In a collective effort to foster economic growth in the ASEAN region, one of the fastest-growing consumer markets in the world, during IP week@SG 2019, ASEAN launched two new initiatives to expand the regional work-sharing programme-ASEAN Patent Examination Cooperation (ASPEC), namely the ASPEC Acceleration for Industry 4.0 Infrastructure and Manufacturing (ASPEC-AIM) and Patent Cooperation Treaty-ASPEC (PCT-ASPEC). These initiatives are expected to support innovative enterprises to expedite the patent grant within ASEAN. 

ASPEC AIM serves to expedite Industry 4.0 patent applications within 6 months turnaround time for first office action while PCT-ASPEC expands the scope of ASPEC to include the use of PCT reports of an ASEAN International Searching Authority (ISA) and International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA) to accelerate patent grant in another ASEAN country. The ASPEC AIM and PCT-ASPEC pilots will run for a period of two and three years respectively starting from 27 August 2019.
For more information on how to file an ASPEC request, please refer to the Document Submission  

Guidelines:
https://www.aseanip.org/Portals/0/ASPEC/Document%20Submission%20Guideline%20for%20ASPEC.pdf  

Patent Examination Center (PEC)