The protection against unfair competition and passing off in ASEAN Member States: a review and commentary

Abstract

This article offers a brief review of the protection against unfair competition in the Member States of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). More specifically, it highlights ASEAN’s different legal systems and how ASEAN Members, respectively, implement Article 10bis of the Paris Convention under national unfair competition or laws against passing off based on their respective legal system—Civil Law, Common Law and hybrid systems. Ultimately, this article notes that, despite these different legal systems, ASEAN Members share close similarities in their national implementation of Article 10bis of the Paris Convention. The article concludes that these similarities are not surprising considering the shared history of several ASEAN Members and the fact that all these countries (with the exception of Myanmar) are signatories to the major international IP agreements