Competition policy and intellectual property rights in the information and communications technology sector: Policy implications and options for ASEAN

Abstract

ASEAN exports are dominated by products with high levels of new knowledge and innovation but they are also characterised by low value addition due to limited innovation inputs in export processing. The information and communications technology sector embodies wide‐ranging opportunities for innovation‐driven value creation and structural upgrading among interdependent industries and economies. There are, however, also formidable challenges from the systemic or unexpected consequences of the anti‐trust and intellectual property policy regimes, anticompetitive business conduct, and the nuanced and layered outcomes in adjudication as regards the property rights and competition interface. The international experiences in enforcement approach and emphasis, substantive and procedural convergence, and enforcement versus advocacy have yielded some important policy insights, deployable options, and implementation prerequisites for consideration by the young or new competition authorities as well as for research attention in ASEAN and elsewhere.