THE intellectual property (IP) office is hoping for recovery in the number of filings for IP protections this year after a decline due to the stricter parts of the lockdown in 2020.
“Our filings went down last year. We attribute that because of the long ECQ (enhanced community quarantine),” Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) Director General Rowel S. Barba said in an online briefing Monday.
Total IP filings last year dropped by 12%, Mr. Barba said.
Applications for trademarks in 2020 dropped 10% to 35,274, while applications for patents fell 9% to 3,648 after inventors delayed filing applications during the stricter phases of the lockdown and as economic uncertainty dampened investment in intangible assets.
Utility model filings declined 45% to 1,235, while industrial design filings fell 23% to 1,259. Copyright deposits fell 44% to 940.
“We are hopeful that we will be able to recover kung ano ‘yung nawalang filings (the filing level we lost from) 2019,” Mr. Barba said.
The government over the weekend extended the ECQ, the strictest lockdown setting, on Metro Manila and nearby provinces until April 11 to arrest the surge in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases.
The agency is looking to add more micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises among those filing applications as it adds a thousand more slots to its incentive program for women-led small businesses.
So far, the program has given time-bound exclusive rights to trademarks to 3,000 beneficiaries.
Meanwhile, IPOPHL representatives said that the agency continues to address IP issues brought up by the United States Trade Representative (USTR).
Although the Philippines was removed from the USTR’s watch list of countries with weak IP rights protection, the US agency in 2019 maintained that Philippine government needs effective policies to curb the use of unlicensed software.
The government is studying a possible audit on the use of illegal software within its agencies, to be led by the Department of Information and Communications Technology.
“We don’t have the exact numbers but the use of pirated software especially in government has been dramatically dropping, facilitated by easier procurement,” Mr. Barba said. “Besides, software companies have been stricter with their licensing.” — Jenina P. Ibanez
