IP filings pick up by 13% in first quarter

Applications for intellectual property increased by 13 percent in the first quarter of 2019, reflecting a steady growth in the country’s innovation culture.

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOHPHL) reported that applications for patents (covering inventions, utility models, and industrial designs) and trademarks filed in the first quarter of the year to 11,327.

In the same period in 2018, IP applications were at 10,031. This reflects a growth of 13 percent from 2018-2019.

“This growth is the product of our expansion of satellite offices last year, launching 3 in 2018. Our Bureau of Trademarks likewise implemented a trademark incentive program which we believe aided the increase. In broader terms, our continued information, awareness, and capacity-building programs (especially for R&D institutions and universities) for IP holders stoked this demand,” said IPOPHL Director-General Josephine Santiago.

Santiago explained that demand in intellectual property is indicative of both a rise in innovative capacity (demand in protection of new technology and inventions) as well as increasing of business activity (demand in protection of trademarks in business).

Trademarks, for example, jumped from 8,405 to 9,312, an increase of 11 percent, Santiago cited.

“This does not necessarily reflect growth of new businesses, but signals expansion of business as trademarks are often acquired when enterprises reach a certain size in capitalization,” she said.

Utility models or ‘minor innovations’ are on the upswing as well, with filings surging from 332 to 674 in Q1 2019.

Since majority – 80-90 percent of all UM filings – are from local applicants, specifically universities & R&D institutions, this is indicative of the continued innovation of Philippine academic & research bodies.

This is facilitated by IPOPHL’s 85-strong network of Innovation and Technology Support Offices (ITSOs), which are universities & R&D’s in-house patent libraries that were established by IPOPHL, with the host institution.