New copyright rules due to the RCEP agreement

A common set of rules on intellectual property and e-commerce and a new field of telecommunications services is one of the expected benefits of the Regional Integrated Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement when it is signed next year.

The Australian Government has announced that Australia is one of the 15 Indo-Pacific countries today committed to signing the RCEP Regional Free Trade Agreement with 2020 after agreeing to the 20 funds of the agreement at its summit. ASEAN in Bangkok on Tuesday.

Commerce Minister Simon Birmingham has said the RCEP deal will provide new opportunities for trade and investment in Australia.

"As RCEP economies grow and their middle classes grow, this agreement will open new doors for businesses and investors across our region," he said.

Once finalized, the RCEP is expected to adopt a common set of rules on intellectual property protection, enforcing the application to the "RCEP area" in the Intellectual Property Chapter, which will be in line with the existing copyright regime. owned by Australia.

Specifically, this would see the protection and enforcement of Australian intellectual property rights in the RCEP markets, with the Australian Government stating that it hopes to encourage investment in new ideas and promote exchange information, knowledge and technology.

"The standard rules will help to optimize intellectual property transactions, support transparency and reduce business costs, support Australia's creative and innovative industry and invest in the region," the Australian Government explained.

In addition, new e-commerce rules are expected to be created under the agreement. These will include rules that will support Australian businesses when transporting data across borders in their activities and will limit the scope of their restrictions governmentsincluding requirements for local data storage, rules promoting the digitization of commercial documents and the use of electronic signatures and electronic authentication, and rules to help protect consumers and their personal information online and to combat spam.

However, the Australian Government has reaffirmed that Australia's data framework, including the privacy and the e-health record system will not be affected by the results of RCEP's e-commerce.

According to the agreement, the Australian Government has stated that it will establish a framework of rules on trade and access and use of telecommunications services throughout the region. For example, countries have pledged to allow mobile number portability and have agreed to work together to promote "reasonable" international roaming prices.

There are 16 participating countries that are party to the RCEP agreement. In addition to Australia, these include Brunei, Cambodia, the China, The India, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Laos, the Μαλαισία, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Φιλιππίνες, Singapore, Thailand and Βιετνάμ.

The leaders of these countries have said that India is the only country that has not yet agreed to participate in the RCEP agreement. "All RCEP participating countries will work together to resolve these outstanding issues in a mutually satisfactory manner and India's final decision will depend on a satisfactory resolution of these issues," the joint statement said. The RCEP agreement follows negotiations between the 16 countries since November of the 2012.