Daftar Isi:
  • This paper aims at exploring the important of Geographical Indications (GIs) for promoting agricultural development in ASEAN. To visualize the above idea, this work will explain the roles of agricultural sector in ASEAN economic development and on how GIs will serve as a vehicle for promoting agricultural development and its utilization and commercialization. The paper shows how GIs protection will commit to encourage the agricultural innovation that support to agricultural development in ASEAN. However, GIs protection in ASEAN for agricultural development will spark three main challenges; doctrinal conflict, regulatory deficiency and technical shortcoming. The doctrinal challenge arises because of conflict between individual character of IP system and the communal nature of GI in ASEAN. The regulatory deficiency comes up because of fundamentally different of legal system, economic structure and national interest among ASEAN member for promoting agricultural development in the sphere of GIs. Technical shortcoming arises because of different and lack of infrastructure, mechanism, institutional organization, and readiness for implementing GIs protection in agricultural sector. To overcome the challenges, this paper suggests that ASEAN needs to unilaterally and collectively come up with action plans on harmonizing and structuring GIs protection. To visualize the action plans, this paper advises that it is necessarily elaborate the harmonization and structuring of GIs protection with the strategic goals of 2016-2015 of South-East Asia Working Group on Intellectual Property Cooperation (AWGIPC).