Intellectual property filings in the Philippines continued to rise, up 2.5 percent in 2023, an increase which the Intellectual Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) has attributed to increased awareness of the importance of IP. 

In a statement in March, the IPOPHL said applications of trademarks, patents, utility models and industrial designs reached 49,832 in 2023, up from 48,600 in 2022. 

“We are ecstatic that our activities for building up IP management and protection capacities and intensifying awareness continue to gather more people,” said IPOPHL director general Rowel Barba. “And as we have seen how IP topics in the past year spread far and wide in the public discourse and the online sphere, the importance of creating an IP-conscious Philippines through education and awareness programs cannot be stressed enough.” 

Barba is interviewed in the cover story of this issue of Asia IP. 

Trademark applications increased by 1.2 percent, with pharmaceuticals and cosmetics accounting for more than 19 percent of all trademark applications filed, followed by agricultural products and services. Applications for patents grew by 2.9 percent, with nearly a quarter coming from the pharmaceuticals sector. Utility model filings posted a 24 percent growth, and industrial designs applications grew by nearly 20 percent.  

Barba says he is optimistic that with IPOPHL’s efforts to increase awareness of IP, this momentum will be sustained in applications this year.  

“We hope to see more areas realize the importance of IP assets not just in pushing their ranks in the cities and municipalities competitiveness index but also in fueling their residents’ creativity and innovativeness which their very own communities could benefit from,” Barba said. 

Part of the efforts to increase awareness of IP include institutions like the Philippine Science High School System (PSHS), an alternative high school programme that boasts 16 campuses catering to gifted students in science and technology, offering them a different curriculum from mainstream high school education. 

The World Intellectual Property Organization, though its WIPO Academy arm, recently profiled the system and its executive director, Lilia Habacon, who revealed that the PSHS system works to empower students to innovate using science and technology to solve real-life problems and meet community needs. In her role as executive director, she has helped students file for five industrial designs registrations, seven patents and 23 utility models. She has also spearheaded the signing of an agreement between the system and IPOPHL to support the use of IP services by the school. 

“I first felt like we were making a difference in our students’ lives when one of our students received the [system’s] first patent in 2019,” Habacon told WIPO. 

The system currently covers IP through its extracurricular activities, but the subject is not mainstreamed in the regular curriculum, WIPO reported. Each campus has an IP coordinator to foster an IP culture among the students and the schools organize workshops, summer camps and ad hoc trainings for students and educators on the topic. 

It is with this ongoing improvement in IP protection in the Philippines that we turned to IP professionals in the region in order to understand better what clients need today. Asia IP asked a large number of professionals – mostly in-house counsel and corporate legal managers – what they were looking for from their legal service providers. From their answers, we have compiled our list of the Philippines’ IP Experts, those lawyers who understand what their clients need and are able to provide them with the best practical advice. 

The Philippines’ largest IP firms and practices are well-represented on our list, with Angara Abello Concepcion Regala & Cruz Law Offices and Villaraza & Angangco each placing five lawyers on the list. Cruz Marcelo & Tenefrancia placed four; and Quisumbing Torres placed three. A total of 37 different firms placed at least one lawyer on the list, showcasing the breadth of the intellectual property practice in Manila and elsewhere in the Philippines. 

Our survey includes only those lawyers working at law firms in the Philippines. 

Most of the lawyers named to our list have multiple practice specialties. Many of them are litigators, while others concentrate on prosecution work or provide strategic advice.  

The Philippines’ IP Experts is based solely on independent editorial research conducted by Asia IP. As part of this project, we turned to thousands of in-house counsel in the Philippines, Asia and around the world, as well as Philippines-focused partners at international law firms, and asked them to nominate private-practice lawyers, including foreign legal consultants, advisers and counsel.  

The final list reflects the nominations received combined with the input of the editorial team at Asia IP, which has nearly 50 years of collective experience in researching and understanding the legal market in the Philippines. 

All private practice intellectual property lawyers working at law firms in the Philippines were eligible for inclusion in the nominations process; there were no fees or any other requirements for inclusion in the process. 

The names of our 60 IP Experts are published here. Each IP Expert was given the opportunity to include their biography and contact details in print and on our website, for which a fee was charged.

All of them have something in common: they are experts in their fields and, in one way or another, they provide extra value for their clients. They are Asia IP’s IP Experts for the Philippines. – GREGORY GLASS 

The Philippines’ IP Experts is based solely on independent editorial research conducted by Asia IP. As part of this project, we turned to thousands of in-house counsel in the Philippines, Asia and around the world, as well as Philippines-focused partners at international law firms, and asked them to nominate private-practice lawyers, including foreign legal consultants, advisers and counsel.  

The final list reflects the nominations received combined with the input of the editorial team at Asia IP, which has nearly 50 years of collective experience in researching and understanding the legal market in the Philippines. 

All private practice intellectual property lawyers working at law firms in the Philippines were eligible for inclusion in the nominations process; there were no fees or any other requirements for inclusion in the process. 

The names of our 60 IP Experts are published here. Each IP Expert was given the opportunity to include their biography and contact details in print and on our website, for which a fee was charged.