APEC’s intellectual property experts are pressing to make patents, trademarks and other IP tools easier for small businesses to use. In a blog published by APEC on October 27, 2026, María Gloria Riethmüller Harland, Chair of the APEC Intellectual Property Rights Experts’ Group (IPEG), set out the group’s focus on micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. These firms make up more than 97 percent of businesses in APEC economies. For large companies, the work bears on suppliers, licensing partners and the cross-border rules that govern how innovations are protected and traded.
The case for small firms
Riethmüller Harland, who is also a legal advisor in the Intellectual Property Department of Chile’s Undersecretariat of International Economic Affairs, points to evidence that IP filing is linked to growth. She cites an IP Australia study which found that new small firms that filed for IP in their first year were twice as likely to achieve strong sales and employment growth.
She also cites World Intellectual Property Organization data showing that 3.7 million patent applications were filed worldwide in 2024, and that women made up 18 percent of inventors named in international applications that year. “Intellectual property should not be a privilege for a few,” she writes.
Work under way in the experts’ group
According to the blog, the group’s 2025–2026 work plan centers on small businesses. Current work includes:
- A survey project with WIPO on how small businesses use intellectual property
- Initiatives that economies shared at the group’s August meeting in Dalian, China
- Planned cooperation with APEC’s Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy
- Work on AI-based patent search tools
“Inclusion is not a side project for intellectual property. It is the test of whether the system works at all,” Riethmüller Harland writes.
Where it fits in China’s host year
The blog sets out a direction for the experts’ group rather than a ministerial decision. It comes as APEC moves into Leaders’ Week in Shenzhen, which begins on November 14, 2026, ahead of the Economic Leaders’ Meeting on November 18 and 19. China’s theme for the year is “Building an Asia-Pacific Community to Prosper Together,” with priorities of openness, innovation and cooperation.
For companies that rely on small suppliers or license technology across the region, the practical questions are whether economies simplify filing and search for small firms, and whether AI-based search tools become more widely available through national IP offices.
Sources
- APEC: Blog by the Chair of the Intellectual Property Rights Experts’ Group, October 27, 2026
- APEC: APEC advances trade, AI cooperation ahead of Leaders’ Week, November 3, 2026
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China: Readout of the 37th APEC Ministerial Meeting
- State Council of China: Shenzhen to host APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting on November 18 and 19
