by Kris Crismundo/PNA
The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) will be mounting the 2019 edition of the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) this March in Cebu, to expand its education drive and reach out to IP practitioners in the Visayas.
The IPOPHL MCLE 2019 Program’s Cebu leg, to be held at the Radisson Blu Hotel from March 18 to 22, marks the program’s debut in a major city outside of Metro Manila.
“Scaling up our IP Education and Awareness drive is at the forefront of IPOPHL’s agenda. The MCLE Program’s first run outside of Luzon this March will be an essential learning opportunity for lawyers and non-lawyers alike. Our curriculum for this lecture series is a diverse offering of updates on IP legislation, strategic innovation on IP core processes & appeals, commerce-related concepts of IP,” Director General Josephine R. Santiago said in a statement on Wednesday.
Intellectual property processes, including litigation and the special rules and procedures on IP cases will be discussed.
Intellectual property is a game-changer of scientific innovation and creativity, and has been entrenched as a component of economic growth in the Philippine Development Plan (particularly in chapters on advancing science, technology, and innovation and expanding economic opportunities for industry and services).
The area of intellectual property is an increasingly popular field in legal practice that remains to be fully tapped by a new generation of lawyers. With every sector, from manufacturing to banking, now being infused with technology, expertise in the field of intellectual property will complement law firms’ existing competencies in high-demand practice areas such as information technology and cyber law.
Intellectual property has been a salient feature of modern free trade agreements, both bilateral and multilateral ones, putting it in a prime intersection with trade law.
The lecture series will tackle topics such as the impact of new legislation (the Competition Law and the Data Privacy Act) on intellectual property, as well as enforcing one’s IP rights.
For business groups and commerce associations, capitalizing on companies’ intellectual property assets by way of licensing and franchise will also be discussed.
Members of the academe and research and development institutions will benefit from learning about drafting technology transfer agreements, in the case that their technology are being prepped for commercialization.
The five-day program presents a rare opportunity for these sectors to learn the centrality of IP in these different fields of knowledge.
The IPOPHL MCLE 2019 curriculum will be taught by a roster of seasoned and internationally-recognized intellectual property lawyers and professors.
