Is an ‘Open Innovation’ Policy Viable in Southeast Asia? - A Legal Perspective

In recent years, particularly in Europe, increasing attention is being paid to managing Intellectual Property (IP) competitive effects. Europe achieves greater innovation output with IP overall whilst also implementing the globally harmonised IP laws. The performance differences in innovation output are due to many variables. However, the EU has focussed on three policy goals: “open innovation”, “open science”, and “open to the world”, aiming to foster access to knowledge for advancement as well as overcoming innovation barriers while retaining alignment with harmonised international IP frameworks. Whilst it is still premature to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of the EU approach, it is possible to hypothesise whether such an approach is a viable option in Asia. In this case, the focus will be on the eleven countries of the Southeast Asia region with their various levels of development, from least developed (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Timor-Leste) to highly developed (Singapore).The paper describes the concept of the EU “open innovation” policy, its drivers and its legal basis. From these examples, a framework will be developed against which to test its viability in Southeast Asia. Analysis shows that each of the ten ASEAN member states, including Singapore, is a net importer of patents rather than a developer. Nonetheless, it is considered that the IP ecosystems in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam are sufficiently robust to at least consider a trial of the Open Innovation, Open Science and Open to the World concepts as being tested in the European Union