Singapore: Analysing the ASEAN Patentscope project

November 23 2018

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has launched the ASEAN Patentscope making up-to-date online ASEAN patent data available to patent search firms, patent attorneys and innovators seeking to commercialise their innovations in the ASEAN region.

The ASEAN Patentscope project was started by the ASEAN Patent Examination Cooperation (ASPEC) Task Force in 2012 to enhance regional collaboration on research and development (R&D) activities and to encourage technological development among ASEAN countries. For the first time, a regional ASEAN patent database service has been made available to the public. Indonesia has contributed extensively to the project by hosting the regional patent database server. Singapore also played a leadership role to initiate the project through its chairmanship of the ASPEC Task Force.

The availability of online patent data brings government services closer to innovators by removing barriers of distance and paper searching to access quality technology resources. The ASEAN Patentscope can be accessed using the link at http://ipsearch.aseanip.org/.

The ASEAN Patentscope provides a number of powerful tools and features to assist users. These include bibliographic data search, view of published patent dossier information, search results in a customisable report, and translations into national languages. By simply entering a term or a phrase in English, it is possible to retrieve relevant patent documents, country-level patent filings by technology sector and related patent family information in the region.

The move builds on the ongoing ASEAN-WIPO collaboration to leverage WIPO software to support ASEAN innovation. This initiative will enable ASEAN to step up the innovation ladder and encourage innovators in the region to use the patent system for enhanced participation in regional and global business.

ASEAN doubled its share of the world's scientific literature from 1.37% (2006) to 2.43% (2015) according to the Asian Scientist (2016) with Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam sharply increasing their output of research papers. WIPO statistics also indicate that patents in ASEAN have increased more than 40% from 2012 to 2016.

The ASEAN Patentscope was developed in a framework which is modern and effective and should make a substantial contribution to enhancing access to ASEAN regional patent information.