Part 2 of 2: Intellectual property in the economy

Makarim Wibisono, Geneva

Which is why it is so important to perceive IP not as an abstract concept, but as an economic asset that can be developed, accumulated and managed, exactly like real estate, personal property or capital.

Accordingly, most developing countries have for some years been actively engaged in updating their legislation or creating new ad-hoc laws to cope with this necessity. However, they are late starters. The industrialized countries have been availing themselves of IP rights and elaborating or fine-tuning relevant legislation for decades.

This not only gives them a huge technical lead but also presents a challenge to the intellectual, cultural and artistic assets of the vast majority of developing countries. Equipping itself with more effective armor, so to speak, and getting up to speed with the installation of such defenses, are therefore prerequisites of survival for the developing world.

For optimal results, collective, cooperative and concerted efforts are, in my view, the best way forward. In this regard, ASEAN provides the most obvious regional structure within which individual countries can develop and expand their IP strategies and programs.

Its cooperation with WIPO goes back almost 15 years to the early 1990s, when an Ad-hoc Working Group was created to look into the questions of IP cooperation. This initiative in turn led to the signing, in 1995, of the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Intellectual Property Cooperation in Bangkok. Other important milestones have followed almost every year since and much has been accomplished in the field by all member countries, with favorable results.

At the Seventh ASEAN Consultation held in May 2001, the use of IP as a tool for development and wealth creation in the context of an increasingly integrated ASEAN region was discussed at length. It was agreed that, properly utilized and managed, IP could contribute to national and regional growth.

Increasingly, ASEAN member states were seeking more information on the practical means of using IP to enhance economic growth, and WIPO was asked to translate these ideas into concrete and practical steps that would enable ASEAN countries, individually and collectively, to benefit from the use of the IP system.

A series of studies have been carried out by WIPO in conjunction with member countries in order to monitor and assess the efforts of individual countries. Individual needs and areas of concern have been identified. Problems are being remedied. And methods to develop an intellectual property "culture", as well as to systematically integrate IP into the economic strategies and policies of the region have been defined.

From all points of view and whatever the approach chosen, be it technological, industrial or cultural, one thing is clear: every country needs to have a strategic plan as an essential starting point for effective and successful progress in the field of IP.

Strategic planning tends to occur in the context of a specific economic development plan, or in the context of economic activities. In this regard, Indonesia has made great strides, with a scope of application ranging from the long-established Indonesian "Biodiversity and Biotechnology Development Project", which has been running since the 1980s, to the modernization plan advanced more recently by the Directorate General of Intellectual Property Rights, which contains a clear statement of objectives that relate to the use of IP as a national economic tool.

At the same time, an extensive network of university and research institutes has been put in place in this country to develop the necessary human capital to implement our policies relating to IP.

The importance of aligning human capital development with intellectual policy is a prime concern among ASEAN countries. In other words, educational priorities must reflect national economic, technological and IP development plans. Unless a capacity to educate technologists, scientists and creators in key technological areas exists, a strategic IP plan cannot be successfully implemented in practice.

Likewise, public awareness is essential to IP asset development. The ASEAN countries understand this, but they also realize that this awareness is still too low, that public relations campaigns must be conducted to demystify IP and bring it down to the level of the street, so to speak. Education, at all levels, is the first and key component of success in spreading an IP culture.

In this regard, NGOs, collective management societies, cultural societies, trade associations, and others have an important role to play in socializing the concept, providing training, helping with business networking and generally stimulating domestic inventiveness and innovation.

In other words, discovering what IP is all about, explaining how it works, and generally spreading an IP culture is a collective exercise, which engages the whole of society. This is the important point I want to stress: Establishing an IP culture is something that can, and must, involve all of us.

Finally, we need to work hard and to fight to develop the rich assets that make us unique and different. The things that make our art and culture, our folklore and traditions so sought after by the foreign business people and tourists who flock to our countries.

In a globalized world threatened by uniformity, let us be different and creative and let us learn to protect this individuality and creativity. But it will not happen unless we work at it constantly. In our efforts to develop our assets and to learn to protect them, we need to strongly believe that we can do it.

It is a matter of willpower, of learning, and of ingenuity -- and we have plenty of all three. We must now actively campaign and infuse the blood of the troops with a fervent passion for IP. Let us constantly educate, promote, advertise and remind students, artists, researchers and businessmen that they are part of a great movement to develop their countries and enrich them through their assets.

These assets that are coming out of their brains and their imagination, let us protect them so that they can be instruments of prosperity. Let us establish, nurture and live out the IP culture. Success is about enthusiasm! Let us therefore activate the energy within our people and show the young and those who are young at heart that value is indeed relative and that the world is full of possibilities for their talents, ideas and culture.

What is important is that we continue to create, to research, to think, to appreciate, to harness, to see, to sense and to dream. For each time Indonesian hearts, souls, and minds reach great heights in innovation, creativity and talent, it is the very rights that we are working on today that will look after them.

The writer is an Ambassador/Permanent Representative of Indonesia in Geneve. This is a personal view.