IPO exec urges innovators to register brand

CREATIVE entrepreneurs are encouraged to protect their businesses through Intellectual Property Registration (IPR) in order to expand the economic value of their products and services.

“When you register a brand, it’s yours and it can be yours forever. Enrolling to the IP system increases the value of your brand,” said Andrew Michael Ong, deputy director general of the Intellectual Property Office (IPOPHL).

He cited Apple as an example, which has earned $153,285 million in brand value alone.

Ong said registering for IP wouldn’t only set exclusive rights for the use and production one’s work, but it would also allow investments to be poured into new developing innovations.

IPR creates an incentive system for innovators as it sets a defense for creative products and services, and at the same time facilitates inward and outward flow of technologies.

The idea of “coopetition,” a combination of cooperation and competition is created by IPR, as inventors can directly deal with enterprises and intermediaries while allowing knowledge to be shared for collaborative work and utilization of technology.

The IP system is a source of finding disclosed arts and technology since it pushes knowledge in foreign patents to local industries.

Ong said, however, that there was still a gap between local and foreign industries, which the academe should address through active Research and Development (R&D) in the fields of innovation and entrepreneurship.

To address the problem, the IPOPHL had started putting up patent libraries that were expected to open in academic institutions nationwide this October, in time for the IPR week. /Correspondent Patricia Andrea Pateña