Local inventions only 1.2% of IPR patents

Local inventions comprised only 1.2 percent of over 8,000 patents granted by the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHIL) over the last six years, indicating the lack of awareness on the value of IP rights, officials said yesterday.

Dr. Epifanio Rey Evasco, director of the Bureau of Patents, said of the 8,207 patents granted by the IPOPHIL from 2000 to 2006, only 96 are by Filipinos, the remaining 8,111 or 98.8 percent are foreign.

“The lack of knowledge about local patenting and its requirements have discouraged Filipino innovators from filing for patents,” Evasco told reporters on the sidelines of the Intellectual Property Rights Forum held at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology auditorium in Quezon City.

He said a majority of the Filipino inventions that have been successfully patented are in the mechanical field.

Evasco said IP is not yet mainstreamed or integrated in socio-economic policies and programs of different government agencies.

He added that historically speaking, emphasis of IPR has been on legal rights and not on economic advantage.

He said the level of technology developed by research and development institutions is below par compared to other countries.

IPOPHIL director general Atty. Adrian Cristobal Jr. said the government spends only about one to three percent of gross domestic product for research and development.

Evasco said the IPOPHIL is already working to speed up the processing of patent filings and that the agency receives at least 20 applications daily, although the majority of these are either rejected or withdrawn.

“We have about 50 patent reviewers and each one is handling about 100 patent filings. Our goal is to process a patent within six months of filing,” Evasco said, adding that normally a patent filing is granted within four and half years.

Evasco said the IPOPHIL is partnering with other government agencies, the academe and the private sector to intensify awareness on IP and its economic benefits.

Early this year, IPOPHIL inaugurated the first Intellectual Property Research and Training Institute (IPRTI) in the country to protect Filipinos’ IP assets.

Cristobal said the IPRTI “is envisioned to be the center of intellectual property education in the country and in Southeast Asia.”