PHL gov't eyes patent libraries, IP education to protect Filipino inventors

By Barbara Marchadesch

Published March 23, 2012 8:41pm

With the vision of a progressive, IP-conscious Philippines in mind, the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) has embarked on the establishment of a network of Innovation and Technology Support Offices (ITSOs), or patent libraries, all over the country.

The project was launched at the High-Level Forum on Access to Global Technology for Innovation on March 22 at the Manila Peninsula by Dr. Francis Gurry, Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

The libraries will allow users to search patents worldwide. This means that a rich source of technological information from all over the world will become available to the public.

The ITSOs will be hosted by 30 institutions: University of Santo Tomas, De La Salle University, University of the Philippines – Manila, Mapua Institute of Technology, Adamson University, Ateneo de Manila University, Don Bosco Technical College, Don Bosco Communications and Information Technology Institute, Benguet State University, Bicol University, Lyceum of the Philippines University, Eulogio Amang Rodriguez Institute of Sciences and Technology, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Technological Institute of the Philippines, Technological University of the Philippines, Angeles University Foundation, Cebu Institute of Technology, University of Cebu, University of San Carlos, University of San Jose – Recoletos, University of the Philippines in the Visayas – Cebu College, Western Visayas College of Science and Technology, Visayas State University, Mindanao University of Science and Technology, University of Southeastern Philippines, Teehankee Center for the Rule of Law of the Ateneo Law School, University of the Philippines – Diliman, Technology Resource Center, University of the Philippines, and the Product Development and Design Center of the Philippines.

Institutions supporting the ITSOs include the Ayala Foundation, the National Museum, the Philippine Rice Research Institute and the Department of Science and Technology – NCR.

The patent libraries are just one part of IPOPHL’s drive to make IP relevant to the public. The agency’s priority, first of all, is to make IP relevant and understandable to people. “You cannot expect people to respect IP if they don’t know what it's about,” Says IPOPHL director general Ricardo Blancaflor.

What is intellectual property?

As defined by WIPO, intellectual property “refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.”

IP is divided into two categories:

Industrial property, which includes patents and trademarks, and
Copyright, which includes literary and artistic works.

A patent, according to the WIPO site, is “an exclusive right granted for an invention, which is a product or a process that provides, in general, a new way of doing something, or offers a new technical solution to a problem.” It provides protection for the invention to the owner of the patent for a certain period of time.

A trademark is “a tool used that differentiates goods and services from each other. It is a very important marketing tool that makes the public identify goods and services”, signified by a word, a group of words, a sign, a symbol or logo.

A copyright is “the legal protection extended to the owner of the rights in an original work”. A copyright lasts the holder’s lifetime plus 50 years.

IP is both part of and the culmination of a long process that goes all the way to the start of the chain of production. “IP is the value that's added to the raw materials of land, labor, etc., the conceptual input,” says Dr. Gurry. “The whole process of innovation is complex, starting from evolution of an idea and going through to its implementation in the marketplace. What we try to do is provide assistance to the innovators, and to the development of national strategy, on how countries are going to approach innovation, technical infrastructure, and contributing to human capacity building, or the development of necessary skills to help them in an innovation ecosystem.”

Low IP awareness in PHL

Right now, says Blancaflor, the low level of IP awareness in the Philippines is an obstacle to development. “So much has to be done, starting with schools,” he says. The IPOPHL has been negotiating with the Department of Education to introduce IP-related topics in Grade 7. Blancaflor hopes that teaching the new generation about IP will help them in the future. “There is so much genius about us, and our Filipino geniuses are not protected, because there's no respect for IP.”

IPOPHL has the support of WIPO, which is the United Nations’ specialized agency dedicated to the protection of IP worldwide and the development of “a balanced and accessible international intellectual property system that rewards creativity, stimulates innovation and contributes to economic development which safeguarding the public interest”. Blancaflor describes WIPO as IPOPHL’s “kuya”, a protective older brother under whose guidance the Philippine IP system will be able to flourish. It was with WIPO’s help that IPOPHL was able to launch the network of patent libraries in the universities.

Blancaflor is hopeful that the number of patents filed in the Philippines will increase in the next few years. “The Philippine situation is not that different from most ASEAN countries. One year from now, let's meet again and we can show you very significant increases.” From the current range of 180 to 220 patents a year, the industry sees the possibility of an increase to a thousand or more. “I've been told by inventors that [a target of] 1,000 may not be a far cry because we're already in 37 universities and institutions where there are ongoing studies,” he says.

As an incentive, IPOPHL says that the patent filing and license maintenance fees for the first 1,000 innovations that qualify for patents will be waived for the next 15 years. It would be the kind of support that could greatly help Filipino inventors. Also known as “Juan’s Thousand Inventions”, the Patent Protection Incentive Package is meant to encourage patent activity by covering the expenses incurred by the applicant during the patent filing and prosecution process.

Gurry points out that when it comes to intellectual property rights, the Philippines actually does pretty well. “I think this is a process for any country—the development of a consciousness of the value of the intangibles, but it takes a long time. We have it innately, because we appreciate beauty innately, but what we need to develop is the rights in relation to these creative works. It’s the same with technology; we're well aware of the functionality of technology, but we're less conscious of the rights of technology and why those rights exist, which is to … ensure a virtual cycle of involvement and enable the reward to be reinvested. I think that the Philippines has first class infrastructure, the IP office is first class.”

However, it’s a mixed bag when it comes to the country’s ratings in the distinct areas of patent, trademark and copyright. “According to the Intellectual Property Rights Index 2011, in patent protection the Philippines is number 3 in the whole of Asia and Oceania, just behind South Korea and Japan, and above Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia,” says Blancaflor. “Worldwide, we’re number 25, and we’re practically number 1 in the ASEAN region. However, when it comes to trademarks, we're somewhere in the middle. And unfortunately, when it comes to copyright, we're third from the bottom, ranked 16th or 17th in the ASEAN, though that's a reputation I don't think we deserve.”

At this year’s ASEAN Intellectual Property Symposium, held in February in Tokyo, the Philippines was named Country Champion in IP progress monitoring and in working with other countries in conceptualizing initiatives in five areas (out of 13): Trademark Administration, Patent Information, Office Modernization and Automation and IP Enforcement. Blancaflor says that experts from other ASEAN countries even came to the Philippines to consult about how they could improve in those areas.

The other project the IPOPHL launched that day is the Industrial Property Automation System, a new system of trademark and patent registration that will be more transparent as it covers the entire IP processing system from start to finish—from filing to registration, then publication, certification and post-registration/post-grant management. — TJD, GMA News

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