Certify tech transfer bill as urgent, GMA urged

Filipino educators and researchers from various universities and research and development institutions (RDIs) in the country urged President Arroyo to certify as urgent the technology transfer bill seeking to allow local scientists to profit from their inventions.

The groups, led by the Intellectual Property Philippines, recently signed a resolution batting for the immediate passage of House Bill 3270 or the proposed Technology Transfer Act of 2008.

The resolution was signed during the First National Conference on Intellectual Property and Technology Commercialization organized by the IP Philippines and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) in Makati City.

HB 3270 provides the “framework and support system for the ownership, management, use and commercialization of intellectual property rights derived from R&D funded by the government.”

The proposed Technology Transfer Act outlines the framework to promote coordination, integration and harmonization of all technology transfer efforts by various agencies; resolves issues on technology ownership; and provides the institutional mechanism for developing creative technology transfer capabilities.

Adrian Cristobal Jr., director general of IP Philippines, said the bill addresses the country’s weakness in transferring and commercializing innovation outputs, particularly those undertaken by government-funded RDIs.

Cristobal said only a few inventions penetrate the market and actually get used by the public.

“In the past six years, records from IP Philippines show that 97 percent of patents applied for and granted were from foreign applicants while only three percent were from Filipinos,” he said.

“Knowledge management of intellectual property assets is the single most important task of the individual, businesses, centers of intellectual property creation like universities and research and development institutions and of course, countries,” he said.

Cristobal said the IP office received only 43 patent applications from universities and RDIs from 1995 to 2005, or an average of 4.3 patent applications a year.

A patent is an exclusive right provided by the state through IP Philippines to a patent owner for a product, process or an improvement of a product or process over a specified period. 

“Given the low figures on patent applications from universities and RDIs, it is not surprising that the Philippines was ranked 71st out of 131 countries in the 2007-2008 Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum on technological readiness or ability to adopt technology from home or abroad to enhance the productivity of its industries,” he said.

HB 3270 is sponsored by Cavite Rep. Jose Emilio Abaya and Sen. Edgardo Angara, who head the science and technology committees in their respective chambers.

IP Philippines, the lead agency mandated to implement state policies on intellectual property, wants to generate more patent filings from universities and RDIs, one of eight priority sectors in the Philippine Intellectual Property Policy and Strategy.