by Aerol John Pateña/Philippine News Agency
MANILA –– The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) is seeking to integrate intellectual property (IP) education in the curriculum of higher academic institutions in the country.
This, as the IPOPHL expressed its willingness to partner with universities as well as technical vocational institutions in the country by offering courses through its IP Academy.
“We are scaling up systematic IP training and education through the Intellectual Property Academy. The IP Academy is our flagship program for a systematic and sustained teaching and learning of intellectual property. It is envisioned to be a national center for IP knowledge, learning and development, and research and publication,” IPOPHL Director General Josephine Santiago said in a press briefing on the sidelines of the 2019 Intellectual Property Convergence forum held Friday in Makati City.
The forum tackled the importance of intellectual property rights in the field of education.
“We go beyond information awareness with the IP Academy. The academy will not only focus on IP awareness but will embark on courses that may be specialization courses. This could be degree granting courses with partner universities,” she added.
Some of the activities that the IP Academy plan to provide include IP executive internship programs, publishing intellectual property journals, and boot camps.
During the forum, the IPOPHL signed agreements with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Technical Education Skills and Development Authority (TESDA) to integrate protection of IP rights in higher education and tech-voc curricula.
“We are mainstreaming IP in higher education institutions, programs of studies, as well as training of courses in tech-voc institutions,” Santiago said.
The agency intends to provide capacity building seminars for CHED and TESDA instructors, and develop courses for students.
The IPOPHL expects to formalize the establishment of the IP Academy once the executive order for its creation is signed by President Rodrigo Duterte.
Meanwhile, the Intellectual Property Office plans to implement the Mind to Market Program which aims to commercialize the IP works in the country.
“The issue that we want to solve is there are inventions and creations that don’t get to become utilized or commercialized. These works are not given the opportunity to be utilized by industries in the country considering that they are valuable,” IPOPHL Deputy Director General Teodoro Pascua stated.
The agency has likewise submitted a bill to Congress seeking to amend the IP Code to push for reforms including the power to take down online sites with IP rights violations, as well as enabling copyright owners to claim damages from infringing sites to strengthen IP protection.
IPOPHL is a government agency in charge of registration of intellectual property rights and conflict resolution of intellectual property rights in the country.
