IP Filings Increase By 11.6% In 2021
02 March 2022
In 2021, IP filings in the Philippines increased by 11.6 percent year over year (YOY) to 46,496, reversing a major dip in 2020 as a result of loosened quarantine restrictions last year, which rekindled business and IP-related operations.
With 815 UM files, food chemistry contributed the most to the total. Basic materials chemistry came in second (with 92 filings), followed by other special machines (77), handling (75), and civil engineering (57).
Trademark applications increased by 12% to 39,616, with resident filers accounting for the majority at 24,015 and a 14 percent year-over-year increase. Non-resident filings also saw a 12 percent increase. Last year's trademark filings climbed at a quicker rate than this year's ten percent yearly growth.
According to Director General. Atty. Rowel S. Barba of the Intellectual Property of the Philippines, the increase is credited to two driving forces: one is our intensified drive to ease the filing process and improve our stakeholders’ access to its services through digitalization, and the other to its work in promoting IP creation and protection.
"While IPOPHL started its digitalization journey as early as 2012, we intensified our work to future-proof our service after experiencing the disruption of the pandemic," he says. "With most technological fundamentals already in place, plus many nights of hard work, we were able to resume our service with little disruption despite the lockdown. Our action has undeniably positioned IPOPHL as one of the trailblazers in government in harnessing technology to adapt fast. For our innovativeness to improve service quality, IPOPHL saw a significant jump in the World Trademark Review’s 2021 IP Office Innovation Ranking."
He adds that from 24th place in 2020, IPOPHL rose to 9th last year, making the Philippines the only developing country to have an IP office in the top 10 out of 60 offices ranked worldwide.
"Aside from our digitalization and deeper dive into 4th IR technologies, what has also established us as an innovative IP office is our efforts to be a development-oriented agency that helps the public, especially the MSMEs, independent artists and startups, advance in their fields with IP protection," he says. "To help people learn about IP and even create their own IP strategies, we held 264 webinars last year and learning activities that gathered over 18,100 Zoom attendees and live streaming viewers of a whopping 2.6 million. Our greater efforts to serve the MSMES, the independent inventors and creators, startups and underrepresented sectors in the knowledge economy show our transformation from an agency that merely registers and grants IP to a development-driven agency that aims to see everyone benefit from the IP system."
He says that they hope to continue the growth momentum in 2022. "A lot of this will depend on the virus and how we will deal with it. But we hope that there will be no more new variants and the situation will continue to improve," he says. "As to the level of growth, we find this hard to determine given that 2021's growth also factors in a low-base effect from 2020. But of course we hope to sustain a pre-pandemic double-digit filings growth. But definitely, this year we intend to break more records as this is a very special year for us as we celebrate our 25 years as an Office. Ultimately, we hope our work translates into significant strides in realizing our long term vision: building a progressive Philippines that uses intellectual property assets for inclusive economic and social development."
Excel V. Dyquiangco
