IPOPHL Launches Patent Libraries
24 August 2012
The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) has announced the launches of Innovation and Technology Support Offices (ITSOs) and a nationwide network of patent libraries. The patent libraries, which are located around the country, are hosted by universities and research institutions, and serve as facilities for searching information on patented inventions already existing and registered not only in the Philippines, but elsewhere in the world.
The announcement came during the High-Level Forum on Access to Global Technology for Innovation and a visit to the Philippines by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) director general Francis Gurry. An IPOPHL statement notes that Gurry’s visit was the country’s first by a high-ranking WIPO official.
IPOPHL says that the high-level forum also served as the occasion to unveil the its other ground-breaking initiatives, including Juan’s Thousand Inventions, a project of the IPOPHL under the Patent Protection Incentive Package which seeks to push inventors to protect and commercialize their inventions by waiving official fees associated with patent filings, as well as maintenance fees for the first to 15th year of the patent. The first to to take advantage of the package is the University of San Carlos in Cebu City, whose two patent filings cover the integrated processes in the treatment of mango wastes.
The WIPO Access to Technology for Innovation Awards was also launched, a competition which will recognize the most innovative inventions developed in the country, with corresponding cash prizes for winners.
The IP agency’s priority is to make IP relevant and understandable to people, IPOPHL director general Ricardo Blancaflor told GMA News. “You cannot expect people to respect IP if they don’t know what it’s about,” he said.
The event was also attended by Department of Trade and Industry secretary Gregory Domingo and Department of Science and Technology undersecretary Fortunato dela Pena, National Competitiveness Council cochairman Guillermo Luz, as well as members of the various universities, research institutions, the business sector, and IP practitioners.
