Awardees of the Gawad Yamang Isip (GYI) Awards 2022 recently held by the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) highlighted the importance of raising intellectual property (IP) awareness and shared their own efforts and commitments in promoting IP protection.
At the sidelines of the awards held last June 6, National Artist for Music Ryan Cayabyab, one of the GYI winners under the Performing Arts & Literature category, said his knowledge of the extent of his copyright expanded when IPOPHL came to the scene.
“When I was still young, we were already being told about our rights as composers… Pero mas lalong tumindi nung nagka-IPOPHL. Kasi dati all we had to do was register our copyright sa National Library, yun lang, for ownership. But it was drilled into our heads that upon conception, we already have our inherent rights — moral rights and economic rights,” Cayabyab said.
He added that copyright protection and management “can really be a big force in the entire world,” thus the need to educate more in the creative economy.
“In all our workshops now, lahat ng camps namin mayroon kami modules and nag-iinvite kami ng IP experts to talk,” added the Ramon Magsaysay Awardee whose original compositions have set the tone for popular Filipino music.
For her part, Dr. Cecilia Nelia C. Maramba-Lazarte, this year’s GYI awardee for the Science and Technology category, said that awareness of IP used to be low in the field of medicine.
“We made a survey [among colleagues]. And to our disappointment, the well-known physicians ay walang kaalam-alam sa ano ang value ng IP,” said Maramba.
But now that many universities and colleges have in-house IP offices thanks to the Innovation and Technology Support Office Program of IPOPHL, researchers can now access patent information and assistance from IP experts to protect their inventions before bringing them to international contests.
“IP is something we have to educate even to our faculty members kaya kapag nagkakausap kami in our meeting, perme kong sinasabe, ‘Please protect your own intellectual property,'” said Maramba, who especially advises researchers to protect their IPs before showcasing them abroad.
Dubbed the “Mother of Philippine Herbal Medicine,” Maramba was among the heads of the research team that developed a medicine based on lagundi, a herbal plant used for centuries by locals in the Philippines to treat wounds and ease different kinds of pain.
Meanwhile, GYI Industrial Design Awardee and multi-awarded wrap fashion artist Ditta Sandico-Ong, said her IP makes her feel “secure” over her ownership of her brand. She elaborated how she has been building her name with a “cutting-edge approach,” allowing her eco-friendly pieces to be a cut above the rest.
“In order for you to be out there, you really need to have a good brand and something to support you with. That’s one of the things I could fall back on because I have a name to keep and I also hope it can filter through in the generations to come. And they can remember me through that,” Sandico-Ong said.
She added that the GYI award is an additional motivation for her to keep up the work with local and indigenous communities.
“I’m looking forward to more collaborations with them in developing better products to be able to compete in local and international markets. And also to be able to lift up their livelihoods and sustain them through future generations,” she added.
Spreading the word about IP
For National Artist for Literature Nominee Jose “Butch” Y. Dalisay, Jr., receiving the GYI award is a reminder that “it’s about time that these [IP] rights are properly recognized” in writing communities.
“I really think we need to spread the awareness more among our writers that their works have value, not just intrinsic value, but value as cultural products. And that they should be paid for these things just like any worker because creative writing is work, and we need to recognize that,” Dalisay said.
He encouraged wider support for collective management organizations (CMOs) that are accredited by IPOPHL, such as the Filipinas Copyright Licensing Society, Inc. (FILCOLS).
CMOs help creator-members maximize opportunities from their copyrighted works — from providing expert legal advice to collecting royalties and going after infringers and violators.
Empowering CMOs and spreading the word about the benefits of IP is especially needed today as more writers are moving to publish their own works, according to the renowned author who has received 16 Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature.
“Once you move to publishing, then you have to talk about IP rights. And I think this awareness will only grow,” Dalisay, a former FILCOLS chairman, added.
Moving forward, Alice G. Reyes, national artist for dance and the third GYI awardee under the Performing Arts and Literature category, said she commits to do more to help her colleagues in theater benefit more from their related rights.
“I will continue to reach out to as many choreographers, librettists, production designers as I can to encourage them to immediately copyright their works so they have the protection and rights due them for their creative artistic works,” Reyes said while lauding IPOPHL for bringing copyright registration online for the safety and convenience of artists.
Founder of Ballet Philippines who is touted as the “Mother of Contemporary Dance,” Reyes shared that she is working continuously with IPOPHL to hold more IP workshops to educate more artists, dance students and teachers across the country.
The annual GYI is the country’s most prestigious IP awards. It is conferred to Filipino individuals and institutions that have helped improve Filipinos’ quality of life through innovation and creativity while promoting the importance of IP.
The awarding was held as part of IPOPHL’s celebration of its 25th anniversary.
Aside from the six individual GYI awardees, IPOPHL also awarded Gandang Kalikasan, Inc. — the company behind the pro-environment brand Human Nature — for the Business category and the Samar State University – Technology Business Incubator Local Alliance of Marine-based Businesses and Food Technology for the new and special IP Management Award.
Toym Imao, the son of National Artist Abdulmari Imao Sr., was also acknowledged for his design of the Sarimanok-inspired GYI trophies.
IPOPHL also honored more than 100 partners in the academe, government and private sector, as well as the most prolific IP users, through special citations.
“The recipients of numerous recognitions we all heard at the 25th anniversary evening was indeed a testimony to the incredible length, width and depth of IPOPHL’s reach all over the country, and all over the many industries and fields of business and of arts and culture, as well,” Reyes added.