Q: I am a Filipino who made an invention and want to apply for invention patent in the Philippines. How do I go about this?
A: First, do not disclose or publish your invention unless you have filed an application for patent. Second, if you are not skilled to draft a patent application, consult a patent attorney or a patent agent to do the highly technical requirement. Third, consider two options for filing: a) by direct route, or b) through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) route.
Nondisclosure: If you happen to disclose your invention in whatever mode (such as in a publication, thesis, blog, contest, lecture, fair, exhibit), you have one year from such disclosure to file your patent application in the Philippines.
Few countries, like the Philippines and the US, recognize relative novelty by allowing this grace period, but many other countries apply absolute novelty and do not have a grace period. You will have a situation where your invention would be considered “new”, an important criterion for patentability in the Philippines, but no longer new in countries, where absolute novelty is required. Thus, you may be granted for a patent here, but suffer rejection in said countries.
As patent protection is territorial, your prospect for commercialization of your invention in those countries is doomed as no protection is available.
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To be continued
Josephine Rima-Santiago, Ll. M., is currently the director general of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines. E-mail: jrsantiago@columnist.com.