Encouraging Patent Filings
01-04-2011
Anne Mariae Celeste V. Jumadla
As of 2009, the Philippines has been lagging behind its Southeast Asian neighbours in resident 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:
Serve as a patent search facility and library for patent information, provide skills training in patent searching, render patent search services and organise a community of patent information users
Provide general information on patents and patenting, provide skills training in patent drafting and prosecution, render patent drafting and prosecution services, and organise a community of experts to participate in patent examination, and
Render IP audit and evaluation services, provide licensing support, provide advice on IP management and commercialisation strategies, and act as a depositary of patent related documents, papers and statistics.
Since January this year, 13 institutions have signed a memorandum of agreement with the IP office for the programme, including nine colleges and universities, two industry-based foundations and two chambers of commerce.
With the establishment of ITSO intended to work hand in hand with the implementation of the Technology Transfer Act, it is hoped that the country’s patent landscape will drastically change to enable the country’s science and technology sector to keep up with the rest of the world and usher the country into a new era of economic progress.
Anne Mariae Celeste V. Jumadla is an associate at Sapalo Velez Bundang & Bulilan. She can be contacted at: info@sapalovelez.com