In December 2003, we wrote an article in the Netvalue pull-out of The Edge about “Building a one-stop shop for IP”. The concept and feasibility of the one-stop shop was the subject of a recent study by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) where Mindvault was appointed as the country consultant for Malaysia.

In 2004, the ASEAN secretariat requested WIPO’s assistance to conduct a feasibility study on the establishment of IP-related business development service (IPDBS) hubs in ASEAN based on a network model. The study was conducted at the local level for each country and will then be consolidated into a regional report that will eventually be presented to the ASEAN secretariat probably later this year or early 2006.

It may be some time before the ASEAN IPDBS hubs can be realized given the challenge of achieving consensus among the ASEAN countries. It is our hope that Malaysia would take a lead role to set up a structure that can be replicated throughout ASEAN. We are well-positioned in terms of our infrastructure and capability to do so.

Posted by: John Chong on 15/8/2005 11:45:59 PM