THE Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IP Phils.) endorsed to President Arroyo an IP policy strategy designed to turn the country into a global source of technology from a mere importer.

Adrian Cristobal Jr., IP Phils. director general, said the policy strategy took two years to develop with the help and involvement of 51 public and  private institutions.

The 120 one-on-one interviews done during the two-year development phase, Cristobal said, covered 30 sectors with a constituency ranging from the visual arts, literature and design to science and technology.

The initial findings were then validated in a four-day workshop where some 130 IP generators from public and private institutions took part. Workshop participants also produced 10 research studies and position papers.

The Philippine IP policy strategy, Cristobal said, covers eight major sectors identified as the country’s IP assets.

These are biodiversity and genetic resources, indigenous knowledge systems and practices, folklore and geographic indications, copyright and other creative industries, public health, small and medium enterprises, patent reform, universities and research and development institutions, capacity building, and heightened IP enforcement.

Cristobal said the policy strategy will shed the country’s image as a nation that is merely importing technologies and is “satisfied with being mere users of other nation’s technology.”

“The country needs to be the creator, the inventor, the supplier of new technologies in the world market,” Cristobal said.

The IP Phils. also referred to the United Kingdom Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, the World Intellectual Property Organization  IP Audit Tool, and the Medium Term Philippine Development Plan 2004 to 2010 as guides in developing the IP strategy.

The IP Office also reviewed trends and developments in IP, and the relationship between IP and economic growth and innovation.

“IP and innovation are essential to our country’s survival and continued competitiveness in the new global knowledge-based economy,” Cristobal said.

The other institutions that developed their own IP programs are the University of the Philippines’ Engineering Research and Development for Technology Program, the Department of Agriculture’s e-K Agrikultura, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s technology business incubators in universities and colleges, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority’s open technology incubation program, IBM Philippines, the National Disaster Coordinating Council’s Emergency Response Network, and the Department of Science and Technology’s Filipinnovation.

THE Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IP Phils.) endorsed to President Arroyo an IP policy strategy designed to turn the country into a global source of technology from a mere importer.

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