MANILA – The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) has partnered with the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) to increase research activities and enable intellectual property (IP) policies to be more effective in driving innovation and creativity in the country.
IPOPHL, through its Director General Rowel Barba, and PIDS, through its President Dr. Celia Reyes, signed on Tuesday a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the two agencies to work jointly on IP research projects, capacity building, policy analysis and recommendations, and information sharing, among other areas of possible cooperation.
Barba said the partnership with PIDS marks the start of enriching research on the Philippine intellectual property environment, a crucial pursuit in spurring the innovations needed in the fight against a health crisis, and embracing the opportunities presented in the fourth industrial revolution.
“Creating a vibrant scene for IP research will fulfill our broader goals of raising IP awareness and formulating policies that capture the current and long-term needs of businesses, innovators, and creative industries,” he said in a statement Friday.
“With the government think tank now as our partner, we hope to generate more studies to promote greater use of the IP system which can help the country achieve its economic, scientific, cultural, and sustainable development goals” Barba added.
Reyes said fostering partnerships with policymakers in the innovation ecosystem, such as IPOPHL, is one of the main thrusts of PIDS.
“This partnership will allow both parties to harness resources and combine our pool of experts to promote evidence-based policy by researching important IP issues and current policies. We hope we can jointly organize policy dialogues to further discussions on IP and innovation. In addition, PIDS has a wide network of research partners who can be tapped to further the objectives of our partnership,” she said at the virtual signing ceremony.
Reyes expressed eagerness over the wide range of innovation-related research projects IPOPHL and PIDS can take on in the long-term, particularly in the areas of research that PIDS had mapped out in its 2020-2025 agenda, saying the institution had launched its research agenda for 2020 to 2025.
“We are very excited to initiate projects immediately,” she added.
PIDS senior research fellow and innovation cluster head Dr. Jose Ramon Albert said partnering with IPOPHL will help ensure the fruits of science, technology, and innovation are equitably shared.
“We all know the importance of investing in science, technology, and innovation and yet, despite the clear returns to such investments, unfortunately, we still don’t invest in building the innovation ecosystem. Part of strengthening this is using the IP system," Albert said as he raised possibilities of IPOPHL and PIDS providing joint contributions in the next survey of the annual Global Innovation Index which uses IP utilization as one of its metrics in assessing economies’ innovation capacity and successes.
Initial specific plans under the MOU include PIDS’ assistance in the conduct of IPOPHL’s “Research Congress (Online) on IP and Innovation” event scheduled in the last quarter of the year, and in enhancing the content of the “Journal of Intellectual Property and Innovation,” the first-ever IP-focused school paper to be published next year in partnership with the De La Salle University. (PR)
