49 / 252
47
INVESTMENT POTENTIAL
The Brunei Intellectual Property Office (BruIPO) is
responsible for the registration of patents, trademarks,
industrial designs and plant varieties protection (PVP).
BruIPOwas set up on June 1, 2013 in an effort to restructure
the national intellectual property (IP) administration.
Among the objectives of the BruIPO, according to its
website, include: to provide a clear, accessible and
widely understood patent system that protects ideas
and innovation; to raise awareness on the benefits and
protection of trademarks and industrial designs and to use
them to enhance business growth and competitiveness;
to promote and develop an ‘IP Culture’ where creativity
and innovation can flourish; and to establish partnership
with the relevant stakeholders in support of the national
innovation ecosystem.
The BruIPO website includes information on various
aspects of intellectual property registration.
Patents
The application system in Brunei operates on a “first-to-
file” basis. It is explained on the website that this means
that the first person to file a patent application will have
priority over others for the same invention.
It is stated that the key feature of the patent system in
Brunei is that it is a “self-assessing” system whereby
the applicants decide how and when to proceed with the
patent applications. In addition, the website shares that
the patent system is “formality-based” and substantive
examination work is outsourced to the foreign patent
offices of Austria, Denmark and Hungary.
In order to be patentable in Brunei, an invention must be
new (novel); and involve an inventive step and capable of
industrial application.
An invention of a method of treatment on the human and/
or animal body involving surgery, therapy, or diagnosis
is not patentable as this type of invention cannot be
applied industrially. Additionally, an invention that
encourages offensive, immoral or anti-social behaviour
is not patentable – even if it satisfies the criteria of
patentability.
With regards to patent protection, the website explains
that this is territorial and is only valid in the country
where the patent is granted. It adds however, that since
2012, Brunei is a member of the Patent Cooperation
Treaty (PCT). This means that it is now possible to seek
patent protection for an invention simultaneously in each
of a large number of countries by filing an “international”
patent application via the PCT system.
Brunei is also part of the ASEAN Patent Examination Co-
operation (ASPEC) – the first regional patent work-sharing
programme among the IP Offices of nine participating
ASEAN Member States: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia,
Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand and Vietnam.
The purpose of the ASPEC programme is to allow
applicants in these participating countries to obtain
corresponding patents faster and more efficiently so as
to potentially reduce duplication in the resulting search
and examination work.
Industrial Designs
The BruIPO website states that when it comes to
industrial designs, to be registrable, the design must
be new – it has not been registered, published, used or
sold in Brunei or elsewhere before the date on which
the application of registration was logged. The design
must be applied industrially, meaning that it must