAN countries.

The Korean Intellectual Property Office announced on September 3 that, on the occasion of the "3rd Korea-ASEAN Heads of Intellectual Property Offices Meeting," it held high-level and commissioner meetings with eight ASEAN countries and observer country Timor-Leste in Seoul from September 1 to 3.

KIM Wanki, Commissioner of the Korean Intellectual Property Office (fourth from the left), is taking a commemorative photo with participants after the "Korea-Singapore Bilateral Meeting." Provided by the Korean Intellectual Property Office

During the three days of bilateral meetings, the Korean Intellectual Property Office discussed topics such as intellectual property protection, intellectual property finance, and support for small and medium-sized enterprises with ASEAN countries including Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The office sought ways to cooperate based on the circumstances and conditions of each country.

With Singapore, the parties agreed to deepen cooperation by expanding existing areas of collaboration-such as strengthening intellectual property capabilities, commercialization, and exchanges among users in industry, academia, and research institutions-to include information sharing on artificial intelligence (AI), intellectual property finance, and valuation. This was formalized through a memorandum of understanding (MOU).

With Vietnam, Indonesia, and Cambodia, the parties established a work plan to specify cooperation in five key areas: law and systems, education, protection, trademark cooperation, and raising awareness.

In particular, the area of protection cooperation includes sharing best practices for protection and enforcement, conducting joint crackdowns on the distribution of counterfeit goods both online and offline, comparative studies on protection-related legal systems, and exchanging information to prevent malicious trademark applications.

Through these efforts, the Korean Intellectual Property Office expects that the protection of intellectual property rights such as patents and trademarks for Korean companies in ASEAN countries will be further strengthened.

With Timor-Leste, an ASEAN observer country, the parties discussed directions for cooperation on establishing a local intellectual property office in Timor-Leste, supported by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the Korea Trust Fund (KTF).

Commissioner Kim Wanki stated, "Through these bilateral meetings, cooperation on intellectual property with each ASEAN country has become even stronger. The Korean Intellectual Property Office will continue to strengthen bilateral cooperation tailored to each country's situation, in addition to multilateral cooperation between Korea and ASEAN, to ensure that Korean companies do not face difficulties with patents and trademarks in ASEAN."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.