Extends fee waiver and assistance program
The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) has extended until Dec. 31, 2021 its Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) Filing Assistance Program to benefit more inventors exploring opportunities in global markets.
The PCT is a cost-efficient international filing system which allows single-application for protection of invention patents or utility models (UMs) in some or in all of PCT’s 153 contracting states.
“As we encourage our inventors to think global, we must equip them with the necessary tools to make this leap. IPOPHL’s PCT Filing Assistance Program contributes to this goal in that it handholds under-resourced inventors throughout the process of securing protection of their inventions across their foreign markets of choice,” IPOPHL Director General Rowel S. Barba said.
“With their inventions or UMs patented, our FIlipino inventors can advance in the global competition with greater ease as they are assured of exclusive rights over the making, using, offering for sale, selling, or importing of their inventions without their license,” Barba added. In 2020, filings by ITSOs, understandably, declined by 76% in utility models relative to 2019 filings. Filings plunged by 69% in industrial designs and 62% in patents.
The ending numbers are understandable given the disruption of COVID-19. We needed time to adjust, to transition and to survey the new normal.
But more than a year into the pandemic, we can no longer continue to be weighed down by COVID-19. We must strive to rise again. And we have high hopes on ITSOs to lead the country, in turning around the lackluster innovation scene in 2020 to the vibrant environment it used to be before COVID-19, or even better.
The Bureau of Patents implements the PCT Filing Assistance Program where qualified beneficiaries enjoy waived fees for an International Search (IS) Report ($400 for small entities and $1,000 for big entities) and an International Preliminary Examination (IPE) Report ($200 for small entities and $500 for big entities) and technical consultation regarding the PCT system and the application process.
An IS Report identifies the existing patents and prior art which may affect an invention’s patentability. Meanwhile, an IPE Report is an initial assessment of an application’s novelty, inventive step and industrial applicability prepared according to international standards.
Both reports serve to help an applicant evaluate the chances of his invention being patented under the PCT.
Bureau of Patents Director Lolibeth R. Medrano stated that “aside from enabling more Filipino inventors to secure IP protection and, therefore, competitiveness in global markets, the extension of the program is seen to promote IPOPHL as a competent authority designated by the World Intellectual Property Organization to prepare ISR and IPER.”
Barba stated that since its 2017 designation as an IS Authority and IPE Authority (ISA/IPEA), “IPOPHL has been aggressively upskilling its examiners with higher technical skills in research and examination to ensure that patents that enter markets are quality inventions, serving the purpose of the patent system to move innovation forward.”
Currently, there are only 23 ISA/IPEAs in the world, including IPOPHL and only two others in Southeast Asia.
To date, about 24 PCT resident filers have been assisted under the program which began in May 2019.