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ECAP II
Introduction
The European Union launched a series of economic co-operation programmes in July 2000 to strengthen the flow of trade and investment with Asia. These included the EC-ASEAN Intellectual Property Rights Co-operation Programme, or ECAP II, which covers the entire spectrum of intellectual property rights (IPR). The EPO acts as lead agency for the programme, which is also being implemented by the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM).
Objectives/strategy
ECAP II helps those countries belonging to the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) play a more active role in the global IPR market. Moreover, ECAP II enables ASEAN countries to benefit from European IPR knowledge and experience, particularly for compliance with the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, or TRIPs. The overall objectives of ECAP II include:
- fostering trade, investment and technology exchanges between Europe and ASEAN countries;
- fostering intra-ASEAN trade and investment.
Activities
More than 200 regional and national activities (training courses, seminars, workshops, study tours and technical assistance) have been implemented since the start of the ECAP II programme. Many more are in the pipeline. ECAP II activities focus on:
- completing the legal framework to bring IP laws in ASEAN countries into line with minimum TRIPs requirements;
- improving IPR administration;
- improving IPR enforcement;
- raising regional awareness on the importance of IPR for a country’s economic development.
Partners
The ASEAN partners in the ECAP II programme are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
History
ECAP II is the successor to the ECAP I programme, which ran between 1993 and 1997.