Special to ag-IP-news Agency
MAKATI CITY - The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IP Philippines) announced in a Wednesday press release that member states of the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) joined in celebrating World IP Day with the opening of a second exhibition in Alab Art Space, the first art space in an IP office in Southeast Asia. Encouraging creativity is the theme for this year’s celebration.
Visual artist Mideo M. Cruz mounts his solo exhibit in the art space with a collection entitled de/generated boundaries, consisting of around 70 pieces of artwork. The collection is the artist’s latest exploration on conventional media, and the subject matter tackles geographical descriptions. Cruz, a 2003 Thirteen Artists’ Awardee of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) and 2006 Ateneo Art Awardee, was in Sardinia, Italy recently for the InterAzioni XX Festival.
Creativity is a focal point in the vision of IP Philippines: Fostering a creative and competitive Philippines that values, nurtures and uses IP as a strategic tool for national development.
“We are encouraging creativity among the Filipino artists (copyright), the Filipino entrepreneurs (trademark) and the Filipino inventors (patent) by protecting their creations through our awareness and developmental programs,” Director General of IP Philippines Atty. Adrian S. Cristobal said.
“Protection of intellectual property rights helps stimulate creativity and innovation. This hastens the growth in their respective sectors which leads to national development,” he added.
For the artists’ groups, IP Philippines established the Copyright Support Services Unit. One of the major activities of the unit for the year is to conduct basic IP orientation to various organized groups in the art community. Last year, a basic copyright seminar for members of the Unyon ng mga Manunulat ng Pilipinas (UMPIL) was held during the writers’ congress.
The unit will likewise help the artists set up collection societies to manage arrangements for licensing, marketing, and distribution of their works, collection of royalties, and enforcement of their rights.
In line with its commitment to the copyright sector, IP Philippines unveiled Alab Art Space on February 23, 2007 in time for the National Arts Month.
As for programs targeting entrepreneurs, IP Philippines through its Bureau of Trademark (BoT) launched an awareness campaign to communicate the value of trademark for businesses. “We have been providing seminars to small and medium enterprises (SME), research and development (R&D) institutions, and the academe. Trademark is an economic asset that serves as an indicator of source, a guarantee of quality and an advertising tool,” Cristobal noted.
Aside from its awareness programs, the bureau uses technology in providing convenience to customers when applying for trademark registration. The bureau, for one, launched the Trademark Filing Online (TM Online) in partnership with Equitable-PCIBank mid last year. On its first year, the TM Online received 556 applications.
As a result of these programs, trademark filings at the bureau grew by 14% in 2006, which is higher than the previous years’ annual average growth of three percent. Local businesses accounted for 55% of the total trademark applications in the same year.
IP Philippines’ Bureau of Patents (BoP) has a similar awareness campaign for inventors. “We encourage technological innovations by promoting the patent system to scientists and researchers, and how using the system could benefit them in terms of protection and economic returns,” Cristobal said.
“We likewise provide technical assistance to inventors intending to file patent applications,” Cristobal added.
The BoP intends to have 80 percent of the total patent examiners to complete and pass the Patent Examiners’ Certification Program. T
