On June 15 2009, eight member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), namely Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, launched the first regional patent cooperation program called the ASEAN Patent Examination Cooperation (ASPEC). It is a program in which the Intellectual Property Offices of the participating member states shall use the search and examination results of one participating state as reference in its one member state's own search and examination. The objectives of the ASPEC are reduced examination work, faster turnaround time and better search and examination because some IP offices might have better access to databases unavailable to the other IP offices.
According to Adrian Cristobal, IP Philippines Director General and recently elected chairman of the ASEAN Coordinating Committee on Intellectual Property Policy and Cooperation (ACIPC), the ASPEC shall make it easier for entrepreneurs, particularly SMEs and inventors to obtain patents on their innovations in the region and improve the waiting time for the processing of patent applications, and also improve the quality of the search and examination reports among the ASEAN IP offices. Under the ASPEC, an applicant who files a patent application for the same invention in two or more participating IP Offices can submit the first examination report to the other IP offices for its use and reference in its own examination. The IP office receiving a copy of the search documents under the ASPEC is not obliged to adopt any of the findings or conclusions of the first IP office.
The detailed procedures and required forms on requesting ASPEC are available on the website of the participating ASEAN IP offices. The required documents shall be filed on paper either by hand, by post or by fax. The documents to be submitted must be accompanied by an English translation, if not originally filed in English, at the time the ASPEC request form is filed. The English translation must be certified by a professional translator or by the authorised patent agent.
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| Editha R Hechanova |
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