This annual ranking spotlights the top 15 IP lawyers across Asia, who have consistently delivered high-quality IP work and set high standards in the IP space, while earning accolades from their colleagues, superiors, and clients.

Asia has maintained its supremacy in developing and preserving innovation, even though global intellectual property (IP) operations only picked up speed two years after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yet, 2022 has come with great challenges for the IP sector. This is driven by geopolitical and economic uncertainty around the world, coupled with the ongoing underperformance of productivity-driven innovation.

Despite those challenges, some countries in the region are excelling at innovation.

“While innovation investments surged in 2020 and 2021, the outlook for 2022 is clouded not just by global uncertainties but continued underperformance in innovation-driven productivity. This is why we need to pay more attention to not just investing in innovation, but how it translates into economic and social impact. Quality and value will become as critical to success as quantity and scale.”

— Daren Tang, WIPO

Singapore and South Korea stand as sixth and seventh respectively in the Global Innovation Index 2022 Rankings maintained by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). China is getting closer to the global top 10 rankings, in the eleventh position, right behind Denmark.

“While innovation investments surged in 2020 and 2021, the outlook for 2022 is clouded not just by global uncertainties but continued underperformance in innovation-driven productivity. This is why we need to pay more attention to not just investing in innovation, but how it translates into economic and social impact. Quality and value will become as critical to success as quantity and scale,” says Daren Tang, director general at WIPO.

According to the international organisation, South Korea, Singapore, and China stand as the top three innovation economies in Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Oceania region, while India, Iran and Uzbekistan are the top innovation economies in Central and Southern Asia.

In the 2022 edition of the WIPO’s Global Innovation Index, four of the world’s top five scientific and technology clusters are situated in East Asia: one in Japan, the Tokyo-Yokohama cluster, two in China, the Shenzhen - Hong Kong - Guangzhou and the Beijing cluster, and one in South Korea´s capital city of Seoul.

In a shifting scenery where innovation is trying to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and is being impacted by uncertainty in the current global context, such clusters are cornerstones for fostering creativity and innovation. They are also essential for boosting intellectual property awareness, protection, and enforcement in their territories.

Some 54 of the most innovative enterprises in the world are in Asia, according to Clarivate´s Top 100 Global Innovators 2022 ranking. It is a region that continues recording a notable number of amendments to local legal frameworks related to IP filing and prosecution.

Innovation must go together with IP knowledge, moreover in a veering regulatory world. That is why Vietnam, a country that ranks 48 in WIPO´s Global Innovation Index 2022, introduced profound changes to its IP legal framework in the first half of 2022. It is betting on becoming a regional reference country with the establishment of a WIPO intellectual property training centre.

Neighbouring Thailand became a hub of IP news in 2022. New rules in the seizure of counterfeit goods, a landmark case in the blooming e-commerce sector and the entry into force of the country´s Copyright Act, are some of the highlights.

Some other countries in the region, like Indonesia, have also advanced IP legislation that introduced interesting regulatory changes.

JAPAN

Japan IP registration activity is slightly below the levels seen in 2021, according to the latest data made available by the Japan Patent Office (JPO) on Sept. 27.

According to the administrative body, cumulative sum of applications for patents and utility models during the first seven months of the year was 168,766, in contrast with 171,457 for the same period in 2021.

Applications to register designs fell from 18,565 to 18,457 and registration of trademarks fell from 107,453 in 2021 to 101,141 in 2022.

However, international applications via different treaties slightly rose, if compared to the figures from 2021.

Requests for patent examinations fell from 139,208 between January and July 2021 to 135,832 during the same period.

On the regulatory front, following a consultation that took place in January and in April, the JPO published the Green Transformation Technologies Inventory (GXTI) to assist businesses in providing evidence-based accounts of their climate change-related information.

“To support the companies to make evidence-based accounts of their climate change-related information, the new technologies inventory, which gives a bird’s-eye view of the patent technologies related to Green Transformation (GX), was developed, and along with the patent search formulae linked to each technology, the JPO decided to publish the contents and to name it the “GXTI (Green Transformation Technologies Inventory),” says JPO, which aims to trigger the global discussion about the adoption of such mechanism.

“The GXTI will be reviewed and updated as necessary,” says JPO.

SINGAPORE

The island nation leads the sub-region in innovation terms, according to the Global Innovation Index 2022 Rankings from WIPO. It lies right behind South Korea and ahead of Germany.

“While policymakers believe that IP rights should serve as “rewards” for innovators’ efforts, they are unsure about the degree of protection they should endorse for AI-related patents to be profitable and to also enable innovation, signalling some extent of shared uncertainty between AI experts and policymakers regarding patenting AI.”

— Singapore Management University

However, the country faces great challenges that need to be addressed, according to recent research conducted by the Singapore Management University (SMU), which underscored that it is difficult to communicate the benefits of IP protection to artificial intelligence (AI) practitioners in the country.

“While policymakers believe that IP rights should serve as “rewards” for innovators’ efforts, they are unsure about the degree of protection they should endorse for AI-related patents to be profitable and to also enable innovation, signalling some extent of shared uncertainty between AI experts and policymakers regarding patenting AI,” says SMU.

However, the university highlights Singapore’s appeal as an innovation centre in Asia is still strong.

“While AI practitioners felt that there is a need for clearer and more consolidated guidance on data availability and data use restrictions to drive AI innovation, there is consensus that as an innovation hub, Singapore has a good ecosystem in place with well-measured policies and attractive incentives and grants,” it says.

OTHER COUNTRIES

South Korea ranks sixth in the Global Innovation Index 2022, behind The Netherlands, and ahead of Singapore. The country’s amended Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act, also known as the Trade Secrets Act, which entered into force in April, introduces significant changes to the right of publicity regulation, as well as to the trade secrets´ legal framework.

The right to exclusivity over the proprietary value of a person’s name, likeness, or other instantly recognisable signs of their identity is known as the right of publicity.

Meanwhile, Thailand could easily be one of the countries in Asia with most activity in the IP sector in 2022, in terms of rulings and regulations.

It issued new rules on customs recordation and seizure of counterfeit goods, which entered into force in late July, adopted the Copyright Act, and saw a landmark ruling that put an end to a 2017 case against China´s Alibaba. This year, Thai authorities also lowered the minimum threshold for the value of fraudulent goods by half to trigger prosecution by law enforcement authorities. As for the new rules on customs recordation and seizure of counterfeit goods, the new ruling helps trademarks and copyright owners to better join forces in fighting IP infringements.

Another breakthrough in the sector was the adoption of the Copyright Act, which entered into force in late August. It excludes internet service providers, such as e-commerce platforms servicing third parties, from any liability related to copyright infringement.

The act followed a case in which a private company sued Alibaba in 2017 for allegedly infringing their IP, while allowing third-party criminal sellers to sell forged products through their platforms.

In Vietnam during the first half of the year, the National Assembly amended the country´s IP law, in what some analysts consider to be the most significant update of the legal framework since 2005. The amendment which contains changes to over 100 articles, will enter into force on Jan. 1, 2023.

Besides the update of its IP law, the country also launched a training institute on intellectual property for diplomats and trade officials.

“The IP training project for diplomats and trade officials will improve the understanding of diplomats and relevant government officials of basic IP concepts, as well as the interrelationships of IP and key global challenges. Under the agreement, WIPO will also support the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam with the delivery of regular and effective IP training programs,” says WIPO.

 

THE LIST