Encouraging patent filings
Of roughly 1,000 patent filings per year in the Philippines, 90 percent are filed by foreign entities and less than 5 percent are filed by Philippine research institutions.
The scenario is different when it comes to publications. According to the US-based International Intellectual Property Institute (IPPI), over the past 10 years, roughly 1,000 publications have been generated by nine institutions in the Philippines: the University of the Philippines; UP Diliman; UP Los Banos; UP Manila; Ateneo de Manila University; University of Santo Tomas; De La Salle University; the International Rice Research Institute; PhilRice; and the Institute of Tropical Medicine. From 2000 to 2010, annual research publications increased by 250 percent, but patent filings by Philippine institutions did not change substantially.
In IPPI’s assessment, 27 percent of these publications contained potentially patentable subject matter.
To remedy the lack of patent filing in the country, the Philippine Congress has enacted Republic Act (RA) No. 10055 or the Philippine Technology Transfer Act, which came into force on May 12, 2010.
The majority of research from which these publications have sprung is government funded, and the act serves as a mechanism through which this government-funded research may be translated into commercially valuable intellectual property (IP) assets.
As an incentive, government-funded research and development institutions (RDI) are entitled under the act to share, at least equally with the funding agency, revenues from IP commercialisation. In the absence of a sharing agreement, all revenues from the commercialisation of IP arising from government-funded research shall accrue to the RDI.
As to the sharing of revenues between the RDI and the researcher, this is governed by RA No. 8439 or the ‘Magna Carta for Scientists, Engineers, Researchers, and other Science & Technology (S&T) Personnel in the Government’, which defines shares in the proceeds of royalty payments arising from patents, copyrights and other IP rights of scientists, engineers and researchers to be 40 percent.
In addition, the Technology Transfer Act directs RDIs to allow their researcher employees to commercialise IP by creating, owning, controlling or managing a company or spin-off firm, or accepting employment in one.
“The Technology Transfer Act directs RDIs to allow their researcher employees to commercialise IP by creating, owning, controlling or managing a company or spin-off firm, or accepting employment in one.”
The lack of patent applications filed by Filipino inventors could also be blamed on their lack of awareness of the patent system and its benefits, or the complexity of the system. To address these concerns, the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines launched its programme to establish a network of innovation and technology support offices (ITSO) or patent libraries with the aim of “strengthen(ing) local institutional capacity to access patent information and make use of the patent system”.
More particularly, through the ITSO network, the office intends to build the institutional capacity of universities, R&D entities, government field offices, industry service providers, consultants and associations to teach and conduct, on their own, patent searches, patent drafting and provide assistance in patent prosecution.
ITSO will:
