THE Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) said it received 15% more applications for intellectual property (IP) protection in 2018.
In a statement on Monday, IPOPHL said filings for patents, utility models, industrial designs, trademarks, and copyright deposits in 2018 totaled 44,461, up 15% from a year earlier.
Applications filed online totaled 10,346 last year, up 35%. This covers all IP types, except copyright deposits.
Applications in the utility model segment registering a 54% growth to 2,124 in 2018 from 1,380 in 2017. Majority of the UMs filed in 2018 were in the field of food chemistry and food technology, “indicating that the innovation direction of local innovators is still towards foodstuffs & agricultural goods.”
UMs are a form of patent protection for inventions with less stringent patentability standards.
Trademark applications rose 11% in 2018 to 35,602. The majority of trademark applications were for agricultural products and services, marking a break from the usual pattern in which pharmaceuticals, health products, and cosmetics took up the top tier.
Patents applications rose 28% to 3,946. Pharmaceuticals remained the top source of applications.
Industrial design (ID) applications rose 9% to 1,658 in 2018, with most applications covering packaging and transport containers.
Copyright deposit filings rose 29% to 1,268 in 2018.
“More and more people are utilizing IP to enhance competitiveness in business, and as an incentive to make commercially-viable technology,” IPOPHL Director-General Josephine R. Santiago said in the statement, adding that the application filing process was made more efficient that year by the deployment of online filing channels.
Another contributing factor to this growth is IPOPHL’s deployment in 2018 of its full suite of online filing systems for trademarks, invention, utility models and industrial design, allowing easier filing for applicants. — Janina C. Lim
