As of 16 March 2020, the General Directorate of the Industrial Property Registry of Panama (DIGERPI) is part of TMclass and DesignClass. From this day, DIGERPI will use and accept the list of terms from the harmonised database of goods and services (HDB) in TMclass as well as the list of terms from the harmonised database of product indications (HDBPI) in DesignClass.

Following DIGERPI’s decision to use HDB and HDBPI there are now eight non-EU IP offices in both TMclass and DesignClass that use and accept terms from these harmonised databases.

On 1 March 2020, IP Key South-East Asia (SEA) joined the Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) of the Ministry of Commerce of Thailand for a good cause, against the buying, selling, and use of infringing products at the ‘DIP Mini Marathon 2020: Stop Piracy’ in Nonthaburi, Thailand.

In Latin America and Europe consumers are paying more attention than ever to the quality of agri-food products. Latin America and the EU are large global exporters of agricultural commodities and Brazil and Mexico are among the top five suppliers of agri-food products to the EU. All the more reason to join efforts and work together to enhance our markets.

The South-East Asia Judges’ Virtual Roundtable took place on 6 and 7 October 2020. The two-day online event organized by IP Key SEA included sessions on the role of judges, the internet environment for the judiciary, and other key issues concerning IPR judicial enforcement. The experts from the European Observatory on Infringements of IP Rights and the Court of Appeal of Madrid shared their experience from the EU perspective.

IP Key South-East Asia (SEA) organised the ‘Virtual Intellectual Property Colloquium for Indonesian Judges’ on 27 October 2020. Implemented via a tailor-made and bilateral approach, the activity saw the participation of Indonesian judges involved in the adjudication of IPR cases before the country’s commercial courts.

In 2020, the Workshop on Quality Patent Examination took place online on 17-19 June (Thailand), 1-2 July (Vietnam), 23-25 September (Malaysia) and 12-14 October (Indonesia). The programme included hands-on discussions and practical exercises on topics such as the requirements of sufficient disclosure, clarity, and unity of invention. The webinars were organised in collaboration with the European Patent Office (EPO), which supported the programme by providing technical expertise.

To improve the SEA patent examiners’ search capabilities and promote consistency between the search result of European and SEA patent examiners, IP Key SEA, in collaboration with the European Patent Office (EPO), organised in 2020 online workshops on efficient search tools and practices on 15-16 June (Thailand) and 29-30 June (Vietnam), 21-22 September (Malaysia) and 8-9 October (Indonesia).

The IP Key South-East (SEA) Project closed the year 2019 with  two activities organized in headquarters of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) in Alicante, Spain on 2-5 December.  The activities focused on the Convergence Programme, which aims to harmonize practices among Intellectual Property Offices, and IT Tools for trade marks and industrial designs. EUIPO IP and IT experts facilitated the activities attended by trade mark and IT officials from SEA countries.