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First-half Philippine IP filings increase, surpassing pre-pandemic levels.
12 August 2022
According to the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL), as COVID-19 limitations loosened and IPOPHL strengthened its IP awareness and education campaign, applications for intellectual property (IP) registration surged in the first half of the year.
In the first six months of this year, applications for patents, trademarks, utility models, and industrial designs totaled 23,410, up 1.6% from the 23,048 filings during the same period in 2021 and nearly 2% more than the 22,968 applications that were registered in the first half of 2019, IPOPHL's record year for IP applications.
With 20,300 trademark registrations or 2.9% more than the previous year, locals made up 62% of those, or 12,514. Meanwhile, 7,786 from non-residents.
Pharmaceutical, health, and cosmetic items accounted for the majority of trademark registrations (6,145 counts), followed by agricultural goods and services (5,403) and scientific research, information, and communication technologies (4,697).
With 1,949 applications, patents witnessed a 0.10% rise, 90% of which are non-resident submissions (1,747).
Pharmaceuticals (1,272 patent applications), organic fine chemistry (571), and biotechnology were the three most popular sectors (370).
Although resident filings, which made up 94% of UM applications, decreased by 23.3% year over year, UM filings still decreased by 21.7% to 622.
Food chemistry (211), other special machines (43), and information technology approach for management accounted for the majority of the UMs submitted (39).
The number of records and deposits for copyright increased by 129% to 1722. The majority of the deposits were made up of photographic works (386), books, pamphlets, articles, e-books, audiobooks, comics, and other publications (536), and other literary, intellectual, scientific, and creative works (336). (191).
According to IPOPHL's Director General Rowel S. Barba, "the increase in the first half is representative of the reduced COVID-19 constraints that rekindled economic operations and IPOPHL's amplified awareness and education programs."
"IPOPHL intends to maintain momentum in igniting Filipinos' deeper awareness of the advantages of IP through our existing and forthcoming initiatives and projects to incentivize IP development, protection, and commercialization. In order to promote a strong, inclusive, and quick recovery, we also wish to foster more original and creative intellectual efforts this year," said Barba.
- Excel V. Dyquiangco
