MAKATI City, Philippines -- The information technology (IT) industry is one of the top three industries in the world that has been filing for intellectual property rights protection, a senior officer of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) said Wednesday at a forum here.

Jared Nyagua, WIPO senior program officer, said the IT industry represents more than 10 percent of the protected and commercialized technologies in the world, next to telecommunications.

"There is an increasing awareness in the protection of innovation," said Nyagua in an interview with INQUIRER.net. Nyagua was among the experts invited to speak during the national conference on intellectual property and technology commercialization organized by the Intellectual Property Office and the Commission on Higher Education.

The WIPO senior officer said that protection of intellectual property rights is now seen as a means to create wealth and jobs for countries worldwide.

Nyagua said new economies have been espousing stronger intellectual property rights protection to protect innovations. Innovations, he added, often translate to jobs.

He said that the United States, for instance, spends about $200 billion in research and development every year. In 2007, the US came out with the most number of international filings in the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PTC) of WIPO. Countries like Japan, Germany, and France are also among those that have high numbers of international filings in the PTC, he added.

In Asia, Korea, China and Japan are among the top countries with the most PCT filings, he said.

Patent filings indicate applications for intellectual property protection on technology, Nyagua added.

Sadly, the Philippines has had very few patent filings, IP Philippines Director General Adrian Cristobal said in a speech he gave during the forum.

He said the Philippines has been ranked low in global surveys of innovation, especially when it comes to patent filings.

Figures from the IP Philippines show that about 97 percent of patents applied for and granted belong to foreign applicants. Only about 3 percent belong to Filipinos, Cristobal said.

From 1948 up to 2006, only 21 patents were granted to universities and research and development institutes, the government official pointed out. He said that patent applications from universities and research and development institutes reached a dismal 43 applications from 1995 to 2005 -- six each were filed in 1998 and 1999; two in 2000; three in 2001; seven in 2002; three in 2003; 13 in 2004; and three in 2005, Cristobal said.

"Experiences of countries show that patent applications provide a good indicator of a country's technological innovation capacity and performance. Given these figures, it is not surprising that the Philippines is ranked 71st out of 131 countries in the 2007-2008 Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum on technological readiness or ability to adopt technology from home or abroad to enhance the productivity of its industries," Cristobal said.