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Spreading IP Education to School Systems
05 October 2020
In its quest of integrating Intellectual Property (IP) in school curriculums, the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) has partnered with the Philippine Science High School System (PSHS), achieving a big step towards its much sought goal of mainstreaming intellectual Property (IP) learning in high school.
“From the earlier days of IPOPHL, upon the effectivity of Republic Act 8293 or the IP Code of the Philippines, we have yearned to see the day when we are able to mainstream IP into the high school education system,” Director General Rowel S. Barba said at the virtual signing. “We can truly say that with the signing of this MOA, IPOPHL and the PSHS, with its 16 campus-members, have together reached a breakthrough goal for the country in mainstreaming IP education,” he added.
Mary Grace Cruz-Yap, Director of IPOPHL’s Documentation, Information and Technology Transfer Bureau (DITTB), said fostering the younger generation to appreciate IP’s role in driving innovation is a transformative step for scaling up the country’s innovation.
“As it is in secondary education where students begin to do research, we need to hone high school students’ understanding to ensure that their research works are made relevant to moving societies forward and to teach them how to value their own creations as well as of others,” Cruz-Yap said. “We hope other high schools will follow suit so they can optimize the innovative potential of their students,” she added.
In this endeavor, IPOPHL has advanced in the college level with its 2019 MOA with the Commission on Higher Education which will soon integrate IP modules across college and university curriculums. It has also enjoined the support of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, through a memorandum of understanding, to institutionalize an IP policy across its technical institutes and technical skills training centers.
Under its newest MOA with PSHS, IPOPHL is tasked to provide assistance on PSHS’ IP awareness campaigns; periodically conduct IP learning workshops for select PSHS students, faculty and researchers, who are tasked to cascade their learnings to the members of the PSHS community; and hold capacity-building seminar-workshops such as on Patent Searching, Claims Drafting, and Disclosure Writing and other areas that may assist the PSHS community in the protection of their IPs.
Through the partnership with IPOPHL, PSHS campuses, beginning academic year 2021-2022, will include IP modules into relevant subjects and other modes of learning and conduct activities that will promote awareness.
The MOA also paves the way for IPOPHL and PSHS to institutionalize across the PSHS the Young IP Advocates program which builds a network of student-led organizations in high schools across the country. Members are inducted and trained by IPOPHL to be young advocates for the creation, protection, and use of intellectual property.
By investing in the youth, IPOPHL hopes to attain long-term goals from building an IP system that is sustainable for fostering innovation.
“We know we cannot keep the students in high school forever,” said Barba. “They will eventually graduate and move on to higher education and into the big world. And that is where our hope lies… that from the seeds we plant here, they will bear fruit wherever they may go beyond the walls of their alma mater - spreading creativity, respecting IP, inventing the future.”
Excel V. Dyquiangco
