Warm Greetings from RCLIP!
By Qi Jun Kwong (Affiliated Research Fellow, RCLIP; Hokkaido University)
Hello friends of RCLIP! This is Qi Jun, writing from the cozy confines of Sapporo (and by cozy, I mean it’s approximately 7 degrees Celsius below freezing).
2025 was a whirlwind year for IP across Asia. We’ve witnessed a surge of AI-related infringement cases before the Chinese courts (see here and here), the rolling out of a new AI Act in Japan and the country’s first criminal case over unauthorized reproduction using AI (about as close as Japan has come to concrete IP enforcement in the AI context, alongside the joint lawsuit by Asahi and Nikkei against Perplexity), new IP legislations in Viet Nam, amendments to the Patent Act in Malaysia, the plug pulled on the right to repair bill in New Zealand – to name just a few developments.
This blog is a culmination of ideas that have survived the pandemic of 2020, forged through unstable zoom connections, and refined by vigorous “fieldwork” on geographical indication that is wine and cheese. Now as we step bright-eyed into the new year, we’re excited to finally drop some ink on this Asian IP-centric blog that has been brewing in Professor Suzuki’s mind for some time (see many of Prof Suzuki’s past projects: e.g. here and here; the author of this post unabashedly a recipient of Prof Suzuki’s funding victories).
Throughout the years we have seen a growing number of novel IP issues brought before Asian courts. Harking back to the TRIPS and Doha Declaration (which Prof Suzuki was part of in the WTO negotiations), for years the standard narrative was to group most Asian countries under the “Global South” label. Now Asian courts are not just catching up, they are actively setting IP norms through pre-emptive, detailed opinions on AI and other emerging tech – turning into de facto tutorials and sandboxes on how technology actually works.
This space will address Asian IP developments, but we’re not fixated solely on individual case studies from specific Asian jurisdictions (comparative, not parochial): cross-border transactions, parallel lawsuits, and shared IP concerns that do not care where territorial borders are drawn. The goal is to turn years of insights from our esteemed scholars and friends at RCLIP into more cross-jurisdictional conversations.
To kick things off, we will be sharing some developments that map onto the research strengths of members and friends of RCLIP. We ask that you trust our editorial judgments during the initial stages; we warmly welcome any external contributions and suggestions.