World’s patent system needs reforms, experts say

The world’s patent system must be reformed to keep pace with rapid technological, corporate and social changes that are pressuring intellectual property rights, experts said yesterday.

The reforms could include viewing patents not as a monopoly on innovations but as a way of making information about them more widely available, European Patent Office vice president Manuel Desantes told a conference in Manila.

New technology, the concentration of patents in the hands of big business and calls for more open access to patented technology – including by poor countries for medicines – were among the challenges to be faced, he said.

The expert also warned the conference, which brings together the heads of intellectual property offices from around the world, about the dangers of piracy.

“Piracy is a cancer to a country. The more piracy, the less development,” Desantes said, adding the patent system should be made entirely electronic to cope with the challenges it faced.

The conference’s discussion agenda was the future of intellectual property rights and the patent system protecting them.

Delegates said wealth today was measured by innovation and technological know-how rather than just by factors such as land or energy resources.

Tomoko Miyamoto, a law counsellor for the World Intellectual Property Organization, said research showed that about 80 percent of the market value of some of the world’s top companies comprised “intangible assets” like patents.

Adrian Cristobal, head of the Philippines’ intellectual property office, said the patent system needed to be promoted in his country since only 1.2 percent of all patents in the Philippines were held by Filipinos. – AFP