RP patent database available on the web soon

MANILA, Philippines - The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IP Philippines) will make its database of patent and trademark documents available on the internet to make it more accessible to the public. The P7.28-million project will be partly funded by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) as part of the 2008-2010 IP Philippines-WIPO bilateral cooperation program. Patents and trademarks registered with the office from 1931 to 2007 will be digitized and uploaded. "Two million pages of patent and trademark information will be placed in digital format that will be easily accessible to the public through the Internet. Anyone can access this valuable information online," said Adrian S. Cristobal, Jr., IP Philippines director general. This will be of benefit to inventors, scientists, and researchers seeking to innovate upon existing technology, he said. The project, which has four phases, aims to provide an efficient system of storage, access, and retrieval of documents regarding patents granted for inventions, innovation patents or utility models, and design patents or industrial designs from 1948 to November 2007. Withdrawn and published patents for the same period, plus registered trademarks from 1931 to 2007 will also be included in the project. The digital documents will be uploaded and made available via the Philippine Patent Online Search System (PhilPAT) and Trademark (TM) Search functions in the IP Philippines website. PhilPAT currently contains bibliographic data of granted inventive patents, innovation patents, and design patents from 1948 to the present, and published patent applications from 1998 to the present. The data includes, among others, the abstract, and representative drawings of the invention, filing date, the name of the inventors, applicant or assignee, and the current standing of the patent. A patent is an exclusive right to manufacture, sell and commercialize a product, process, or an improvement of a product or process granted by the government to an inventor over a specified period. In return for this right, the patent owner discloses all information on his invention in the patent application for the public to access. The government and academe have said that the Philippines needs more local patent applications to boost its image abroad as a country capable of technological innovation, which is critical to making industries more competitive. - BusinessWorld