The 56th Meeting of the ASEAN Working Group on Intellectual Property Cooperation was held in Singapore from 3 to 7 September 2018. The meeting was chaired by Dr Freddy Harris, Director-General, Directorate General of Intellectual Property, Ministry of Law and Human Rights of Indonesia. Chief Executive, Mr Daren Tang, of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore delivered the welcome remarks at the opening ceremony.

The meeting continued discussions on the ASEAN IPR Action Plan 2016 -2025 and also had consultation sessions with the United States Patent & Trademark Office, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and the International Trademark Association. The 8th ASEAN-Japan Heads of IP Offices Meeting and the 9th ASEAN-China Heads of IP Offices Meeting were also held back-to-back with the main plenary.